The 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards proved to be the perfect place for Mulder and Scully’s next team-up.
Former The X Files costars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson jointly appeared at the awards show on Sunday, February 23, to present the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
“Ensemble, I believe that’s a French word that means, ‘Thank God, I only have to work three days a week,’” Duchovny, 64, teased to start their joint presentation. The actor then turned to his longtime friend and former costar, saying, “Nice to see you Gillian you look …”
Anderson, 56, finished his thought, saying, “Younger than you last saw me when we shot 218 episodes?” Duchovny nodded his head, “Yes, that’s exactly right.”
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The twosome — who previously played partners and special agents Mulder and Scully — proceeded to ponder the meaning of a “great drama,” hilariously coming up with two very different answers.
“It is … timing,” Duchovny declared, but Anderson didn’t agree. “Chemistry,” she answered before teasing, “We still got it.”
Anderson joked, “Hilarious! It was so good. We did that so well.” The actors eventually handed the trophy to the cast of Shōgun, who had already won a few awards earlier in the evening.
Ahead of Sunday’s ceremony, Duchovny teased what it would be like to share the stage with Anderson again.
We’re going to present an award. It feels good, [but] I’d rather get an award than present one, but it’s nice,” Duchovny joked to TooFab on Saturday, February 22. “I’m sure there will be more chatter after Sunday.”
The X Files originally aired from 1993 to 2002 and followed two FBI special agents named Mulder and Scully as they investigated previously unexplained cases dubbed “The X Files.” Duchovny and Anderson later reunited for a two-season revival that aired from 2018 to 2018.
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During the show’s 11-season run, Duchovny and Anderson received six individual SAG nominations. Anderson, for her part, took home the trophy for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 1996 and 1997, respectively.
Working on X Files also sparked a decades-spanning friendship between the two actors.
“Obviously, we know each other very deeply and yet we don’t know each other either in some weird way,” Duchovny recalled on a November 2024 episode of his “Fail Better” podcast. “Even if it’s just biographical, I don’t know that we ever sat down and said, ‘Hey, what was your childhood like?’”
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According to Duchovny, he often found it difficult to articulate his feelings.
“I guess I would talk about my failure of friendship or my failure of companionship or just costarring-ness,” he explained at the time. “There was a long time working on the show where we were just not even dealing with one another off camera. And there was a lot of tension, which didn’t matter apparently for the work because we’re both f—ing crazy, I guess. We can just go out there and do what we needed to do.”
Anderson, meanwhile, revealed during the 2024 podcast reunion that they barely communicated between X Files takes.
“It’s crazy that we were able to present on camera the various feelings and emotions and attraction and all that kind of stuff, but then not speak to each other for weeks at a time,” Anderson recalled. “I know that any time that I tried to express myself … the standing up for myself almost felt worse than keeping it inside.”
