The Vancouver Move: The Five Year Agreement
After David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were spirited away to Vancouver for the pilot (last second), Chris Carter promised The X-Files stars would return to California in a few years-- a promise that was contractually bound with 20th Century Fox after renegotiations.
A deal which Fox Television was forced to keep (a foreshadowing of future litigation to come) by a righteously stubborn Duchovny. (Spoiler: he was not the only one glad to fly home.)
Part 1 of the Vancouver Move 'series.'
SECTIONS: TL;DR, THE FIVE YEAR DEAL, DUCHOVNY TELLS ALL, THE CAST AND CREW'S SUPPORT (including Gillian Anderson, Nicholas Lea, Kim Manners, etc.)
TL;DR
A deal made informally after the pilot, then formally during negotiations, was kept reluctantly but willingly by CC... and unwillingingly by 20th Century.
March 30, 1998: In an interview by phone from Los Angeles Sunday, Carter admitted that he had promised Duchovny and Anderson that the show would not stay in Vancouver indefinitely.
Duchovny told several U.S. talk-show hosts late last year that he would sooner quit The X-Files than spend another year away from his wife, Naked Truth actress Tea Leoni, but Carter denied the actor had forced his hand.
“I had hoped that we might find a way to keep the show in Vancouver,” Carter said. “And while I wanted to respect what I was hearing from David and Gillian about doing the show in Los Angeles, I thought there might be a way to convince everyone to keep the show in Vancouver."
February 17, 1998: The untold story, Duchovny says, is that he never imagined he'd be in Vancouver for five years when he got involved in The X-Files.
"There is something I've never discussed in public or in the media, which is basically that, in the beginning, I came up here thinking I'd be up here for three weeks shooting a pilot. I was told just the pilot would shoot up here. And then I was told just the first year would shoot up here. And then maybe the first three years would shoot up here. And then the first five years would shoot up here.
"It's gone from being three weeks to five years, and there was never a decision that I made, as an actor living in Los Angeles, to be away from home so long," Duchovny says....
"It's not that I've become a star and am flexing my muscles. It's really a five-year debate I've been having with the powers that be," he says.
January 1999: Fox and creator CC had assured him that eventually the series would be moved to Los Angeles. In DD's opinion, that meant that the cast AND crew of the series were assured of returning to their homes and families all year round instead of being displaced the majority of each TV season.
THE FIVE YEAR DEAL
Context up front: Chris Carter did not have to cop to this deal publicly. The only logical reason for doing so: if push came to shove, he would keep his word. (And although CC later confessed he'd hoped to change DD's and GA's minds, he kept it.)
July 25, 1996: Carter said both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are good friends, and “David and Gillian both renegotiated their contracts last year, so that’s out of the way.
“I have told them — and I think they are party to this — that I just want to do five really good years of The X-Files, five years where one day we can look back and say honestly that we did our best work. That’s why I haven’t left the show. If they’re willing to devote five years of their lives to it, so will I. Anything past that is gravy.”
March 27, 1998: “Shooting in Vancouver has just been a dream, which is why I am back here again,” Carter said. But he points out that working here does have a personal cost.
“The most difficult thing about making The X-Files had to do with keeping the actors away from home for 10 months a year, for five years running. I think that is what was most under-appreciated by those Vancouverites who saw our leaving as some kind of betrayal or treachery. David and Gillian were working away from home, their friends and their family, for five years, and I think that was a huge sacrifice on their part.
“I fly back and forth all the time, and that has been a sacrifice for me. I’ve given up a huge amount of my life. But that’s been by choice.”
March 30, 1998: Carter said that, in the end, he owed it to his two stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, to allow them to return to their homes after five years of working abroad.
In an interview by phone from Los Angeles Sunday, Carter admitted that he had promised Duchovny and Anderson that the show would not stay in Vancouver indefinitely.
Duchovny told several U.S. talk-show hosts late last year that he would sooner quit The X-Files than spend another year away from his wife, Naked Truth actress Tea Leoni, but Carter denied the actor had forced his hand.
“It’s important to remember that we originally intended to film the pilot [in March 1993] in Los Angeles,” Carter said. “When we couldn’t find a good forest, we made a quick decision to come to Vancouver. As it turned out, it was three weeks that turned into five years. The benefits of being in Vancouver were tremendous, and now, five years later, it is my home away from home....”
Carter said that he will continue to work in Vancouver and will do his best to hire X-Files crew for any future projects he produces in the city. “I had hoped that we might find a way to keep the show in Vancouver,” Carter said. “And while I wanted to respect what I was hearing from David and Gillian about doing the show in Los Angeles, I thought there might be a way to convince everyone to keep the show in Vancouver."
Noticeably absent was 20th Century Fox's concurring statement-- a choice which DD addressed publicly.
HEAR YE, HEAR YE: DUCHOVNY TELLS ALL
After his marriage in 1997, David Duchovny had begun pushing the studios to keep their word, which the tabloids blamed on spoiled and ungrateful whims. However, when Fox continued to not only remain silent but also to drag their feet, he finally brought the whole truth before the public.
