In an interview with the Danish podcast The Conspiracy Podcast (Sammensværgelsen), casting director for The X-Files, Rick Millikan revealed that Clive Owen came in for the role of FBI special agent John Doggett. Ultimately, Robert Patrick was cast and went on to portray the character for The X-Files seasons 8 and 9. While Patrick is famous in his own right, Clive Owen was on the brink of an acting breakthrough at the time that casting took place.
The X-Files is known for its conspiracy theories and science-fiction stories following FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). From the very beginning, the duo remained the primary focus of the series until Duchovny left at the end of season 7. With losing such an iconic cast member, Carter turned to Rick Millikan to assist in casting a brand new set of special agents for the subsequent episodes: John Doggett and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish). Various actors auditioned for these roles but the most astounding potential casting choice was that of Clive Owen, who went on to star in Sin City (2005) and Children Of Men (2006) shortly thereafter.
Millikan cast over one-thousand roles for The X-Files and he spoke to The Conspiracy Podcast about the various actors that were on his list of desirable hires. In the same conversation, he mentions the story of casting John Doggett as well as how it ultimately came down to Robert Patrick or Clive Owen. While the latter could have provided the series with a strong take on the character, Chris Carter made the decision that Robert Patrick was the perfect person to portray John Doggett. Screen Rant was given exclusive insight thanks to The Conspiracy Podcast on why the showrunners passed on Clive Owen.
It was a well kept secret that Clive Owen was interested in being on The X-Files. Millikan explains to The Conspiracy Podcast that when auditions began for the casting of John Doggett he remembered "Chris Carter meeting with Clive Owen. He was somebody that was interested, and we were interested in meeting with him." In the early 2000s, Owen was just breaking through the film industry and making a name for himself in the action genre. When Millikan and Carter discussed the possibility of casting him as John Doggett there was a discrepancy in the way that they wanted the character to present themselves and whether or not Owen could do it.
The special agent who Robert Patrick portrayed was a stern and forceful presence. According to Millikan, "after we met him [Clive Owen], I remember Chris ultimately thought that he wasn’t the right guy, because he wanted more of the cop that Robert ultimately was. You know, he got that hard edge to him, and that I think Chris was really looking for." While they did pass on the actor, Millikan fondly spoke on "meeting Clive and thinking that was kind of cool because he was just becoming a hot ticket back then, but he just wasn’t the right guy."
If Chris Carter had gone with Clive Owen, FBI special agent John Doggett may have delivered less edge to the character than Robert Patrick's version. The X-Files has starred and auditioned countless high profile celebrities that were in the midst of making it big in Hollywood but Clive Owen did not make the cut.
Thanks to The Conspiracy Podcast for choosing Screen Rant to debut this fun scoop!