He doesn't amble. He doesn't stroll. He doesn't merely walk. Instead, David Duchovny saunters, a relaxed but assertive gait that typifies his sardonic but playful personality--as well as that of FBI Agent Fox Mulder, whom he portrays on both the TV series The X-Files and the X-Files movie, due in theaters this June.

Between takes, Duchovny saunters over to chat. Dressed in his ubiquitous FBI attire, he seems very much like Mulder. Both are deadpan, a little sarcastic, but where Mulder is driven, and mildly neurotic, Duchovny is coolly friendly and comfortable being himself.

Jack Nicholson, he has been told, says that every role an actor plays is 80 percent that actor and 20 percent art. "That's true for a certain type of actor," Duchovny says. "I'm not saying they're better or worse, but Nicholson is definitely 80/20, or so it seems to me; he sounds like he's being honest. I would say I'm probably more like that type, but that isn't true for every actor, I think there are some who really change drastically."

After five years of The X-Files, he's now playing Mulder on the big screen, but he points out, "There's not much difference for the actor. The biggest differences are in the camera and the technical areas. He's the same character I've been playing for awhile. I don't want to change the character; he's what I wish him to be, so there's no opening up that I want to do. I guess in a movie you can say 'f---k' and 'shit,' but that's about it. Most people do think of that as opening up a character, unfortunately."

Duchovny is thoughtful and intelligent one might even say he's a genuine intellectual, but he doesn't try to flaunt his knowledge. It's simply part of who he is. Born and raised in New York to a Scottish mother and Jewish father, he's a definite product of his mixed heritage. "You get kind of that Protestant work ethic," he says, "combined with Jewish guilt and introspection. So you become someone who can go out and do a lot of stuff and change the world, except you're too busy being depressed sitting and thinking about it."

X-troverted Student

Hoping to become a writer, possibly for films and television, Duchovny went to some of the best prep schools on the East Coast, as well as attending Princeton University, where he describes himself as being "a tight-assed king of students." Later, he moved on to Yale, where he worked as a student teacher and headed for a Ph.D. in English literature. In fact, his degree is only a dissertation (titled "Magic and Technology in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry") away.

While at Yale, Duchovny became interested in the drama department and began acting in a few plays, feeling that this might help him as a potential dramatist. At first, his training in English literature actually hampered him as an actor, "It was odd when I first tried to become an actor," he told Tom Snyder in a TV interview. "I was at a disadvantage, because of the many layers of analytical or critical thinking that I had to throw away. All these muscles that I developed were devalued and actually made me a more boring actor more than anything else."

But he was fascinated by the idea that acting enabled him "to have an emotional life for the first time. It was great. I could scream, yell and cry on stage without consequences. I could have a full life; nobody would arrest or leave me for [behaving] like that."

He won some roles in off-Broadway productions as well as landing a few TV commercials. When he realized he was earning twice as much for a commercial as he was being a teaching assistant, he was finally pushed over the line for good. He moved to Los Angeles, and eventually began getting roles in theatrical films. He had a bit role in Working Girl (1988), appeared in movies as different as New Year's Day, Bad Influence, and Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead. He played silent film cinematographer Rollie Totheroh in the big-budget Chaplin (1992), and ill-fated Officer Tippet in Ruby (1992). His most prominent movie roles came in Beethoven (1992), while on television, he gained a certain amount of fame for playing a transvestite FBI agent in Twin Peaks and the host of the soft-core sex series Red Shoe Diaries.

When he was cast as Agent Fox Mulder, he though The X-Files might run only 12 episodes. He was wrong. Now, he is co-starring in a big-budget movie, still playing Fox Mulder. He's sticking to the character as developed on the series, too. In fact, he says, "I don't believe in character growth. I think your character comes up to these different challanges, different quests. But unless you have a terrible circumstance, it's really hard to change someone's character. I like to think Mulder could exist in any medium; he could do a commercial, he could do a play, he could do a TV show, he could do--and is doing--a movie. He stays the same guy, and I think to try to strategize what a movie audience or whatever, is the worst kind of artistic approach you could have."

X-treme Character

The style of The X-Files has been described as "minimalist," and that fits Duchovny's own acting style as well--but never mistake minimalist acting for no acting. Over the run of the show, Duchovny has refined and focused his approach to Mulder--a faint smile coming from this repressed guy means as much as handsprings would from another character. Mulder (but not Duchovny) has learned to hold things back; as the show began, we saw that he was all too aware that his fellow agents called him "Spooky" Mulder--and that in a perverse way, he was proud of the label. But he's still emotionally damaged from events in the past, still reluctant to commit himself. When we see this essentially inexpressive man consumed with guilt and fear, as he was in the three-part episode that joined the end of the fourth season with the beginning of the fifth, it's disturbing--and we're more drawn to Mulder because of it.

