From NOW magazine, UK, August 4, 1999

My baby girl has conquered my fears
by Gail Pringle

One day David Duchovny will tell his daughter he was scared at the prospect of fatherhood. But will he tell her what name she was nearly given?

The arrival of David Duchovny and Téa Leoni's baby four months ago instantly solved two disputes between the couple. For one thing, they'd had differing opinions on whether to discover the sex of their child before its birth. Secondly, they couldn't agree on a name.

On the first point, Téa won - she and David didn't know they were having a daughter. On the name question, The X Files star and his wife settled, after much deliberation, on Madelaine West Duchovny.

David says they had been "so far apart" on names, they started coming up with jokey alternatives. "We talked about roles that were meaningful to us at the start of our careers as possible names for children," he laughs. "The list included Uniformed Cop Duchovny or Man at Bar Duchovny, for a boy. And, for a girl, one possibility was Hooker Duchovny! Passer-By Duchovny could have been for either sex."

David, 38, says the actual birth helped him conquer his fear about becoming a father. "I was scared out of my mind at the prospect," he says, revealing that, in the months before the baby arrived, he'd impatiently pace around the nursery in his and Téa's £2million, four bedroom, ocean-front home in Malibu.

"When Madelaine arrived, I had something to do. I could help take care of her, which is far better than just worrying." Even so, he concedes that he's having to take a back seat to Téa, 34, in Madelaine's affections. "At this point, the baby doesn't even know I exist," he says. "It's only about the nipple - and it's not my nipple, it's Téa's nipple!

"I've read parenting books and I think the biggest challenge will be learning how to relax into fatherhood; overcoming fears about keeping your child safe and living with constant anxiety. "Is the baby O.K.? Is she eating pennies? Is she going to fall into the swimming pool? It seems like you need 24 hour vigilance."

"But Madelaine's great. Every time I look at her, I just hope that I'm a good dad."

He also believes fatherhood will make him deal with his own limitations. "One scary thing is that, when you're a kid, you look at your dad as the man who has no fear," says David, whose own parents - publicist and playwright Amran and retired teacher Margaret - divorced when he was 11. "When you're an adult, you realise your father had fear and you have it too."

David and Téa have recently celebrated their second wedding anniversary, and he's come to the conclusion that family life agrees with him. "You can relax a bit. You're not just sprinting any more - you're in the marathon. You change your pace. It's more comfortable."

On the career front, David is to star in The X Files for a final season before leaving. A second X Files movie is also pencilled in for next year. And, in a departure from his role as Fox Mulder, he's been cast as the lead in a romantic comedy called Return to Me, in which he's a widower who falls for waitress (Minnie Driver) who received his dead wife's heart in a transplant operation.

Asked if he and Minnie have any love scenes, he sheepishly replies: "yes, but it's a chaste, 40s-style movie, like a Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn film. The love is more emotional than physical. There's some kissing, but no more than that. I meet Minnie's character the first time I go out on a date a year after my wife's death. Until then, I've done nothing but eat Chinese takeouts with my dog. My date's horrible, but Minnie's a waitress in the restaurant and there's something between us. It's a metaphor for what it is that makes people connect. Obviously, it isn't because they have the heart of someone you loved - that's the fable aspect.

It wasn't just the romance that drew me to the part. It's different from the role I've unconsciously grown in to. It was scary - anything outside of Mulder feels awkward. I've done one other role in the last six years, playing a surgeon in the comedy thriller Playing God. I haven't had time for anything else. The romance wasn't the challenge. Snapping myself out of the hypnosis of what I've done for six years was the challenge. It's stressful and fun - it's fun to care about work that much again."

He smiles, adding "I can't recall a time when I've experienced so many changes at once."

Pringle, Gail. August 4, 1999. "My baby girl has conquered my fears." NOW magazine, UK.