David Duchovny
Getting X-Rated with the sexiest man on television
by Nina Malkin
As Fox Mulder on The X-Files, David Duchovny is intense, loyal, and
extremely commited to his job. To find out what he's really like,
read the following. The truth is in here.
David Duchovny is not paranoid. He just acts it on TV. As the "X-Files"
brooding FBI agent Fox Mulder, he has the dubious task of verifying the
existence of UFOs, ESP, and all other manner of paranormal weirdness. As
if this want bizarre enough, he has a highly skeptical partner, Scully
(Gillian Anderson), and superiors out to thwart his every move. It's the
kind of a gig where paranoia pretty much comes with the territory.
No longer simply a cultish curiosity, "The X Files" swept January's
Golden Glove awards, winning best TV drama and best actor and actress in a
TV drama. Along the way, its 36 year old star has become a bona fide sex
symbol. Member of the David Duchovny Estrogen Brigade heat up computer
lines admiring his piercing brown eyes and chiseled features. When in one
episode this season, Duchovny hauled himself dripping wet from a swimming
pool in a red Speedo, looking like a lost Baywatch extra, thrilled fans
even debated whether he was leaning to the left or to the right.
Such probing attention has left the actor feeling a bit like the subject
of an alien autopsy. Pictures of Duchovny wearing nothing but a teacup
over his privates are being are being sold for $9.95 on the Internet, and
rumors of sexual addiction received a fair amount of press. "If you're
single and in the public eye and you have a few dates, you're a sex
addict," he says of the allegations. "There was another story about me
being a neat freak. I'm actually pretty sloppy. I couldn't deny I'd never
had sex, I'd never been neat!"
For someone who has undergone such personal scrutiny, Duchovny is
anything but paranoid. "It's flattering to a certain extent," he says of
being a sex symbol. "But it's something a bunch of people get together and
decide. It has nothing to do with me."
If "The X-Files'" premise "The truth is out there" is true, then
today, the truth is freezing its buns off. The show is shot in ever-chilly
Vancouver, and Duchovny's been outside all day, doing take after take.
Right now, he's in a hurry to get back to the warmth of his silver Airstream
trailer. Once inside, he yanks off his standard-issue black FBI-guy shoes
and positions his feet against the heating vent, first one sole, the the
other.
"Doing this every day for ten months and hardly ever getting half a day
off, it's tough," he says. "We're in our fourth year, and the fact that
there hasn't been a homicide on set is wonderful." As if on cue, the
intercom in his trailer sounds, polite, insistent. He's needed back on the
set. "F---!"
The trailer is a fountain of clues. A softball and glove. Dog toys (Blue,
Duchovny's affable Border collie - terrier mix, has been whisked way by
his master's personal assistant), a yoga video, laptop, Scrabble, and
piles of movie scripts. A big bed (perhaps the reason Mulder occasionally
sports pillow hair) and plenty of books, both literary (A Joseph Campbell
Companion) and New Age ("The Artist's Way: a Spiritual Path to Higher
Creativity" by Julia Cameron).
David Duchovny is probably the smartest star on TV. His single mother - a
schoolteacher who divorced his father, a public-relations man, in 1972 -
had lofty goals for her children (Duchovny, who was 11 at the time, has
an older brother, Danny, and younger sister, Laurie). As a child, he
earned a scholarship to Manhattan prep school Collegiate (John-John was a
classmate), then went on to Princeton on partial scholarship.
After graduating with a B.A. in English literature, he spent a year
working on a "young man finding himself" novel. "It wasn't at all
autobiographical," he jokes. The protagonist worked as a bartender at the
Continental, which just happens to be the name of the Manhattan restaurant
where Duchovny served drinks. The book went nowhere, so Duchovny headed for
Yale, where he received an M.A. in English Literature. It was while he was
working on his Ph.D. thesis (entitled "Magic and Technology in Contemporary
American Fiction and Poetry") at the Ivy League institution that he was led
astray - dabbling in playwriting, hanging with the theater crowd. The
acting bug bit, much to his mother's dismay, and he never earned his
doctorate.
