| According to David Duchovny, The X-files makes
a hideous amount of money. It makes a huge amount of money. They could spend
$50 million an episode and still make four-fold that. The X-Files is obscenely
successful. It's worldwide. It's the only show besides Baywatch, which is a
kitschy thing, that's [successful at the international level]. They don't watch
ER anywhere else. They don't watch NYPD Blue anywhere else. Those are great
shows and they're very popular [in America], but The X-files is popular
everywhere. It's popular in Germany, in England, everywhere. With NYPD Blue
you've got to like New York or know New York. ER, they're American. With The
X-Files, even though we are FBI agents, we are dealing with issues that are
interesting to all people. It's about whatever is out there. When we do colonize
other planets, the [aliens] will be like, That's so unrealistic!
Duchovny laughs, but The S-Files is no laughing matter these days, especially
for the die-hard fans of the seven-year-old series who fear that the end is fast
approaching. At the time of this conversation with the dry-witted Duchovny,
whose role as Fox Mulder transformed him into a major star, the actor was very
much on the fence about whether he'd return for an eighth season. His contract
was up, he was still in contentious litigation with 20th Century Fix over
syndication revenues he considers due him, he was of the feeling that the show
itself had reached the end of its creative rope and he was tub-thumping hard for
his latest film, Return to Me, all of which had him doubting that he'd be back
for more otherworldly and supernatural shenanigans on the show. Call it a matter
of been there, done that, why do more?
Other than money, there is no incentive really, he admits. The only
incentive would be writing and directing, which is what I'm doing now on the
show. I'm allowed to have a really nice budget, a great crew, great cameras and
all the film I want to teach myself how to direct. That's a major opportunity.
More than money, the reason I would come back would be to direct and write more.
It's not the money at all. I shouldn't say that. The money's always good, but in
the end it's not worth anything. Coming back would only be about the chance to
teach myself how to do other things in the business that I want to do. When you
direct, you get to shape the whole process. It comes through your eyes, the way
you see the material. You stamp your vision on it. Nobody else would do it the
way you do, for better or for worse.
Duchovny's not in the slightest bit kidding when he says that directing is
what he's doing now. His publicity blitz on behalf of Return to Me, a
romantic-comedy/drama in which he cp-stars with Minnie Driver, comes right in
the middle of his directing an X-files episode entitles Hollywood AD, which he
also wrote. It's based on the premise that Skinner [Mitch Pileggi], our boss,
is consulting with a writer from Hollywood on a movie which turns out to be
based on a case that Mulder and Scully [Gillian Anderson] investigated, he
reveals of the ambitious episode, which aired in the States on April 30.
Mulder and Scully in the movie are played by Garry [What Planet Are You
From?] Shandling and my wife Tea [Deep Impact] Leoni [who's also the mother of
Duchovny's newborn daughter, Madelaine West.] So it's kind of a serious and
comic look at what Hollywood does to reality, though in this case reality is
already once removed. It's been so easy to direct Tea. I told her yesterday that
she's the best actress I've ever seen. Honestly, I didn't tell her anything. She
came up with the stuff that was better than anything I could have thought of. I
know is she was directing me, I would have been nervous.
And how about that positively bizarre day on set when Duchovny put four
Scully's through their respective paces? We were doing this scene on Friday
where Scully is running, the actor-director recalls, sounding quite amused.
Gillian had had the flue or something, so we actually had to pus the scene a
couple of days. It's a scene where we meet Tea and Garry and the first thing Tea
says [to Scully] is, 'How do you run in those heels?' Garry and I play the scene
and n the background you just see Scully running back and forth. So, Gillian
being ill, we did the old cowboy switch where she leaves and we got a Gillian
double [actually Mitch Pileggi's real-life wife, Arlene, who's Anderson's
regular stand-in] to run back and for the. So that was two Scullys. Then, Tea
was dressed like Scully and there was Tea's stand-in. So we actually had four
Scullys. We're doing this funny scene and the script supervisor said to me, 'You
should have the four Scullys together at one point'. I thought, Yeah, maybe,'
and then I thought, 'You know, you can't have too many jokes.' If you have too
many jokes it's not funny anymore.
