From Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd., December 11, 1998

What's a Big Star like you doing in a Flop like this?
by Peter Morris

He's about to be a dad, but it seems that the X Files heart-
throb has already given birth .... to a box-office turkey

DAVID DUCHOVNY has tackled aliens, baddies and conspiracies in The X Files, but he reckons his toughest role is going to be parenthood. Others, less kind, are saying his biggest role will be recovering from his latest movie, Playing God.

The Hollywood star and his beautiful actress wife Téa Leoni are expecting their first child next year and David's more nervous about that than any criticisms about his performance as a drug addict doc.

Duchovny, whose mother is from Aberdeen, said: "I'm excited, obviously, but, at the same time, it's a frightening prospect when you haven't been through it before.

"Everybody tells me it'll change my life in so many ways, so let's say I'm apprehensive and excited just now. Maybe I'll give you a better answer next year, when the baby's here."

By that time, too, fans may have managed to get a copy of Playing God, which is proving as hard to track down as any Little Green Man.

The movie has arrived here without the fanfare that greeted Duchovny's big screen X Files appearance. That's possibly because Playing God flopped in the States TWO YEARS ago.

Even now, distribution is limited and it looks certain that the only way you will see it is in your local video store.

It would be understandable if Duchovny just wanted to forget all about playing Doctor Eugene Sands, a brilliant young surgeon stripped of his medical licence when he became a drug addict and lost one of his patients under the influence.

His life begins to spiral downwards until he saves a man's life in a bar where he's buying drugs.

This leads to him meeting the victim's "employer" - anarchic gangster Raymond Blossom, played by Oscar winner Timothy Hutton.

Blossom talks Eugene into becoming his personal surgeon - and the plot takes off from there, involving international counterfeiting, a "turf war", an FBI "sting" operation and, of course, a love triangle involving Angelina Jolie -Jon Voight's daughter.

Duchovny said: "I'd been playing the role of Mulder for three years and was getting all these film offers to play a cop or a CIA man which were all too similar.

"I got this script which contained a number of challenges for me. There was the opportunity to master looking like I could actually be a surgeon, there was the drug addiction - both the need to take drugs and to portray someone coming off them. Perhaps, most of all, it was a story that I hadn't really heard before which is quite unusual in Hollywood these days."

To prepare for the role Duchovny watched operations being done and actually practised a few techniques using pig bladders.

He said: "There are a lot of details about the way surgeons move and how they hold their hands up all the time. Those are the kind of things that give a character life and it gives me a physical key to the character.

"Emotions are different. I obviously don't know how it is to lose your licence to be a doctor because I'm not one - but I can imagine how I would feel if someone told me I couldn't act any more, by law. I'd be pretty despondent so you try and utilise what's inside yourself to portray the emotional highs and lows."

Having said that, Duchovny admits to not being entirely certain how or where his fellow cast members did their own research for the gangster roles but feels they, too, did a great job in what he says is definitely a film that reflects the state of crime in the '90s.

"This film features some of the funkiest gangsters you've ever set eyes on. In fact, the whole cast is very international. We've got a psychopathic English hitman, a Rasta enforcer, two surf- punk maniacs and they're up against the Chechnian and Estonian mafia with a sinister Chinese bad guy thrown in for good measure. It's a bit like the United Nations of crime in places but it's also a reasonably accurate portrayal of crime in a modern big city, particularly one like LA."

Duchovny reckons starring in Playing God -- budget dollars 12million -- does have advantages over the, effects-laden X-Files movie, budget dollars 65million. He said: "We have to put more emphasis on the characters rather than just blowing lots of things up and while a character- driven piece might mean the audience has to concentrate a little bit more I think they appreciate the efforts we make just as much."

Given all that and the fact that the film didn't break any box office records in the States, how would he sell the movie here?

He said: "Now there's a question. I don't know. I guess I'd have to say it's a really good story with a lot of twists and turns with flawed but redeemable characters who interact honestly with one another.

"I just think it's very unique - that's what makes it hard to describe. Mainly I think it is a story, a REAL story, not just a character piece. To answer your question "How would I sell it?" - the answer is I wouldn't. I'd just ask people to go and see it and make their own minds up - but I think we've got something worth seeing."

Copyright 1998 Times Newspapers Limited The Times (London)

Morris, Peter. December 11, 1998. "Title." Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd..