David Duchovny feels like he had a hand in 'discovering' Angelina Jolie: 'I just knew she was a movie star'

The duo starred together in the 1997 movie "Playing God."

You might not think of David Duchovny when Angelina Jolie comes up, but the Californication alum says he played a part in her success.

During an appearance on Sirius XM's Radio Andy on Thursday, Duchovny was asked what immediately came to mind when he heard the names of various past costars. A mention of Jolie, his leading lady in the 1997 thriller Playing God, prompted him to say, "I feel like I discovered Angelina Jolie."

Emma McIntyre/Getty; Mike Marsland/WireImage David Duchovny worked with Angelina Jolie early in her career.

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When host Andy Cohen followed up on that, Duchovny explained what he meant.

"Yeah, cause I was casting, I was part of the casting," Duchovny said of the movie that he headlined. "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 X Files alum confirmed that he was referring to Playing God, which also costarred Timothy Hutton. TV director Andy Wilson was behind the camera, and official casting credits went to Elaine J. Huzzar (From Dusk Till Dawn) and Johanna Ray (Snowpiercer). According to the movie's official description, it's about "a disgraced surgeon" who "reinvents himself as a gunshot doctor in the criminal underworld."

Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Angelina Jolie and David Duchovny star in "Playing God."

Jolie's earliest professional acting credits were mostly music videos filmed in the early '90s. She appeared in the movies Hackers (1995) and Foxfire (1996) before Playing God. Afterward, she had a career breakthrough when she played the late supermodel Gia Carangi in HBO's Gia. This was followed by movies such as The Bone Collector, Girl, Interrupted (for which she won an Oscar), Gone in 60 Seconds, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Duchovny is promoting his latest project, a movie he wrote, directed, and stars in, Reverse the Curse, about a man who attempts to cheer up his ailing father by faking a winning season for the Boston Red Sox.

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