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The Vancouver Move: Gillian Anderson Welcomed the Change

After piecing together 1997-1999, I came to two conclusions about one Gillian Anderson: she agreed relocating was necessary, and flourished after the transition.

Part 2 of the Vancouver Move 'series.'

TL;DR

1994: GA: I really had forgotten how beautiful Vancouver can be in the spring and summer time. It's just been really torturous with all the rain.... But to answer your question, I miss L.A. sometimes, not for L.A., but just for the weather....

June 1996: "I have a support system in L.A., which I don't have here," she says. "I feel at home there in a certain way, which I don't feel here. It's lonely in that I don't feel comfortable here. It doesn't feel like my place."

April 18, 1998: "I'm just so grateful to have had this experience. I will always have a very, very close connection and very fond memories of this place."

November 1998: Returning to L.A. was endorsed by his co-star. "Overall it's easier to do the show here," say Anderson. "I am a person who is affected very strongly by the weather. Vancouver is a beautiful, beautiful city, but it is dark when you get up in the morning. It makes you depressed . . . I felt very cooped-up there."

February 20, 1999: Anderson likes Los Angeles. 'Moving,' she says, 'is not hard for me at all. I was born in Chicago, we moved to Puerto Rico, we moved to London, we moved to Grand Rapids, I moved back to Chicago, I moved to New York, to Vancouver, and now Los Angeles. Moving is not a problem. I enjoy it.'

November 4, 1999: MS: But LA is the new big move.

GA: It is the new big move. It's been good to us. Really good. And for some reason -- I have no idea why -- but for some reason this year I've had more days off this year and last year than for the entire five years we were up in Vancouver combined. I'm not sure why that is.

January 2016: We made 202 episodes in the end, over nine seasons, and worked long 16-, 17-hour days. David and I were in almost every scene for years - often at night, in the rain, on location. So much of it was shot in the dark, with us lighting ourselves by flashlight, in all kinds of weather, and in the forest. Oh, the forests. When the show finally moved to Los Angeles I can’t say we missed them, or the weather, but Vancouver really did set the mood for the show in a fundamental way.

THE VANCOUVER YEARS: "WHAT LIFE?"

In the early days of the show, I found both compliments and jokes about Vancouver from The X-Files actors, writers, directors, and crew.

What particularly caught my eye was the first nuanced complaint (ironically, one which would get David Duchovny raked over the coals three years later) from Gillian Anderson:

1994: CM: Weather and currency aside, what is the biggest difference you experience working in Vancouver?

GA: Weather aside? [Laughter]

CM: I had to put that aside, because I--

GA: --know that I'm going to mention that first? There isn't, really. Umm, we're starting-- I'm going to talk about the weather, I'm sorry-- we're starting to see the spring, and I really had forgotten how beautiful Vancouver can be in the spring and summer time. It's just been really torturous with all the rain. And that's really about it. I don't really have much time to take a look at the city, and I couldn't say I'd be really that good about finding my way around! I know a little bit. I'm married to a Canadian, and so he does most of the driving because he knows the area! [Laughter]

But to answer your question, I miss L.A. sometimes, not for L.A., but just for the weather-- there's a certain sense of freedom when you step outside a plane into a warm and healthy-- albeit smoggy-- environment. There just seems to be a constant cloud or constant feeling in this city that gets to you after a while. But otherwise it's great. the people are wonderful.

When asked for further comments in 1996, she was honest about its assets and shortcomings (as well as her own dissatisfaction)--

April 1996: A gunmetal grey trailer home, parked just to the left of the main X-Files set, is Gillian Anderson's sparsely furnished, functional home-from-home….

"It can be," she says unconvincingly, after a suitable pause, back at the trailer. It's getting late and the strain is starting to tell. We find out later that shooting continues till after 2.30am. "It can be fun," she says, "but not always. It's pretty gruelling most of the time, actually." Being cocooned away in Vancouver for most of the year mean that the stars of The X-files live in a bubble and have little idea of the show's popularity. When talk turns to Gillian's 'real-life' she raises an eyebrow. "What life?"

…For someone who spends most of her time in straight-laced suits and heavy overcoats in the p***ing Vancouver rain, the opportunity to play the vixen in the LA sunshine is a chance not to be missed.

June 1996: It's easier, Anderson says, for the cast to be in remote Vancouver, away from all the Hollywood hoopla. "It's probably much better. It's been a fast enough change for me as it is, even being up here. I can't imagine it being faster and still being able to stay sane through it all." But she calls Vancouver "a small town" and says the nine months a year she works on the show are lonely ones. "I have a support system in L.A., which I don't have here," she says. "I feel at home there in a certain way, which I don't feel here. It's lonely in that I don't feel comfortable here. It doesn't feel like my place."