February 17, 1998: The untold story, Duchovny says, is that he never imagined he'd be in Vancouver for five years when he got involved in The X-Files.
"There is something I've never discussed in public or in the media, which is basically that, in the beginning, I came up here thinking I'd be up here for three weeks shooting a pilot. I was told just the pilot would shoot up here. And then I was told just the first year would shoot up here. And then maybe the first three years would shoot up here. And then the first five years would shoot up here.
"It's gone from being three weeks to five years, and there was never a decision that I made, as an actor living in Los Angeles, to be away from home so long," Duchovny says.
"However lovely this city is, and however wonderful the people have been, and however talented the crew that works here, and however perfect the city is for The X-Files, that hasn't really figured into the personal dislocation that I've felt.
"It's not that I've become a star and am flexing my muscles. It's really a five-year debate I've been having with the powers that be," he says.
"The whole discussion of the show moving has been that it's just this year, and it's just because David's a star, and he's a baby, and he wants to push [series creator and executive producer] Chris Carter around. And it's just not the truth...."
Duchovny admits disagreements over whether to keep the show in Vancouver have placed a strain on his relationship with Carter, but says it's nothing that can't be solved.
As he explained throughout the rest of 1998, his push was firmer this time because niceties and charitable leeway (including the collapse of a relationship) hadn't worked before.
August 8, 1998: Contrary to what some people are saying, [Duchovny] has nothing against Vancouver. When he firmly requested that filming move to Los Angeles, he was merely calling on a promise made to him when he accepted the series. To prove his point he embarks on a detailed retelling of what really happened. "I actually turned The X-Files down but Chris came to my house and begged me. I was flattered because I was no big star and it was the first time that anybody begged me to do anything except the dishes. I told them I liked it but I had a girlfriend then and I didn't want to commit to living in Vancouver for what could be five years.
"They said we will just shoot the pilot there and then move to LA. After the show was picked up they told me we will do at least the first year in Vancouver because it has the right look and it will be cheaper. We can make better shows and get better production value for the dollar up there. So we did the first year. Then they said we are going into syndication, which means working continuously for three years, after which we get to go where we want. It was tough and in the middle of the third year, my girlfriend and I did split up. After three years, they were saying that we will have five great years on television then we are all going to quit. So could I handle two more years in Vancouver? I didn't have a girlfriend anymore so I had no reason to go to LA. So I said I can handle it because Vancouver is really nice.
"Going into the fifth year, I assumed we would shoot the sixth year in LA, and it looked like it was the first time they heard about it. What happened next was that the press was saying that David Duchovny, infantile, impetuous, whimsical, weight-throwing-around star imperiously makes production move to Los Angeles just because he wants to sit in a jacuzzi with his wife in Malibu. That's the way things happened. Good story no? It reads like a bad fairy tale. Why they kept it a secret is what I want to know."
Duchovny's request only involved fair play from the makers of The X-Files but because of his present stature, the move to LA has resulted in disillusionment among his fans in Canada. "Unfortunately the reason why some actors are being perceived as impetuous, whimsical or infantile is because that's often the only power they are allowed to exercise and the only way they will be heard. Nobody listens to you unless you say, 'I'm taking my ball and going home.' So the press sees that and they say, 'What a baby! Look at all the money he's making.'"
(Bonus: he also acknowledged that Gillian wanted to return, too-- April 22, 1998: Bob: Was moving the show to L.A. your idea?
David: It's a long story. I mean, the story goes back five years when one of my first concerns about doing the show was the fact that it shot out of L.A. And every year that we stayed up there was year in which I said, "Yeah, but weren't we talking about moving?" It was like they had a carrot out in front of me the whole time , and it finally just got to the point where I just had to go back home and just say, you know, you guys promised at some point. So it's never been like the kind of thing where I got to Vancouver and I said "My God, they're all Canadian!" and I had to go home- it's never been anything personal- it's only been that eventually we would bring the show back. And if I had been more active in that than Gillian that's probably the case, but it's always like I seem to be going first. --which we shall get to further below.)
Repeating these lines in 1999 pushed the needle very little--
January 1999: It's no secret that filming of the TV version of TXF was moved this season from Vancouver to Los Angeles because DD asked that a promise made to him at the outset of the show be kept. That is, he'll tell you, that Fox and creator CC had assured him that eventually the series would be moved to Los Angeles. In DD's opinion, that meant that the cast AND crew of the series were assured of returning to their homes and families all year round instead of being displaced the majority of each TV season. Then came the decision to film a movie version of the highly successful television series. By their own admission, both DD and his TV partner, GA, had looked forward to their yearly hiatus from the series to perhaps not only do other projects but to simply have a break from the demands that go with starring in an hour long TV drama.
