The X-Files star David Duchovny explains why, unlike Fox Mulder, he doesn’t really believe in conspiracy theories. One of the most influential and successful television series of all time, The X-Files premiered in 1993. Alternately between an episodic and serialized structure, the show focused on Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) as two FBI agents that attempt to solve involving paranormal phenomena such as extraterrestrial life.
The show would ultimately lead to two feature films, spinoffs, and a revival. A huge part of the intrigue was the dynamic interplay between Scully, a skeptic, and Mulder who was generally ready to hear out any ideas in search of the truth about aliens. The series would often take Mulder’s side of the argument, generally proving his assumptions and hunches to be correct. However, Duchovny recently explained that he personally hues closer to Scully when it comes to conspiracy theories.
In an interview on the Literally! with Rob Lowe podcast, Duchovny elaborated on why he doesn’t buy into conspiracy theories quite as much as the X-Files character he portrayed for years. In his comments, the actor offers his view of what makes conspiracy theories appealing and he admits to being rather confused by people asking him about lizard people. You can read Duchovny’s full quote, from Comic Book, below:-
“Conspiracies are great drama, yeah, but mostly conspiracies in real life, they’re looking for simple answers to complicated questions. And a conspiracy finds a bad man, or a couple bad men, who have decided to perpetrate some evil upon the world, and I don’t think that’s how it happens usually.”
“Have you heard about, like, the lizard people? Have you heard about that thing? There were a couple years there where people were asking me about lizard people and I had no clue that it was a big thing. And I would just kind of scoff at them, like, I’d be signing somebody’s thing and they’d say, ‘Oh so-and-so’s a reptilian or a lizard.’ And I’d be like, ‘Yeah, uh, all right. Why is he calling that guy a lizard or a reptile? I don’t get it.’”
Duchovny’s remarks echo some of what Scully would say to Mulder on a regular basis. At its best, and especially in episodes penned by X-Files writer Darin Morgan, the popular sci-fi series would give itself space to discuss what really drove Mulder and other conspiracy theorists like him. The show would occasionally even stress the fact that, even if Mulder discovered the truth about aliens, that mere fact would do little to change how isolating and confusing the world can be. Ultimately, as Duchovny alludes to, his character clings to elaborate but ultimately clear-cut ideas because it’s preferable than accepting random chaos. Many experts on conspiracy theories have said the same, noting that the outlandish is often easier to accept than the cruel and mundane.
The X-Files would receive criticism for popularizing potentially dangerous conspiracy theories, particularly during its brief 2016 revival, but that belies the fact that the series was often quite prescient about the human impulses behind believing in secret organizations and shadowy figures. These impulses, and human costs, were often reflected in Mulder who took his convictions to such extremes that it endangered his loved ones. By all accounts, Duchovny is right to approach the most well-known and insidious theories with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Source: Comic Book
Originally from https://screenrant.com/xfiles-conspiracy-theories-david-duchovny-response-mulder-comparison/