By the time the move was announced and kicked into gear, GA was ready to leave--

May 28, 1997: Vancouver is far from her mind on this night. “There are a couple of people there that I miss,” she tells me coolly, “but not Vancouver per se.”

February 15, 1998: Doing the show, which requires 16-hour days 10 months of the year, has been grueling, and Anderson says her biggest fear is “insanity.” (She was previously quoted as calling her stint in Vancouver “a death sentence,” which did not go over well with Carter.)

August 17, 1998: Last year, Duchovny and Anderson campaigned for the show to be relocated to Los Angeles and the sixth series is currently in production there.

--but not, however, without complicated feelings.

A PERIOD OF TORN REFLECTION

Leaving wasn't (as the media portrayed it) about leaving Vancouver behind: it was a necessary relocation so Gillian (and others, post here), who spent ten months of the year away from family and home base, would have more time to herself-- a "life," the crew often joked.

If, as she states below, the studio had reduced filming on The X-Files, then everyone would have agreeably stayed longer. Alas, that was not to be.

Another aspect to consider: while GA has stated new beginnings agree with her (post here), there are transitions and memories still to be processed, even amidst positive change.

THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE X-FILES, Volume 4: At around 7 P.M. something extraordinary happened: Dozens of people from the show’s production office, many of whom rarely if ever set foot on location, began to arrive at Riverview. They joined perhaps eighty of their friends and coworkers in squeezing into the corridors surrounding an unused hospital storage room, where the set for the Lone Gunmen’s office had been erected.

This was Gillian Anderson’s final scene: a serio-comic passage in “The End” (5x20) in which Dana Scully asks Forhike, Langly, and Byers-who are dressed in their p.j.s, bathrobes, and (in Frohike’s case) bunny slippers-to help her solve yet one more unsolvable mystery.

“Action!” said Bob Goodwin, his wife Sheila Larken (who plays Scully’s mother in the series) sitting besides him. Chris Carter stood nearby, watching intently.

The filming proceeded with Anderson perhaps a bit more tense and emotional than the scene required. Several dozen camera angles, nervous flubs, makeup touch-ups, and alternate line readings later, Goodwin announced that he was satisfied.

“Okay, cut! Print it!” he said.

The set was silent for a moment until a stunned realization set int. In a few moments Anderson was to leave the set for the last time; in a few hours she would leave for Los Angeles. In a month and a half the X-Files movie would premiere. In just three months, filming for the sixth season-with a new crew, new plot lines, new challenges, and new triumphs-would begin.

The moment passed. The onlookers burst into applause; Anderson nearly burst into tears; the actress asked her friends to gather around her.

From a large cardboard box she held up a bathrobe inscribed GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY. I LOVE YOU-FOREVER. G.A. She invited everyone to visit her trailer, say their farewells, and pick up their own commemorative copy-their gift from her-afterward.

More applause. The actress fought to maintain her composure. And lost.

“I wish there was something that could express the way I love you all,” she said, her eyes shining and her voice breaking. “You made it all so special. I will miss you all so much.”

April 18, 1998: Her five years in Vancouver have shaped her life dramatically, and she admits she is finding it difficult to let go.

"The pendulum kept on swinging back and forth," she says. "There was a while ago when I thought there was a final decision. It came early enough that I didn't get too attached to it. But when it swung back the other way and there was some discussion that the show wouldn't be moving after all, I was surprised and a little taken aback.

"I've had mixed feelings about it all along. I think ultimately what I may have preferred, which would have been easier in all respects, would have been to continue up here but do fewer episodes. But that really wasn't feasible for [the network]...."

She has two years left in her contract with The X-Files, and has said she won't do another TV series after that. But that doesn't make leaving Vancouver any easier.

"I will never forget the personalities of the crew, and the things we have endured together over the past five years," she says quietly. "It took so many, so many hours to get where we are today, and in the most bizarre of circumstances.…”

Anderson understands that a move to Los Angeles is just one more part of that learning curve. But she is torn by the prospect of leaving a city she has grown to admire -- even though she still finds it hard to find her way in some neighbourhoods.

"I don't know Richmond-Delta at all well. I think I know how to get to Richmond because I know how to get to Ikea. I don't know New West. I still have trouble, when I'm on Robson, knowing whether I'm facing north or facing west or facing wherever."

She will keep her house in West Vancouver and is trying to convince her Los Angeles friends and family to move to Vancouver so she will have more of a connection to return to.

"I'm constantly overwhelmed in the morning, on my way to work, as I go over the Lions Gate Bridge. My breath is just drawn from me on so many occasions, in so many different ways. It's a beautiful, beautiful city.

