From Cult Times, January 1999
Transcribed by alfornos

Fox TV
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."

I created a character that was real enough to sustain intself on film as well as it did on TV.

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."

I would like to make the transition from this being a television show to being movies.

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 Téa 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.

Cummings, Jean. January 1999. "Fox TV." Cult Times.