From Focus Magazine, July, 1998
Transcribed by Pamela on alt.fan.david-duchovny

'It'd be so easy to jump into bed.
What's so hard about having sex?'

What indeed? DAVID DUCHOVNY holds forth on Mulder's sanity,
Al Pacino's acting and J Edgar Hoover's taste in mascara.

An uncommon thread links the lives of David Duchovny and J Edgar Hoover: they're the most famous cross-dressers in the history of the FBI. Hoover used to turn up at Mafia parties wearing a black dress and mascara, demanding to be referred to as Mary. Duchovny played the transvestite detective Denis/Denise [sic] in David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS.

His mother rang after the show had aired to ask him if he was sure he was eating enough. Duchovny laughs at the memory. "I wanted to use that line in the first season of the show: 'This dates back to our first X-file, our illustrious cross-dressing founder' but they took out 'cross-dressing.'"

You wonder if these jokes aren't just Duchovny's way of reminding himself Agent Fox Mulder isn't who he is, that it's just his job. "At first I wanted to say: 'I'm smarter than Mulder,'" he reflects. "Then I realised how stupid that was and to give the fans what they wanted, which was Mulder."

Talking on the set of the biggest movie of his career, Duchovny is both optimistic and guarded. Asked if, 20 years from now, he'll be donning a corset and toupee for THE X-FILES V: THE WRATH OF SKINNER he says wistfully: "I'd like to think that my acting career would encompass something more than Fox Mulder."

DID YOU ALWAYS KNOW THE X-FILES WOULD BE A HIT?

No. My agent showed me the script. As it was about extraterrestrials I figured that it could last maybe five or six weeks.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST AMBITION?

To be a bathtub. I told my father that once, when I was surrounded by dinosaurs in the bath. I played one of the Magi in my school nativity play. After that, I wouldn't take any other parts. It was like: "I've given our Lord frankincense and you want to me to be a spear carrier?" [sic] Then I wanted to write, in academia, but I just noticed the acting students seemed to be having more fun.

WHAT ARE YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE TV SHOWS?

STAR TREK... I remember watching BENNY HILL and UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS a lot with my mum, when I was a kid.

DESCRIBE THE X-FILES

It is its own beast right now. It has the leg of a lion and the arm of a chimpanzee. It's one of those crazy beasts, but it doesn't look freaky.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN UFOS?

Once I was running along a beach in New Jersey. It was a Sunday morning and I looked up and saw what I thought was a plane. Looking up again, it seemed to be triangular.

SO WAS IT A UFO?

More like a Stealth bomber.

HAVE YOU HAD ANY TIPS FROM REAL FBI AGENTS?

Yeah, I met one of them one day and said: "What can I do better?" He said: "Don't ever reach for your ID with your gun hand." Which I thought was very smart.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE MOVIE

There are no monsters in it. It's more about the alien conspiracy, what they want, what their connection to the government is, that kind of thing. It's an action movie basically.

DON'T YOU EVER WISH CHRIS CARTER WOULD GET IT OVER WITH AND UNITE MULDER AND SCULLY?

It's so easy to jump into bed. That happens on every other show. What's so hard about having sex? It's the same thing as nudity -- big deal. It's better to have two people who are actually interested in each other beyond that. The easiest thing in the world is to be attracted to somebody. It's harder to actually live with them and work with them. I think that's more realistic.

HOW DO YOU THINK MULDER RELATES TO SCULLY?

He's attracted to her, but he doesn't want to have sex with her, although there's always a tension whenever there's another woman in the same room as them.

IS MULDER CRAZY?

Well, if the show didn't always prove him to be basically right, you would have to say he was but everyone's entitled to their own reality.

DO YOU EVER GET FRUSTRATED THAT MULDER DOESN'T HAVE MORE PHYSICAL ACTION?

No, I like the fact that he's not a superhero. It's like that story about THE GODFATHER where the studio wanted to cut Al Pacino because he doesn't do anything, so Coppolo wrote in this scene where he shoots a guy and they're like, "He's good, he's a good actor."

ARE YOU A SEX SYMBOL?

If you're on a show a lot of people are watching, you suddenly become sexy. It's interesting because the character I play in THE X-FILES is not interested in sex at all. Sex is not something that I try to portray or work on. I was kind of happy to play a character that didn't have women register at all on his radar. I take the energy that another character might have directed toward women and direct it toward UFOs.

DO YOU LIKE BEING A CELEBRITY?

It's a double-edged sword. Celebrity is good in that it will allow me to do the kind of work I want to do outside of THE X-FILES in terms of movies and things like that. But the other part is that in the precious little time you do have off, people want to make claims on you. Just little claims, like saying hi or shaking your hand. But if you multiply that by a hundred all of a sudden your day is messed up.

SOME COLUMNISTS THOUGHT YOUR PLEA TO SHOOT IN LA WAS A DISGUISED PITCH FOR MORE MONEY

It's not about money: it is simply that I married a woman who lives in Los Angeles and I'd like to see her when I come home from work. And it's not about getting out of the rain in Vancouver. If I wasn't married, I'd stay in Vancouver: it's beautiful, the people are friendly but they leave you alone.

NOW YOU'RE MARRIED, DO YOU WANT TO START A FAMILY?

Téa and I've decided that when and if we have kids we might give them Scottish names. But that's all I'll say on the matter.

TELL US ABOUT THE FIRST TIME YOU MET YOUR WIFE

We were being auditioned as guest for the TONIGHT show. Téa was brilliant, witty and charming, whereas I was quiet and just couldn't wait to get away. The researcher's notes probably read something like: "Téa's a warm, funny person who'd make a great guest. David Duchovny is a morose loser."

DO YOU KEEP DOING THE SHOW FOR THE FANS?

For the money (laughs). I can't conceptualise. If I'm having a bad day I can't go: "The kids, the kids need him." It's just I said I was going to be there and I will honour the commitment.

July, 1998. "It's be so easy to jump into bed." Focus.