From TV Week, June 19-25, 1999

David's New World
by Mark Hollinger

We pursue the real Duchovny, the man behind Mulder, as he begins the most exciting episode of his career and his personal life

Sitting outside the X-Files soundstage on a chilly Los Angeles afternoon, David Duchovny seems distracted.

In his sixth season of playing alien-hunting FBI agent Fox Mulder, the actor is about to move behind the cameras for an episode that will mark his debut as both writer and director, and a conversation with him is repeatedly interrupted by crew members looking for pre-production guidance. Truth be told, at this point -- two weeks before he is to start shooting -- the rookie director barely has a clue himself.

"I don't know the work I have to do to prepare, or what questions to ask," Duchovny confesses, amused more than bewildered. "I'm confident in the script, but I have no idea what kind of director I'll be. What if it's a disaster?"

Boyishly handsome in beige cords, navy-blue polo shirt and Nikes, Duchovny, 38, seems quite content with his life. And why shouldn't he be? In addition to writing and directing the X-Files episode, which aired last April, there was last summer's X-Files movie, which earned $187 million worldwide. And creator-writer Chris Carter has more Files movies up his sleeve, which Duchovny is looking forward to, even though he's often voiced his boredom with his character. "Not that I want to play Mulder for the rest of my life," he's said, "but my fantasy is to take him into different eras of his life." Just as Duchovny himself is heading into different eras.

In a move Duchovny had been urging since his 1997 marriage to actress Tea Leoni (The Naked Truth, Deep Impact), The X-Files departed Vancouver after last season and relocated to Los Angeles.

And he's now happily ensconced in his biggest role to date: fatherhood. Leoni, 33, gave birth to their first child on April 24, a daughter they called Madelaine West Duchovny.

"When Téa first got pregnant, I was like, 'Thank God it's nine months -- I can prepare,'" Duchovny says, smiling. "Then I was like, 'OK, let's go -- let's get it on!'" He pauses. "I mean, I'm not ready. But I'm ready."

When his wife finally delivered, Duchovny said breathlessly, "Tea and I are very ecstatic. We're going to be raising her to be a New York Knicks fan."

Duchovny knows fatherhood is going to require him to do a lot of learning on the job. The biggest challenge? "I think relaxing into parenthood is the toughest thing," he says. "Overcoming fear [about] keeping the child safe and living with the constant anxiety. 'Is the baby OK? Is it eating pennies? Is it going to fall into the swimming pool?' So it seems like you need 24-hour vigilance, and obviously that's not the case."

Duchovny imagines he's going to have to deal with his own limitations. "One of the scary things is that, when you're a kid, you look at your dad as the man who has no fear," says the actor, whose own parents -- mother Margaret, a retired schoolteacher, and father Amram, a playwright and publicist -- divorced when he was 11. "When you're an adult, you realize your father had fear, and that you have it, too."

Those who know Duchovny figure he will rise to the challenge of fatherhood. X-Files co-star Gillian Anderson believes the "huge shifts" in Duchovny's life have had a big impact on him. "He's grounded considerably," Anderson observes. "In his whole demeanour, he seems more settled, satisfied. That affects how he is in the world, and how he is with people." Others agree. "Happier than ever," is how Duchovny's pal Garry Shandling describes him. "I think he's stimulated by changes in his life, even though they can be scary."

"It was nerve-racking [sic] for him," says Mitch Pileggi, who plays the cue-ball headed Skinner, "but I heard he handled the birth very well."

For his part, Duchovny, who resides in Malibu in a house the couple purchased shortly after their wedding, is relishing a newfound sense of normalcy: "Living in Los Angeles with Téa helps so much. As lovely as Vancouver is, it wasn't home, and my wife didn't live there," which made working on The X-Files so demanding that "it felt like a military manoeuvre." Now, he says, "it just feels like a job. I get up and go to work in the morning, and I come home at night. It's so much easier for me to shoot here." (Despite feeling this way, Duchovny says he's ready to leave The X-Files when his contract expires at the end of next season.)

While Leoni and Duchovny celebrated their second anniversary last month, the actor says he appreciates the context that marriage has added to the relationship: "You can relax a bit. You're not sprinting anymore; you're in the marathon. You change your pace a little. And it's more comfortable to run a marathon, at least in the beginning."

Professionally, Duchovny remains at full speed. At the TV Guide Awards in February, Duchovny took a trio of honours: Favourite Actor in a Drama, Sexiest Male ("I lobbied hard for that one," he deadpans) and Best-Dressed Male. He also picked up an American Comedy Award for his guest spot on the final episode of HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, in which he flashed Shandling while wearing nothing but a robe.

Shandling and Duchovny have been friends for several years. "He's really a loyal, caring person," says Duchovny, who plays basketball at Shandling's house. Does Shandling have game? "Well, I'll say that he does, because he's very sensitive," Duchovny jokes. Says Shandling of their friendship: "We talk about life, and creative struggles, and we usually end up laughing about it. He's, uh, like a sister to me." Shandling has no doubts about Duchovny's directorial debut. "David's a natural-born director," he says.

A natural-born director Duchovny may be, but in his debut behind the camera, he had to write the script first. Titled "The Unnatural," Duchovny's story was told primarily in flashback and featured retired FBI agent Arthur Dales (played by Darren McGavin in the present and Fred Lane in the past). The script revolved around a baseball-loving alien in 1947. Duchovny's inspiration came after reading a story about Joe Bauman, a New Mexico minor leaguer who set a record in 1954 by hitting 72 home runs but never made it to the majors. Banman's beam was the Roswell Rockets. "I thought, 'Roswell, that's weird,"' recalls Duchovny, alluding to the New Mexico town's notoriety as the site of a reputed -- and disputed -- 1947 UFO crash. "What if he [the slugger] was an alien?" Duchovny set his story in the old Negro Leagues and made race a subtext. After he wrote it, he says, "I thought if I can write one, I might as well direct it."

Though Duchovny enjoyed the challenge of directing, his future remains in front of the camera -- at least for the time being. This spring he began filming the feature Return to Me, a romantic comedy about a widower who falls for a waitress (Minnie Driver) who has received his dead wife's transplanted heart. And a second X-Files movie is tentatively scheduled to be shot the summer following the series' farewell next season. But when Duchovny is asked where he thinks he will be 10 years from now, the answer has nothing to do with acting or directing. "I'll be playing a game of catch with my daughter," he says, smiling. He pauses and looks off. "That's what I'll be doing -- playing a game of catch." For David Duchovny, the truth isn't so far out there after all.

Hollinger, Mark. June 19-25, 1999. "David's New World." TV Week.