Picture this: it’s 1997, and the world is just about to be graced with the cinematic masterpiece known as *Playing God*. Okay, maybe “masterpiece” is a stretch. In reality, it was a box office dud that barely scraped together $4 million – but hey, who’s counting? Oh right, everyone.
Fast forward almost three decades, and David Duchovny, our beloved Fox Mulder, is spilling the tea on his role in what he humorously refers to as the “discovery” of Angelina Jolie. Yes, *that* Angelina Jolie.
Let’s rewind to the set of *Playing God*, where David and Angelina first crossed paths. David now admits, with the kind of hindsight that only comes from a few decades of reflection (and possibly therapy), “Playing God was a mistake only because we didn’t have a script ready… I should have just bailed out, but I didn’t know.” Ah, the sweet, naive optimism of the ’90s.
In a recent chit-chat on SiriusXM’s *Andy Cohen Live*, David found himself playing a co-star word association game. When Angelina’s name popped up, David’s response was pure comedy gold. “I feel like I discovered Angelina Jolie,” he declared, with the confidence of someone who thinks they invented sliced bread. He quickly added, “Yeah, because I was casting, I was part of the casting of, I didn’t discover her, but you know, she came in and I just knew she was a movie star and I told everybody we’ve gotta cast her.”
Oh, David. Sweet, sweet David. While you were busy having your “Eureka!” moment, Angelina’s breakout role had already happened a couple of years earlier in the movie *Hackers*. You know, the film where she made cyber hacking look cooler than flipping a table in a board meeting. But let’s give credit where credit is due – maybe David’s psychic powers just needed a little fine-tuning back then.
So, while David might not have actually “discovered” Angelina Jolie, he definitely contributed to one of the most entertaining behind-the-scenes anecdotes Hollywood has to offer. And who knows, maybe somewhere in an alternate universe, *Playing God* is a billion-dollar blockbuster, and David Duchovny is hailed as the ultimate talent scout. A guy can dream, right?
