Cult Times: X Files star David Duchovny
reflects on the past year
Special #8, Winter 1998
by Jean Cummings
David Duchovny at last finds The X Files close to home.
Just as well; since this summer's movie he's hardly stopped.
A change is just going to have to be as good as a rest...
DAVID DUCHOVNY is not self-centered; he is, however, an independent individual
who likes to be candidly honest. It's no secret that filming of the TV
version
of TXF was moved this season from Vancouver to Los Angeles because DD asked
that a promise made to him at the outset of the show be kept. That is, he'll
tell you, that Fox and creator CC had assured him that eventually the series
would be moved to Los Angeles. In DD's opinion, that meant that the cast AND
crew of the series were assured of returning to their homes and families all
year round instead of being displaced the majority of each TV season. Then
came the decision to film a movie version of the highly successful television
series. By their own admission, both DD and his TV partner, GA, had looked
forward to their yearly hiatus from the series to perhaps not only do other
projects but to simply have a break from the demands that go with starring in
an hour long TV drama.
"I kind of trusted the work that I had done for the last four years in
creating
this character," DD says when comparing his portrayal of FM on TV versus the
movie. "I thought that I'd never made any concessions to playing it on
television; I just played it the best way I knew how. So my instinct was to
let that carry through the film. I created a character that was real enough
to
sustain itself on film as well as it did on TV and if we were to do a road
show
with The X Files I would play him the same way. The character is set. I know
how to play the character and I wanted to have the courage to play it that way
and not to change it and not to pander to any idea of a perceived audience or
any perceived criticism or anything like that."
He hesitates for a moment when asked, however, if there wasn't some challenge
to bringing FM to the big screen. "I guess the biggest challenge was in
realizing that what may have seemed old to me was new to a certain audience.
There may have been certain attributes about Mulder that have changed in the
last few years. I was introducing this character to some new people, so there
were some things I had to hit a little harder. But again, I tried to get away
from thinking too much like that because I didn't want the performance to be
telegraphed. I just wanted it to be a character that was interesting even if
you didn't completely understand him."
For fans of the XF TV series, the pairing of GA's sceptical Scully with DD's
character is a familiar scenario. Beyond their professional ties, however,
viewers have always been curious about M&S's personal relationship, some of
which was addressed in the movie, including the characters' brush with a
romantic kiss, an occasion to be revisited in the new season airing in the UK
next year.
"That was one of the scenes in the movie that I was really sure about because
I
thought the big question was 'What are the things you do in the movie that you
can't do on the TV show? Are Mulder and Scully going to have sex? What are
they going to do? How are you going to answer that?' When I read the script
with the bee sting I thought, 'That's really clever. You brought it to that
point. You showed that they wanted to and then you took it back.'
"I thought, that's really a way for people to be satisfied by seeing that
there
are two characters that want to and yet again events have transpired to
prevent
them from doing that."
Of course, in DD's personal life he's doing what needs to be done so he can do
what he wants. Specifically, to be home with his wife, actress Tea Leoni, and
perhaps have more career opportunities.
"Moving the show to Los Angeles was not really an effort to save the
television
show on my part," he says honestly. "It was really an effort just to live at
home with my wife and to fulfill a promise that had been made to me early on
in
the show, which was that the show would not stay in Vancouver for its entire
duration -whether that be five years or 25 years - that eventually I would get
to work at home, which is Los Angeles for me."
And so is he now happily living in paradise, at home with his wife starring in
one of TV's most successful series?
"For me, no, it's not paradise," he says frankly. "I would like the series to
turn into a series of movies. Doing the television show takes 10 months out
of
the year and prohibits me from doing other types of film or if I DO try to do
both, from having a life."
"The last couple of years were very difficult so I would like to make the
transition from this being a television show to being movies every four or
five
years if the public will have it. If not then, you know, it was a great run.
I'm very proud of what we've done already. I don't feel the need to keep
making the show into my forties."
Of course, the rumour mill has it that there will be two more seasons of the
show and two more films.
"So many rumours," he says with a sigh. "It's just stupendous to me that all
these things happen, that they're all said. I'd imagine there will be two
more
seasons of The X Files, but no more after that."
And what does he foresee for himself in that future?
"I don't have a crystal ball," he replies. "I don't know what kind of future
as an actor I'm going to have. I mean, I take it on a project by project
basis. All I know is that with the amount of time that The X Files takes to
be
made, I don't have the time I need to make the right choices and to develop
the
right scripts that I want to do. To get as involved as I want to be in
movie-making takes more than six weeks."
His reference to six weeks is basically all the time there is between ending
one season and beginning another.
"Even just as an actor I need more than six weeks to make sure that it's the
kind of movie that I want to do, so it just can't happen," he explains. "This
is not like ER where you have 15 actors and maybe you can release George
Clooney to go do a movie. It's not like that, I wish the show was an ensemble
show then it could go on forever and I could go off and do what I wanted to do
at the same as doing the show. But it's not set up that way."
Indeed, with as much time as is required to do the series, one wonders if DD
the person ever finds FM coming through his own personality.
"God, that's a good question," the actor says with a grin. "Maybe I do. I
find that one of the things I have to guard against as an actor having done
the
show for so long is that I don't get greedy and say, 'I'm bored, therefore I
want Mulder to have a girlfriend' or, 'I'm bored, therefore I want Mulder to
have a French accent today.'
"You know, these things that would make it interesting for me as an actor but
would be bad for the show or bad for the character, so it's more like watching
that David doesn't get in the way of Mulder. Mulder I know I can control very
easily; David is another." He pauses before continuing, "I get bored but then
there are different challenges and there are more subtle challenges. I think
the all important aspect to maintaining the quality of the show is to not be
bored. You've just got to find challenges where they are and I like to talk
about how bored I am but I'm not really THAT bored."
And that's particularly true with the movie behind him and the series allowing
him to be home in LA, with his wife, his friends and his life.
END
Typed by Alfornos