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From the beginning - one cheesy Lowenbrau commercial aside - he took on
the quirkiest roles. A biker who finds religion in 1991's "The Rapture";
a slacker who pick up one crazy couple (Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis) in
1993's Kalifornia; and a drug-enforcement agent obsessed with wearing
women's clothing in "Twin Peaks". Oddest of all was his part on
television's HBO sitcom "The Larry Sanders Show", starring Garry Shandling.
Duchovny came up with the idea while playing basketball with his friend
Garry. On the show in which reality and fiction overlap, Duchovny appears
as himself, only he has a crush on Sanders. "Garry said, "People are going
to think that's you." I didn't care. It was fun."
Back in the Airstream, he sheds his sleek, dark gray jacket and reflects
on his ideal romantic date. "Dinner, red whine, Italian food," he says,
"pretty much your basic beginning of any Penthouse letter." Does he have
"a type"? "No, just intelligent with a sense of humor." He *does* like
a woman in a dress, but admits "if I was a woman, I wouldn't wear a dress
all the time, but it's nice." He sees marriage and children in his future:
"I'm at the point in my life where I want that," abut claims he doesn't know
who the woman is yet. As he speaks, he continues undressing, unknots his
tie, slips it off. "I think I'll make a good father, I look forward to it."
The shirt, the pants...
Duchovny dated actress Perrey Reeves (she appeared in an episode of "The
X-Files" as a vampire and the only woman Mulder has ever slept with) for
two years but is currently single. Asked about rumors of a relationship
with Crucible star Winona Ryder, he says "She's a good friend. We met just
out and around in Hollywood. We're friends." Standing in his snug long
underwear, it's clear that Duchovny's vegetarian diet, the occasional
pick-up game of basketball, and all those yoga classes have paid off. He's
lean and subtly defined beneath the white cotton fabric. Seemingly unaware
of being partially undressed, he explains that actors date other actors
because "that's who we meet. And who else would put up with my schedule,
what I have to do?"
At least the stars of "The X-Files don't have to worry about those
relationship threatening sex scenes. Not one remotely lustful glance has
passed from Mulder to Scully (or vice-versa), but their bond is the most
intimate thing on television. Consummate professionals, they rarely so much
as touch, but the space between them is all spark, sexier than any
grope-and-tumble cliche Aaron Spelling could ever produce. "Mulder treats
her as an equal, values her input, obviously likes her, but doesn't try to
sleep with her," Duchovny says. "Plus, sometimes she laughs at his jokes."
As Gillian Anderson sees it: "Scully feels she can trust him with
anything, she knows that in any situation he would be there for her. If she
should disagree with him strongly, she feels it wouldn't ruin the
relationship. The relationship has gotten more intimate over the years, and
it seems to have matured in a very natural way." Of the man who plays
Mulder, Anderson says, "There's a sensitivity to David that's very
appealing to women."
Right now, Mr. Sensitive is talking about the reading material in the
bathroom of his Vancouver home: "It's the Dictionary of American Slang,
and it's huge, exhausting," he enthuses. The first volume goes from A to
G, and it's hysterically funny. There are so many *ass* entries! If you
look at slang, you realize what's important to a culture, and the ass is
very important to Americans. I'm anxiously awaiting the next two volumes.
Think of *P*! *P* is gonna be big!"
There's no doubt that Duchovny is one of the biggest stars on television.
He will most likely do "The X-Files" movie (there's no script yet) but
will not stick with the series indefinitely. "You have to move on. That's
not a reflection of what I think of the show," he says, alluding to the
fact that he's on the hippest - and perhaps best-written - show on TV.
"It's just a matter of preserving my sanity. People think that if I'm
honest about the downside of being on a successful worldwide television
show, that means I'm not grateful. But I love this show, and I love my
job."
Duchovny defines success as "mastery of your chosen field," not in
monetary terms (easy to do when you're netting a reported $100,000 per
episode). "I don't need more money; I'm not extravagant." His most lavish
acquisition of late is a back-massage chair. "I can't be sure of my friends
anymore," he says. "I think they want to sit in my chair." He concedes,
however, "The woman out there who is going to become my wife one day may
unconsciously think *He should keep working! What about our children?*"
Stay tuned.
Malkin, Nina. April 1997. "David Duchovny." Cosmopolitan.