"I'm just so grateful to have had this experience. I will always have a very, very close connection and very fond memories of this place."

October 30, 1998: Q: The series is now being filmed in LA. Do you miss Vancouver at all?

A: I ve got into the habit of splitting myself between the two, My daughter will be going to school in LA. I often go back to Vancouver, it[']s a city I like.

SETTLED AND HAPPIER THAN EVER

Complicated emotions do not, of course, guarantee long-term unhappiness nor contentment. In GA's case, it fell together agreeably for the time she remained in California.

The deciding factors for that happiness? A combination of the weather and the comparative ease of working near home (note: the latter is clarified from November 1998 onward)--

January 1998: During a brief break, Anderson, looking radiant in a long red cocktail dress, said she was invigorated by filming in Southern California.

“It’s really been going great, and the episodes are really good this season,” she said. “It’s really made a difference for me being here. I have a lot of friends and a great support system.”

Anderson added: “The sunshine does have a lot to do with my mood, feeling healthy and whole. It’s nice to sit out in the sunshine with my daughter.”

February 20, 1999: She has recently moved to Los Angeles, now that The X Files has relocated here from Vancouver, which was a cheaper filming environment. Her four-year-old daughter, Piper, 'seems to really love the sunshine'. Another effect of the relocation is that this season of The X Files will look slightly different, with brighter natural light; more weird things will happen in the desert, and fewer in the woods.

Anderson likes Los Angeles. 'Moving,' she says, 'is not hard for me at all. I was born in Chicago, we moved to Puerto Rico, we moved to London, we moved to Grand Rapids, I moved back to Chicago, I moved to New York, to Vancouver, and now Los Angeles. Moving is not a problem. I enjoy it.'

October 9, 1998: KEVIN: How awesome is it for you to be living in Los Angeles now after what, 4 or 5 years in Canada?

GILLIAN: You know what? It's really awesome.

KEVIN: Are you just crazy-I mean alot of your friends are down here and stuff.

GILLIAN: Alot of my friends are down here. I've got family that's nearby. You know, it's great.....

BEAN: What did you miss the most about not being down here, besides Rosco's Fried Chicken waffles-the obvious.

GILLIAN: What did I miss the most about not being down here?

BEAN: Yeah..besides us.

GILLIAN: umm.. What?? (Everyone laughing)

KEVIN: Besides us, right.

GILLIAN: I think it would have to be the sunshine. It really makes a huge difference. It's like walking around with a cloud over your head all the time.

November 1998: Returning to L.A. was endorsed by his co-star. "Overall it's easier to do the show here," say Anderson. "I am a person who is affected very strongly by the weather. Vancouver is a beautiful, beautiful city, but it is dark when you get up in the morning. It makes you depressed . . . I felt very cooped-up there."

November 4, 1999: MS: But LA is the new big move.

GA: It is the new big move. It's been good to us. Really good. And for some reason -- I have no idea why -- but for some reason this year I've had more days off this year and last year than for the entire five years we were up in Vancouver combined. I'm not sure why that is.

The Complete X-Files, 2008: However, there was one immediate benefit to shooting in Los Angeles: “I don’t know whether they just brought in more characters, or whether it was because less time was taken redoing material due to rain and snow days, but it seemed like we had more time off once we moved down south,” the actress states. “In the first year in California, I think I had more days off than I ever had in the five years of the show combined. In Vancouver we never had days off. Everything felt like it lightened up a bit. It all felt a bit easier.”

THE PAST, THE PRESENT: NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED

When reflecting back on the show, Gillian remains stalwart in her affection for and criticisms of the past, candidly articulating the nuances which time and distance have surfaced and softened.

January 2016: We made 202 episodes in the end, over nine seasons, and worked long 16-, 17-hour days. David and I were in almost every scene for years - often at night, in the rain, on location. So much of it was shot in the dark, with us lighting ourselves by flashlight, in all kinds of weather, and in the forest. Oh, the forests. When the show finally moved to Los Angeles I can’t say we missed them, or the weather, but Vancouver really did set the mood for the show in a fundamental way.

March 23, 2016: Joking that [she and Duchovny] fell out about her hair, Gillian laughed: "It's so stupid. I can't talk about this without just laughing and laughing, it's just so silly. It takes women a lot longer than it takes men because, it's very damp in Vancouver and so my hair gets frizzy so we shoot in the rain all the time and then I'm a drowned rat and then we had to wait around for them to blowdry it and everything and so there's a lot of waiting because of me. It didn't encourage our [friendship] but I got it, I understood... We were too much together but we're incredibly friendly now."