January 1999: "Moving the show to Los Angeles was not really an effort to save the television show on my part," he says honestly. "It was really an effort just to live at home with my wife and to fulfill a promise that had been made to me early on in the show, which was that the show would not stay in Vancouver for its entire duration -whether that be five years or 25 years - that eventually I would get to work at home, which is Los Angeles for me."
January 1999: It's no secret that filming of the TV version of TXF was moved this season from Vancouver to Los Angeles because DD asked that a promise made to him at the outset of the show be kept. That is, he'll tell you, that Fox and creator CC had assured him that eventually the series would be moved to Los Angeles. In DD's opinion, that meant that the cast AND crew of the series were assured of returning to their homes and families all year round instead of being displaced the majority of each TV season. Then came the decision to film a movie version of the highly successful television series. By their own admission, both DD and his TV partner, GA, had looked forward to their yearly hiatus from the series to perhaps not only do other projects but to simply have a break from the demands that go with starring in an hour long TV drama.
--yet the corner eventually turned, and animosity therefore died down, once interest began to wane (or, one could argue, when he trekked back up for I Want to Believe's filming.)
After the show's conclusion, DD spoke of the circumstances again when interviewed for the official X-Files collector's book.
The Complete X-Files, 2008: “I had never expected that the show would run five years,” David Duchovny explains. “And at some point in the middle of the third year, Chris and I were complaining to one another about how tired we were. We were saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to do five. We’ll get out of here at five.’ And then five came around, and no one was going anywhere."
THE CAST AND CREW'S SUPPORT
During the chaos stirred up around Duchovny, The X-Files costars, writers, and directors had his back (and expressed their sympathies.)
January 1998: _spiffeYgurL_: Is it cool working with Gillian and David?
Spotnitz: It is! One thing people probably don’t think about is that for the past five years, they’ve been in Vancouver and we’ve been in L.A. So most of our contact has been electronically, watching them in dailies, or talking to them on the phone. But the best part about working with David and Gillian is that they invariably make the work better than any of us imagined it would be. And as writers, we are all incredibly grateful for that! Now that we’ll be shooting in Los Angeles we’re all looking forward to seeing more of David and Gillian.
February 1998: Although co-star David Duchovny has provoked anger from locals in Vancouver with his demands to move the show to L.A, Gillian admits she is also behind the request, which is expected to be granted soon. "From the beginning I backed everything David has said in terms of his desire to go to L.A, but David has just taken a more public stance with it," Gillian says.
July 15, 1998: Still, matrimony didn't ease the long-distance commute caused by Duchovny's Vancouver workdays -- or the flak he took while asking for the show's relocation to L.A. next season. "It was hard on him," says actor Nick Lea. "He was handed the key to the city and ended with eggs being thrown at his house. People just didn't see that he wanted to be with his wife."
(Sidenote: yes, literal eggs were thrown at DD's house-- August. 21, 1998: His reason was simple. He had married Téa Leoni, star of the sci-fi disaster movie Deep Impact, and for 10 months of their first year of marriage, he was in the Canadian city while she was home in California.
But Duchovny's campaign resulted in him being transformed from Vancouver's favourite adopted son to an object of hate. The home he had rented in Vancouver was pelted with eggs by angry Canadians who felt Duchovny had let them, and their city, down.
He said: "I would have been angry if people had thrown eggs at my house because they were anti- Jewish. But this just saddened me." To be discussed in a future post.)
March 2, 2001: At the time, many people in Vancouver felt insulted and slammed the actor for being unappreciative, though Harwood thinks Duchovny may have gotten a bit of a bad rap. “Poor David,” he says. “After those remarks, there was a sense that everyone in Vancouver just turned on him for slagging a town that helped produce a successful show."
The Complete X-Files, 2008: “David loved the Vancouver crew as did everybody else,” Kim Manners recalls. “But after five years being away from home, it gets a little old, so he just wanted to move the show back to Los Angeles for no other reason than to be in the comfort of his own home and environment. I could have kissed him because I was in the same boat. I was tired of being away from home. It’s difficult to sacrifice not only home, but your family, your friends, and everything else, to isolate yourself on location 1,200 miles away.”
The Complete X-Files, 2008: “It was sad to see it go-it had been a great ride-but we understood why it was going, and that was fine,” Tom Braidwood says. “It was interesting to step away from that part of it and then simply go down to L.A. as an actor.”
Particularly telling was one incident where Gillian, fed up with X-Files questions while promoting her other projects, came out swinging in DD's (and Tea Leoni's by proxy) defense--
January 11, 1999: 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.
[In full here.]
She later not only confirmed DD and CC's claims--
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."
--but also reiterated her own desire to move back to California--
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."
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."
(Sidenote: per her other interviews, here and here, she was happy.)
CONCLUSION
The five year deal was planned, called upon, and enacted.
Be that as it may, situations are complicated. Change has its inevitable ups and downs-- which will all be discussed in future posts. Stay tuned.
Thanks for reading~
Enjoy!
Tagging @mamuscript, as requested.
