The X Files almost had a very different leading lady.
Series creator Chris Carter told People that the show’s network didn’t originally agree with his decision to cast Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully.
Anderson starred alongside David Duchovny in the sci-fi drama, but at the time of being cast, both actors were relatively unknown.
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Duchovny scored the role with a simple “yes,” however Carter wanted to take Anderson before the studio and network before giving her the role, but he says she wasn’t exactly what the executives had in mind.
Prefacing the admission by describing it as “ancient history,” Carter said that the studio wanted a “bombshell type, ideally someone like Pamela Anderson” to play the role of Dana Scully.
He recalled the pushback he got from the network about his decision to cast Gillian Anderson, explaining that the executives had one question for him, “where’s the sex appeal?”
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The X-Files cast: Then and now
”Even though Gillian is beautiful, she wasn’t their idea of sexy,” he said. “First, because they didn’t understand what I was trying to do with the show. And she was unknown, so that never helps.”
But Carter didn’t give up, fighting for his choice to cast Anderson and Duchovny as the series’ leading characters, which the network eventually agreed to.
The duo went on to become the stars of the hit TV show, starring in the film spinoffs in 1998 and 2008, as well as the two-season revival from 2016 to 2018.
However, over the years, Anderson has expressed her issues with the show, calling out season 11’s all-male writing team on Twitter.
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”I too look forward to the day when the numbers are different,” she said, adding that only two of the 207 episodes in the original series were directed by women.
The actress announced her departure from the series in 2018, following her character being written off in the final season of the spinoff.
“It’s time for me to hang up Scully’s hat. It just is,” she said at the time. “I’m finished and that’s the end of that.”
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