Empire Magazine - July 2001
Transcribed by Nat

PUBLIC ACCESS David Duchovny

What do you think of Robert Patrick in The X-Files?

I think he's done a great job. I haven't seen many of his episodes of the show I don't even watch the ones I'm in. It seems that, with him, it's gotten back to a certain scary feel of the second year.

How did you do on Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and who was your phone-a-friend?

I got very high but fell back to $32,000. The question I feel down on was, "what movie has the last line, 'Be careful amongst those English?'" It was from Witness but I didn't know it. My phone-a-friend was my wife, Téa. She didn't help at all.

After playing the very serious Fox Mulder, were you anxious to exercise your comedy muscles in Evolution?

I think certain X-Files are comedies. I don't mind Mulder's straight face because, when I'm funny, that's the kind of funny I am. I'm not great with funny lines I think I'm better with funny feelings. People are always going to be surprised I'm funny 'til the day I die. It's just one of those things that happens to certain actors, that the first impression they make is the one they are constantly going to fight against.

In Empire's Public Access (March 2001) Minnie Driver said you are "the most English American". How was she to work with on Return To Me?

She is the most American Englishwoman I've ever met. I had a great time with Minnie. She is fearless. She's got a big mouth in a good way. She just forges ahead, which is really good to see. Minnie is great to work with because she's game. However you want to work, she'll work that way. She shows up prepared, in a good mood. She's real strong. Return To Me wasn't the easiest shoot. I said to her before we started that our characters should not wink at the audience, it was s simple fairy tale. That gave us a good bond to check into each other with.

Is it true that you are half Scottish?

It's true very vicious rumour, but true. I was back there for the Scottish premier of Return To Me. I brought my mother, she sat next to Prince Charles in Edinburgh. It was a really good evening. Growing up, my mother identified herself as Scottish through and through, It didn't mean reading me stories about Bonnie Prince Charlie, but there was a difference in outlook. She's never considered herself an American at all. She lived there for over 40 years, but she doesn't like Americans. I used to tell her, "Your children are foreigners," because she didn't get us. We grew up in New York, we couldn't help it. What springs to mind when I mention Working Girl?

I just really enjoyed being on a movie set. I had never really been on a movie set before. I was just glad to be working and hoping that they weren't going to cut me out of the movie. And it was great to work with a director (Mike Nichols) I really respected. It was fun.

Garry Shandling must have had a million star guests on his Larry Sanders Show, but everyone remembers you. Were you confident playing with your public image?

It kind of grew out of our friendship. I had been on the show already as a guest. I told the writers I wanted to be as objectionable as possible. Garry kept telling me, "People are going to think this is you, that you really are a jerk." But I just said, "Who cares?" We just thought it would be great if I had a crush on him but be totally straight. He would go, "That's weird, that's funny." I can't explain it. I'm not saying it was something where you go, "Hey, that's hilarious," but the strangeness of it worked really well.

I read that at Yale you started writing a PhD dissertation on 'Magic Technology In Contemporary American Fiction And Poetry' Why didn't you finish it?

It's fair to say that rather than not finish it, it was never started. It got lost in the shuffle when I went to New York to start acting. It's bizarre. Academia has one depth, but acting has another. It's less cerebral but far more spiritual.

Hi David! What is the current state of play with The X-Files movie sequel?

There are no plans as far as I know. I don't have a script. I haven't been asked to do it. But I imagine there will be one at some point. I don't know when.

You played basketball in college. How good were you?

The older I get, the better I was. I always had fun playing basketball, baseball, tennis, anything. I was good at ball sports. I wasn't particularly fast of strong, but I had good hand-to-eye co-ordination.

During the early days of The X-Files, you were barely out of the tabloids. How did you view that experience?

On the one hand, I agree: we are people who don't deserve the kind of scrutiny that we get. And we don't have that much to say, so to take us famous people down it right. It's a good point, but there's general mocking tone that is counter-productive to good work. The level of discourse is high school, it's no fun. The pleasure that these magazines now display in seeing people fallIt's really great reading, to be honest. But it hurts individuals.