Hollywood AD represents Duchovny's second stab at writing and directing. He
did double duty on the sixth-season X-files episode The Unnatural, which somehow
managed to quite seamlessly blend baseball (one of Duchovny's greatest passions0
and aliens. Duchovny reports that he could definitely write something that he
didn't direct and that the idea of directing something he didn't write would
present a unique exercise for him. Because I can write, I feel like, 'Why not
direct what I write?' he comments. I have a lot of respect for directors who
direct other people's work because, having written a script, I have it in my
head. I know what I want. But if you're directing somebody else's work, it's
hard to get into the head of the writer and try to make a vision together.
That's another kind of collaboration. It's interesting to me and it's something
that I'd like to try.
Duchovny is at an interesting crossroads in his career. He's famous, but
mostly as a TV star. He's still young and his future seems bright. He can act
and direct and write, but will he get the chance to do the latter two activities
anywhere else?> Another season on the X-Files probably would give him an
opportunity to hone those skills and probably wouldn't skew his offs of
achieving success beyond the series, especially if Return to Me in which he
falls in love with Driver, who is the recipient of his late wife's heart
catches fire at the box office.
None of it is lost on Duchovny. I think a career is a combination of two
assumptions; one is 'What do I feel like doing?' and the other is 'What am I
being offered? What am I able to do at this point?' Maybe there are some actors
out there who actually have a game-plan and say, 'I'm going to do this action
film. I'm going to do this romantic-comedy. I'm going to do this Oscar-winning
portrayal.' I can't think like that consciously. I try to find what interests
me, try to find what I'm able to do and just do it. Most of the time, luckily
it's just worked out. Sometimes, obviously, it doesn't. That's just the ups and
downs of a career.
I chose Return to Me because I knew Bonnie [Hunt, who directed, co-wrote and
co-stars in the film]. I read her script and thought it was very sentimental in
a nice, straightforward way. I knew that Bonnie would bring to it this
undercutting, dry sense of humour. I thought that she'd put together this really
strong love story with her subversive wit…and I haven't seen that movie. That's
actually what the movie is. I love this movie. We were all making this light
fairy-tale. And in order to make it, we had to believe. We couldn't be winding
at the audience. It couldn't be any of this kind of meta-performance where you
are aware that the actor is having fun with the role. 'I really don't believe;
we're just playing at this.' Early on, Minnie and I decided, 'We've got to
believe or this is just going to sink'. That was fun, to have to get myself in a
place where I believed in these things and the innocence of it.
Return to Me is not the sort of movie I would run out to see, continues the
actor, whose other film credits include Kalifornia, The Rapture (with frequent
X-files guest star Mimi Rogers), Playing God, Chaplin, Beethoven (during which
he met and became pals with Bonnie Hunt), and, of course, The X-files feature.
I don't run out to see any movie. I shouldn't say that. I only see the movies
that come to the theatre near me, which is why I enjoy doing this today, because
I really feel that if I can get the word out that this movie is not what it
seems to be, that it is actually a very complicated, tricky movie that is both
profoundly sad and at the same time profoundly funny, maybe people will go see
it. I would be really happy if people came to see it, because if I stumbled into
it, I would be really [pleased].
So what does the future hold? And, to steal the tag line from the X-files
feature, can Duchovny fight the future?
I'd love to be writing and directing and acting, he says. I'd love to do
those three things, I'd like to create my own body of work somehow, and be in
control of it. It'll be hard work. You've got to write the scripts. That's hard.
You've got to convince other people that you're worthy of directing it. That's
hard. Then you've got to go and direct it. And that's harder. A TV show is on
the air a month after you direct it. A movie is different. There's much more at
stake. It's two years of your life, minimum. And if it comes out and is gone in
three days maybe because of the timing or because you didn't have a star
that is a horrible feeling. The good thing about TV is that you've always got
next week. It's only a couple of months' work. People forgive and forget faster.
So if you start doing movies, you've got to be really smart and lucky.
As the conversation draws to a conclusion, it's pointed out to Duchovny who
stresses that he would be more than willing to play Mulder in a series of
X-files big screen sequels and that doing so has nothing to do with the lawsuit
or the ultimate fate of the series that he seems particularly relaxed and
happy at the moment. He smiles at those very words. I'm tired, he says
playfully. I'm happy with Return to Me. I'm OK with whatever happens with the
show. I'm in a good place personally. I just think that I'm coming into my own
as a person and as a creative person. Things are just easier. I don't have to
push quite so hard as I used to. It's easier to know what I want to say and what
I want to do. As you get older, you get to know yourself a little better and
it's easier to be yourself.
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