David Duchovny Says He Feels Like He Discovered Angelina Jolie While Casting ‘Playing God’: “She Came In & I Just Knew She Was A Movie Star”

David Duchovny says he feels like he “discovered” Angelina Jolie, his Playing God co-star.

The X-Files alum recently revealed in a new interview that he was part of the casting for the 1997 film directed by Andy Wilson.

“I feel like I discovered Angelina Jolie,” Duchovny said on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy when asked what he thought about his former co-stars.

Host Andy Cohen asked Duchovny to explain, with the actor saying, “Yeah, cause I was casting, I was part of the casting. I didn’t discover her, but… she came in, and I just knew she was a movie star, and I told everybody [that] we’ve gotta cast her.”

The Touchstone Pictures film written by Mark Haskell Smith revolved around “a disgraced surgeon [who] leaves his former life and reinvents himself as a gunshot doctor in the criminal underworld.” According to IMDb, the film’s casting directors were Elaine J. Huzzar and Johanna Ray.

Playing God also starred Timothy Hutton, Michael Massee, Peter Stormare, Andrew Tiernan, Gary Dourda, John Hawkes, and many more.

Before starring as Claire opposite Duchovny, Jolie had starred in films like Cyborg 2 (1993), Hackers (1995), Without Evidence (1996), Live Is All There Is (1996), Mojave Moon (1996), and Foxfire (1996).

After Playing God, Jolie went on to star in films like Hell’s Kitchen (1998), Playing by Heart (1998), Pushing Tin (1999), The Bone Collector (1999), Girl, Interrupted (1999), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001).