Even though The X-Files originally debuted on the small screen way back in 1993, the Emmy-winning show proved hugely influential over popular culture, cultivating a diehard fanbase perplexed by the mysteries of life, death, and the paranormal. Like many fandoms, X-Files fans even have their own unique moniker: an X-Phile. While you’d imagine that all the mystery surrounding the 218-episode series would’ve been demystified by now, you’d actually be mistaken. In fact, a revelation making the rounds on Reddit and social media right now is sparking much debate among X-Philes all around the globe.
Gillian Anderson Stays In Character After Witnessing a Real On-Set Collision
Specifically, the fan discussion has been kindled by a scene from Season 3, Episode 12 titled “War of the Coprophages,” which sees Dana Scully (portrayed by Gillian Anderson) entering a convenience store as mass hysteria grips the local residents of a town in Massachusetts. As she opens the doors, behind her a vehicular accident occurs: a car crashes into the rear end of another. What’s blowing fans’ minds is the revelation that this was not a scripted event and was a genuine freak accident.
Anderson can be seen looking back for a moment at the collision, but once she realises that no-one has been hurt, she continues the scene “in character.” As the unfortunate mishap actually fits the tone of the scene — the public surrounding her character is meant to be in a state of hysteria, after all — the FBI agent resumes her role and continues on as normal. Meanwhile, the director of the episode, Kim Manners, opted to keep the shot in the final cut likely because it added some extra believability to the scene.
Adding credibility to the authenticity of this claim is another video that has been circulating around social media lately, which is a snippet of footage lifted from the episode’s director’s commentary. In it, we hear additional context directly from the writer of the episode, Darin Morgan, who goes on record, saying:
The shot is Gillian walking into the store and behind these two cars, they’re supposed to pull out and I think they were just supposed to be close. And the one car — I don’t know what happened — the car skidded or something, and they crashed into each other.
Darin Morgan, Writer of Season 3, Episode 12 titled “War of the Coprophages“
If you watch the shot, Gillian turns around. It takes kind of a long time, because, like, she’s going… Is anybody dead? And once she sees everyone’s alright, she turns around and continues on with the shot, because she’s a pro.
While a small sub-section of hardcore X-Files fans may already be familiar with this fascinating behind-the-scenes factoid, plenty of X-Philes are only learning about it now. Over on Reddit, one fan wrote: “Not scripted? Wow it fits the scene and the episode so well I had no idea…“
A further netizen jovially added: “When the extras improvise.” earning over 6k upvotes.
A third comment came in wondering whether the accident was from real-life traffic, penning: “Why would there be actual traffic on a tv set? I figured they would shut the road down“.
In response to this, another fan clarified: “It’s not actual traffic from random people. It’s probably not even a public road. It’s all employees on a set simulating a normal street. The drivers in the cars just didn’t do a very good job. Or they did an excellent job, depending who you ask.”
Despite the beloved sci-fi series ending in 2018 on Season 11, fresh tidbits about the show’s production have been swirling lately. Surprisingly, there was reportedly some ‘tension‘ on set between the iconic duo at the heart of the series: David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Speaking in an interview on his Fail Better podcast, the Californication star discussed his on-set relationship with Anderson, saying: “We know each other very deeply, and yet we don’t know each other either in some weird way.”
Amazingly, however, that aforementioned ‘tension‘ never seemingly came across on camera, as the FBI twosome are arguably one of the most recognizable and adored duos to come out of the ’90s thanks to their phenomenal on-screen chemistry.
As for where The X-Files IP will go next, there’s reportedly a reboot that was announced last year. However, while both Duchovny and Anderson are open to returning to the show, it remains to be seen whether the proposed reboot will go with an entirely new cast or welcome back the series’ original stars.
