Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Dana Scully is solving another mystery.
The X-Files star Gillian Anderson explained via a new TikTok video just why she kissed her costar David Duchovny before her then-boyfriend, Rodney Rowland, at the 1997 Emmy Awards.
Anderson, 55, famously planted Duchovny, 63, on the lips after she was announced as the winner of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. After her peck with Duchovny, who was sitting behind her, she then shared a kiss with Rowland, who was seated next to her, before taking the stage to accept her award.
To this day fans have been wondering what was going on.
There’s nothing like a good love story on TV — even if it doesn’t end up the way that fans want. For years, there have been couples who have garnered huge fan bases, but still don’t end up together like Dawson’s Creek’s Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek) and Joey Potter (Katie Holmes). When Kevin […]
Well, let Anderson clear it up for you: “David and I were actually living together and Rodney was my beard,” the actress deadpanned in a TikTok video shared on Friday, August 3.
“That’s just a joke,” she quickly added. “Was that really mean?”
@gilliana you guys said you needed answers 😎
♬ original sound – Gillian Anderson
“I don’t know why I kissed him first,” Anderson went on to explain. “I guess because he was on the show with me and we were practically married? We spent more time with each other than we did with our loved ones. We were there to celebrate the series and so, yeah, maybe that’s what it was. I don’t know.”
Anderson said Rowland was a “great guy” and she doesn’t think her kiss with Duchovny “bothered him.”
“He understood … it was complex,” she concluded. “That’s all I got.”
X-Files fanatics have willed Anderson and Duchovny to get together, like their characters Scully and Fox Mulder, for nearly three decades but it seems they will have to settle for their on-screen chemistry.
“The whole thing about Gillian and I dating is so weird. It’s never happened, it’s not going to happen, we’re friends. I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade, but no, it’s not gonna happen. It hasn’t happened,” Duchovny told TVLine in a 2015 interview.
At the time, the longtime costars sparked a frenzy among fans when Duchovny kissed Anderson at a New York City concert to promote his debut album, Hell or Highwater.
“I see Gillian, I kiss her hello. She’s my friend. If somebody gets a picture of that, if it’s on stage and she comes up to sing with me, I’m going to kiss her hello,” Duchovny told TVLine.
“I wish the show would be enough. I don’t understand why people want more from Gillian and I. I really don’t,” he added. “You can have Mulder and Scully, and that’s gonna have to be enough.”
