Keely Shaye Smith: While we're on the subject, you shoot in Canada,
don't you? You're up in Canada quite a bit and Téa is here. Is that hard?
David Duchovny: Um, yeah, I mean I'd rather be with her everyday,
you know. But that's something that we'll do for one more year and then either
we'll shoot the show in LA or we won't shoot the show anymore and I will
be with her everyday, so we're just looking at one year really.
Keely: Makes the reunions great though, doesn't it?
David: It does, it does and the great thing is that there's no like
drama about it. It's like I don't feel like I have to get back to LA because
something horrible is gonna happen, it's just very steady and it's all good.
Keely: Speaking of good, I saw your movie. It's great, it's a wild
ride, very adventurous. Did you have fun making it?
David: Yeah, like I said, It was because it was not the X-files, like,
it was like being, it was like having another job, it was like getting to
go to another country and work rather than working in your own country so,
with a whole new crew and new director and new DP and new character, so it
was just really rejuvenating to do something else after three and a half
years of doing the X-files, so it was great.
Keely: Your choices of films are really interesting, I saw
Kalifornia a few years ago and it's almost like a renegade kind of
independent film as opposed to, you know, the X-files where you play this
confident, very sure character.
Keely: Well, in terms ofmaking a choice of what kind of movie I wanted
to do was, you know, there can't be anything more mainstream than the X-files
really so, I didn't feel like, I don't feel like I have to go out there and
be in a Batman movie or a Men in Black movie or whatever because
I feel like I'm doing this thing that is so popular and so accepted, why
not do what I want to do and let the career take care of itself.
Keely: Do people tell you you have a great voice?
David: No, they used to tell me that I had a monotone. So, I used
to think, I used to think I really wished that my voice was different and
then when I sing people never say I have a great voice so, but I've been
told that I put people to sleep and I think that's a good thing. I think
people like to be put to sleep.
Keely: I think maybe it's relaxing. I don't know, it's intriguing.
It's got a great sense of wry intellect and it makes you pay attention, certainly
in this tone. I like the narration very much. Tim Hutton's character,
so dark, but funny. What a surprise, was it great working with him?
David: Yeah, Tim has a great sense of humor which I don't know
if people know from his work because at least in the beginning of his career,
he could really be sincere and vulnerable and not necessarily acerbic and
nasty which is what is in this film, so I think it's a great role for Tim
and he's got great clothes you know.
Keely: I thought that too. I like the white outfit.
David: The white outfit, yeah, the diapers, it was almost like a baby
outfit wasn't it?
Keely: The lace up. You're chemistry with your leading lady was wonderful,
I thought and she was a great surprise.
David: We had a great time. She's in that Rolling Stones video
now you know.
Keely: I haven't seen it. I saw their concerts.
David: She'sgot her head shaved basically. It's like short crew cut,
black hair and she's a stripper and she's walking along the streets of New
York with a fur coat on and it's obvious they didn't block off the street,
you know and it's just, I applaud her nerve for walking down the New York
street naked. I don't care if Mick Jagger was around or not, you know
so. Yeah, Angelina was great. We were looking to cast that role to
almost the last day and we'd seen a lot of people and there are a lot of
good actresses and they came in and Angelina came in and she looked
like hell. I mean she wore a raincoat and it's like her hair was dirty and
we all kind of looked at each other and we're like, she obviously doesn't
give a damn about the movie or anything and then she read, she left and I
was just like well, it's got to be her. And it was also very encouraging
to watch somebody win a role with an audition rather than an offer to somebody
who's famous or well known and it was really kind of reaffirming of what
it is I do and what it is we do that somebody can actually walk into a room
and get a job because they were good rather than because of who they were.
Keely: Where would you be if you weren't an actor because you've got
such an interesting background and such an intellectual background.
David: I'd like to think I'd be on the Knicks, but I doubt it, you
know. I wish that I was on the Knicks. I might be able to be on the Grizzlies,
Vancouver has a really bad basketball team, So. don't know, I'd be writing,
teaching, maybe, It's so hard to say what you would be doing. It takes so
much time and effort to do the thing that you do do.
Keely: You think you would have been a good doctor?
David:Yeah, I don't know about surgeon, I might have been a good surgeon,
but I think I might have been a good family doctor. I think I can get along
well with folks, you know.
Keely: I read that you watched a few surgeries to prepare for this
role for your research. If I did that, I'd probably pass out. Was it hard?
David: But you had a baby, so you're much tougher than I could ever
be, you know. The hardest thing I think about the surgeries was the color
of the skin of the people. They looked already dead and then they were kind
of a greenish, you know they keep everything cold in operating rooms and
people are anesthetized and their heartbeats are very slow so the skin takes
on this corpse like color and it's all very kind of scary. You just immediately
put yourself in the position of that person who is not going through the
pain because they're unconscious, but you kind of feel, my god, they're cutting,
like just ripping you open. It's kind of sad.
Keely: Well you looked like you new what you were doing in the movie.
David: Well, that's the fun part. That's what your there to find out
and the cool thing is is when your playing a doctor in a movie, you get real
nurses to help you, so and they just tell you what to do. I mean if you're
screwing up, you know, I'll just say well, how would I hold that thing and
I think my initial reaction to operations was, you know, I was being gentle
because first of all, I'm sticking my hand inside someone's body, and I'm
cracking their ribs or I'm , you know, dealing with a vital organ. So I would
kind of you know, move my hands like this and the nurses say, you know it's
like this is a car, these guys know what they're doing, you know you're strong
about it and you know you're not gonna hurt it. You know what your doing
and that was, that was a great thing to learn from the nurses. Kind of a
great thing to learn.
Keely: That's right, they say that the people who get special treatment
usually don't fare as well as the people that they just treat like everybody
else in and out. You're lucky you didn't need a doctor after your car chase
sequence, that was a really good, as Tim Hutton said, "We spent a
a lot of money preparing for this".
David: The car chase, yeah, but the scariest part was when we're driving
the two old Porsa's in the desert and Tim, we had no stunt people
for that one and Tim is a nut and so basically it was we were supposed
to be playing kinda chicken with the car and Tim, it was all me to
get out of the way and Tim was like really turning his wheel into
me. He's crazy, you know that was the scariest part. The other part was you
know those were all stunt guys driving you know and then I get in there and
go (makes a scary face).
Keely: Do you like to do your own stunts?
David: Yeah, within reason. As I'm sure you know, it's fun to do your
own, but it's not fun to break your legs, so you have to listen to people.
I mean there's like certain macho quality where you want to do it and if
you enjoy sports or you enjoy challenges, you want to want to do it. There's
also a certain kind of proud quality where you know I want to do it because
it's my face and If you can see me, it's better than seeing the back of somebody
who's got his haircut like me. And then there's the point where you go, Okay,
I don't know how to do this, jumping onto this train, there's a guy who gets
paid to do that so let's let him do that now.
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