Did you want to work on Evolution because you're a fan of Ghostbusters?

I think Ghostbusters us a classic of its kind, the first comedy blockbuster. Evolution is very much in that vein.

What were your most vivid memories of playing a transvestite FBI Agent, Dennis/Denise Bryson, for David Lynch on Twin Peaks?

I didn't get to work with David Lynch, unfortunately, because I was on the show in the second season. I didn't get to meet him until the wrap party. I loved creating that character. I was only on it for a few days, shaving my legs, surrounded by the strangeness I wish I could do something like that again.

Is it true that you tried out for Batman?

No, no it's not true. Unless you mean when I was seven years old!

Who or what is your favourite Muppet? Cheers!

(laughs) I'd have to say Elmo. Is Elmo a Muppet? (Empire says he'll do.) I'll go with Elmo, then. My daughter loves him. (dryly!) Elmo sometimes seems to be the only person who is listening to her so I appreciate it. I do think he is Grover. He's just a red version of Grover. There is a story to be told there. It must be something contractual.

You directed some of my favourite episodes of The X-Files, The Unnatural and Hollywood AD. Do you have plans to direct any movies?

I would only direct what I write. I would not direct anything that's someone else's screenplay! Directing was completely nerve-wracking. I woke up one, morning and I just said, "I can't do this." It was about a month before and I said, "I don't know what I'm doing I quit." The thing about directing is that before you direct and when you are in prep, you're trying to contain the whole story in your head. You're trying to have every shot you're going to do in your head at one time, so your head feels the size of a beach ball as you're walking around. The great thing about directing for television is that it takes two, maybe three, months to finish. If I was going to tackle directing a feature film, I'd have to be sure, even more sure than I am as an actor, of the material.

Were you wary of working with aliens again in Evolution?

Obliviously if I had my way it would have no aliens in it. But I really anted to work with Ivan (Reitman, the director) on a big Hollywood blockbuster. There is obviously no rhyme or reason to the way I decide projects. People are always going to see Mulder in what I do because we look pretty similar. And,, unless I take a balloon filled with helium everywhere, I'm going to sound like him too.

One of your best roles, in my opinion, was serial killer obsessive Brian Kessler in Kalifornia. Any plans to play sinister role like that again in the future, and are bad guys more fun?

Again, I take roles as they come. I'm not actively looking to play a bad guy, although those parts are often a lot more interesting for the actor. It's like being a superhero. Mot of us aren't psychopaths, so to act that out is generally a lot of fun. Kalifornia was the first leading role I ever had, working with brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis and Michelle Forbes. Michelle and I were excited because we knew that people would see the movie because of Juliette and Brad. Juliette was the really hot one. She was shockingly hot in Cape Fear. Brad and Michelle and I, we're good actors, but she was like a savant or something. It was weird to watch. Like anything you do early in your career, it was like a nostalgic time and I look back on it like I would look back on college.

How much fun was it doing The Simpson? The Springfield Files is a classic episode.

It was a lotta fun to do. It's like going on Saturday Night Live or being on the cover of Rolling Stone. It's just great to be a part of an American institution.

As an amateur insomniac, I often catch The Red Show Diaries on late night TV. Do you still make money from syndication and are your worried that this show will haunt you forever?

I am not haunted by it all I am always being asked about that show. People forget I was only actually in one episode, in the rest I was the narrator. Zalman (King, the creator) gave me a lot of confidence. He told me to be still and trust that even in stillness, something is going on. If the story is told well enough and I'm doing my work well enough, even doing nothing is going to work. And no, I don't make much money from syndication because the syndication fees in cable are terrible.

Are you aware that you are the spitting image of Southampton's Romanian defender, Dan Petrescu?

(laughs) Uh, no, I'm not. Dan, if you're reading this, maybe you want to come and take my place on The X-Files? That would be fineBut he would have to take a pay cut right? Because footballers make a lot of money.