Don't blame Duchovny, says X-Files colleague
By:  Jonathan McDonald

Gillian Anderson wasn't done yet. She had one last message she wanted to get across:  don't blame David.

The X-Files star rushed to David Duchovny's defence, just days after executive producer Chris Carter did the expected and told cast and crew the fifth-year Fox series was leaving Vancouver for the warmer, drier climes of Los Angeles.

"A lot of attention has been put on the fact that it was David who drove this thing," Anderson, aka Special Agent Dana Scully, said from the set of The X-Files. "But a promise was made by Chris to David three years ago."That, says Anderson, is what has been missing during the ongoing hullabaloo over the show's rumored departure. "If I get called to the set and I'm told I'll be off at six and I'm off at 11, I'll be pissed off," said the Emmy Award-winning Anderson. "There's something about having the expectation, which causes a different kind of response." Translation: Duchovny waited a long time for that one-way ticket he had been promised.

A move is not so simple for Anderson, who has lived in Vancouver since the series started in 1993. "I'll be coming back a lot," said Anderson, 29. "My daughter's father is here. I own a house here. This will be my second home." Anderson's regret is obvious.  While she's happy to be closer to family in California - which will provide a more complete atmosphere for three-year-old Piper - her "mourning process" has begun for a city and people with whom she's "fallen in love."

"I always get a little weird at the end of the season, since I have huge separation anxiety from the crew," said Anderson. "Now that it's real separation anxiety, it's becoming more difficult every day. "I'm facing the end of an amazing relationship with these great people."

Carter told The Province in February he was "working on a plan" to keep The X-Files in Vancouver. Carter has never elaborated, but the hint was the series would split its time between Los Angeles and Vancouver. "They visited that option, but saw it wouldn't be possible," said Anderson. "Ultimately, the way things go is that they go to David first, then they go to me. There wasn't really much I could say or do."

Not that Anderson would have done anything differently. Although less driven to split town than Duchovny - whose wife, actress Tea Leoni, works in Los Angeles - Anderson, too, felt the lure of "home." Still, she can't help but mourn what she still sees everyday - a crew that is universally seen as exceptional. Producer J.P. Finn said calls are already coming in from other studios, inquiring about the crew's availability, even as three episodes remain to be shot. "These people are my frame of reference," said Anderson. Everything, for quite a while, will be compared to how it was up here.  "Everything could fall short." The X-Files is it for Anderson, as far as television series work is concerned. She says she would jump at the opportunity to work in Vancouver again, but only in film.

In the meantime, there are four weeks left of shooting. Then, as hard as it is to believe for Anderson, it will be time to go. "Every day is becoming so special," said Anderson.  "The last episode we do, I'll be blubbering all the time."