DAVID DUCHOVNY, is there life after the X-files.

Although 'Return to me' is his fifteenth movie, he thanks his fame to the X-files, the tv series in which the 39-year old actor claims pretty much every season that it will be his last. You can see 'Return to me' since June 22 in Dutch cinemas.

In the USA the X-files is much more than a 50 minute science-fiction series about the adventures of two FBI agents. There are hundreds of web sites devoted to the X-files. The huge popularity with the US audience is for big part due the characters, played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. They are specialized in paranormal and extraterrestrial cases, subjects that are very appealing to the US viewers, more even than to the Dutch. The interest in the personal relationship between David and Gillian is also very huge. Alternaty there have been reports that they have a secret relationship and that they can`t stand each other. But most deciding for the adoration form the viewers for Fox Mulder is the fact that during his search for alien life, he constantly encounters government conspiracies. With this the X-files appeals to a deep rooted distrust towards everything that has to do with the government.

THE MONEY IS GOOD.

David`s love for the series has cooled down over the years. The money is good: about 480 000 guilders (1 dollar = about 2 guilders) per episode, but that doesn`t weigh up to the time it takes shooting 22 episodes a year. The last few years the news appeared that he wanted it to stop. "Duchovny doesn`t have time for the X-files anymore." Was a recent headline in the Algemeen Dagblad (a Dutch newspaper). A year before NRC Handelsblad (another Dutch newspaper) launched a similar story, right after his marriage with Tea Leoni and the birth of his daughter. Again those stories are in the news, because after a long time of debating the actor agreed to a new X-files season. Although the number of episodes is reduced from 22 to 9 (of course that`s a mistake, it is 11), so David has enough time for his great ambition: making movies.

NOT UP TO DOING THE SAME THING

Before David became a star because of the X-files he had a tough time in Hollywood. His greatest feat was the strong thriller "Kalifornia" (1992). It`s illustrative for David`s laborious relation with the movie world that all the honour from "Kalifornia" went out to his (then) unknown co-stars Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis. Strange enough he thanked his breakthrough, in the same year, to a tv series: "Twin Peaks". Director David Lynch thought he was the perfect person to play the transvestite Dennis/Denise. Based on three episodes with him, he was approached by the producers who were preparing "the X-files" at the time. That justifies the question if Duchovny is big enough for the cinema. "Nonsense." Is the actor`s opinion. "There are plenty of actors who made the change with success. Think about Alec Baldwin, Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willes. Of course it doesn`t always work out well. David Caruso couldn`t make the change to movies after "New York Police" (NYPD Blue). That doesn`t alter the fact that he is a hero to me: he had the guts to decline millions of dollars, because the series couldn`t offer him anything in a creative aspect anymore. For the same reason have a lot of respect for Julianna Margulies, who didn`t feel like doing the same thing on ER over and over again."

THE END OF "THE X-FILES"?

This explains why David now in his fifteenth movie role plays a character that doesn`t look like FBI agent Fox Mulder at all. It is, like a critic strikingly pointed out, like suddenly hearing Greta Garbo as hero of the silent movie speak. In the first fifteen minutes of the romantic comedy "Return to me" he smiles more than in 150 episodes of the X-files. And also he cries. Nobody can, after this attempt to be taken seriously as a movie actor, which is certainly not the first, deny him courage. And after the next season it`s really over with "the X-files" as far as David is concerned. Even the offer of nearly 2,5 million guilders doesn`t seem to convince him otherwise. Who wants to annoy him, has to blame him for being ungrateful to the series that delivered him so much fame and money. "I hate it when people say: Don`t nag so much: with less luck you`d be at McDonald`s baking hamburgers. Like the only options you have as an actor are: acting or "would you like something to drink with your fries?" I`m happy with the success of the X-files, but a tv series is like riding an elephant: it`s a colossus that just keeps going its own way and on which you lose hold as an actor. And does somebody want to blame me for trying to get control over my own career?"