March 22, 2026: So, I went on this first day, and apparently that was the day when they were choosing the Mulder. And so, I spend the whole day there doing auditions with all the Mulders, and apparently they had made a decision of who the Mulder was. And then I was also told... that I was invited back to audition with that Mulder... but they were going to bring in some more potential Scullys. So, but that’s like, ‘Really?’ [Sighs.] ‘Okay.’ So, then they... I showed up on the next-- and I remember it was a Thursday-- I showed up and they had flown in some other Scullys from New York, and they were actresses that I had known in the period of time-- I had only lived in New York for a year and a half or two years, and did the rounds of auditioning for theater. And so I would run into, y’know-- it was Jill Hennessy, who ended up doing Law and Order; and it was Cynthia Nixon. Right? Can you imagine, right? And... there was somebody else, there was somebody else who went on to, to big fame. So, anyway, they had shipped in all these other actresses, uh, which was great for my confidence. Um, and we did that whole day again.

And at the end of that day, um, I was told that I got the part. And, and that was a Thursday; and I flew up to Vancouver on a Saturday to start shooting the Pilot. And that was that. Like, they had left it that late. And then we shot the Pilot over, like, three or four weeks, I think. And that was the beginning of the beginning.

BONUS: TAKING UP FOR DAVID DUCHOVNY

A year and some change after David Duchovny began his "campaign" (as one article put it), Gillian very seriously defended her costar (and Tea Leoni by proxy) while guesting on David Letterman.

January 11, 1999: LETTERMAN: David... David...

GILLIAN: Yes?

LETTERMAN: ...gets homesick for Los Angeles, and I think we can all understand that.

(Laughter as he gives a sarcastic, meaningful look to the audience)

GILLIAN: Well, you know, Dave, he got married. You know?

LETTERMAN: Right, right.

GILLIAN: Yeah, he got married, and he had a wife that he loved very much.

LETTERMAN: But the wife doesn't travel?

GILLIAN: The wife was actually working at the time on a series.

LETTERMAN: I better be careful. I don't know what I'm talking about.

GILLIAN: You go from humiliating a man with a "t" on his chest to making fun of my co-star.

LETTERMAN: I meant no offense about that, and I think he understands that I meant no offense. (Laughter) so then, on the whim of difficult star David Duchovny, the show is yanked out of Vancouver.

GILLIAN: Well, you know, we had done five seasons up there, and we had both been shooting away from what we consider to be home, and...

LETTERMAN: Yeah. It's tough. It's like being in the marines or something.

(Laughter)

GILLIAN: You know, it was a long time, and I think... And I understand.

LETTERMAN: Well, it is. I mean, it's hard. Marines in the audience.

(Cheers and applause)

GILLIAN: Is there a point to all these questions, Dave?

LETTERMAN: Yeah. It's my own curiosity, because I've known you for a long time, I've known David for a long time, and I never just quite understand, because of my love for Vancouver, what the situation was there.

GILLIAN: Well, you know what? Honestly, Dave, probably when you have decided to go to Vancouver, you have either gone up to... Do you ski?

LETTERMAN: Oh, now, I don't ski.

GILLIAN: No? Okay, well, you've probably gone in the summertime, because that's a good time to go. But also, you know, Vancouver can be very rainy, which is very beautiful, but when you're shooting 16-hour days and you're standing in the rain and in the snow at 3:00 in the morning, in the middle of the woods, chasing down a monster made of who knows what, it's just, you know... It just... You know, it wears on you after a while. But I also think that, since you are driving this point home, I'll drive it home even more-- that, you know, I think at the beginning, David had an agreement with our executive producer that if we were ever to go five years, that at that point, we would move back to Los Angeles.

LETTERMAN: Well, apparently, I've hit a nerve here, and I'm sorry. I just...(laughter)

GILLIAN: No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. Hang on a second. I mean, we come out... I mean, how many times have I been sitting here, and how many... I mean, we've got things to talk about, Dave.

LETTERMAN: Seems like you just got here. I know.

GILLIAN: There's so much more than...

LETTERMAN: Yeah, and so much more. (laughter) and I'm just kidding. And of course, I understand why we'd rather be at home then 1,200 miles away in Vancouver.

GILLIAN: But it's actually a beautiful city.

[Interview continues on.]

CONCLUSION

The move, then, was not only positive to her mental health but also a step in the right direction. Given this context, it's easier to understand why she was sympathetic to and supportive of David Duchovny's stance: his wasn't the only prerogative to relocate the show. At the same time, leaving didn't negate her love for Vancouver nor her experiences with its people.

The bottom line: at some point you have to assert your rights, lest others (namely 20th Century Fox) continue to take advantage (a cycle that, unfortunately, repeated in 1999.)

Previous part here.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

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