Mulder is almost always appealing. In fact, Duchovny says, "If I'm proud of anything about the show, it's that if you put Mulder's statistics down on paper, his win-lose record is horrible, and yet you don't feel that way about him. I'm really proud of the fact that Mulder loses across the board and still; remains a powerful person."

As for the question of whether the X-Files movie is a giant TV episode or not, Duchovny replies blithely. "I'm sure that Chris Carter or whoever is in charge of marketing the film would caution me against saying this, but in essence, I think that is just saying that the TV show is that good, not that the movie is not good enough. I am saying that there are things done by other people in this production that aren't done in the television show; the production is a movie production, it's that much bigger. But in terms of thought, in terms of character, in term's of story, it's the same, and worthy of being a movie.

He's not worried about linking the show and the TV series. The series itself varies in some ways. "Consistency," he maintains, "is not really a problem. Character is the consistency of the show, not the plot. You could separate out five or six different shows over the last four years, and they would seem completely at odds with one another. Some- times we do funny shows, sometimes we do soap opera shows, sometimes we do action shows, and the character changes in each of those shows to fit the demands of the script. There is a consistency to the individual show that you're doing, and you choose to bring up certain aspects of the character to meet that demand, but consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."

There's a little more action in the feature than in the series, but Duchovny sees the humor in that as well. "It's like the story about when they were shooting The Godfather, and the studio wanted to fire Al Pacino, saying, 'He doesn't do anything! So Francis Ford Coppola wrote in the scene where Michael shoots Sollozzo in the restaurant, and now the studio chiefs are saying, 'Yeah! He's good! That's good stuff, he's a good actor!'"

On the other hand, he admits, "I do have fight scenes. I like the fighting, but I like the fact that Mulder is not a superhero. However, for myself, I would love to get in there and do a scene where I look like I can really kick ass, and it is the biggest action-oriented film I've ever done. The tedium of getting that right is very difficult; you have to pace yourself a different way than on the TV show.

"I don't like doing 20 takes; I like doing--none, actually. But if I don't get it by three, then I'm in serious trouble. On the feature we do a lot more, so there's a lot more tension on the set. It's not like we don't work our asses off on the TV show, but we know it will come out and be gone in a week. Also, we can come back and get something if it's really terrible; we can reshoot it two weeks, three weeks from now. On the movie, there's a little over-your-shoulder looking, like we've got to get it right now or else we're going to look like fools. That's not the most conducive environment to artistic freedom, so you have to carve out your own way in that, push away the people who are trying to clench you.

"Working with Martin Landau [in the film] was great. Now there's a guy, I don't know how old he is, but he has been around a while. It has been a really hard schedule because we've been working six days a week; at that point [when Landau was shooting], we were working nights, so it was six nights a week. It was just horrendous. On the sixth day, we shot so late we had to tent the alleyway to keep the daylight out. I was so tired I couldn't think, and Rob [Bowman, director] was tired too. MArtin had a hard time with the scene, because there were so many words, but he had so much pride; it was sheer will that got him through that scene. And to see somebody who has an Academy Award, somebody who has nothing left to prove, keep working at it until it was somewhere, that was most inspirational."

When he's asked what keeps him going, Duchovny first says, "The money," then goes on toe say, "Pride, really. When it becomes less creatively new, which it can't [help but] be after four years--not uninteresting, but less creatively new, it becomes pride in doing your job well. And having said you would show up and do the movie and do the best that you could, and having said that you would show up and do your five [years]. Aside from all this bullshit about art and all that stuff, really all you have at the end of the day is--did you keep your promises? Did you have integrity? And did you show up on time and do your work?"

While he's very much aware of the huge fan following The X-Files has accrued over the last four years, Duchovny has to admit, "Honestly, I don't feel I owe anything to the fans. Baloney. It's a personal commitment, and they are the recipients of that. When I'm going to work and I'm tired, I don't think. 'The kids! The kids need me today! The kids need Mulder! Goddammit, the kids need him!'" Duchovny exclaims, pounding on the table. "It's not like that," he says leaning back again. "I will keep my commitment, and I will try to have fun and do the best I can do. That is a commitment to the fans indirectly, but I don't see that as the [foundation]."

X-hausted Actor

There were reports that the fifth year would be the last for the X-Files series, and that Duchovny was burned out. He candidly admits that rumor had a bit of truth to it. "It's a matter of four years of doing that kind of schedule, being away from home, doing the same character, working with the same folks and the like. It's just natural; it's not a reflection on anybody that I work with, and I don't believe it's a refection on me, or on a commitment to the quality of the show. That's just bellyaching when it comes time to work; you've got to work just as hard, even when creatively after a while, it's a dead end."

Nonetheless, the announcement is official--Duchovny and Anderson will return for two more seasons. Shooting of the series may relocate to LA from Vancouver.

If Duchovny were ever to exit The X-Files, he wouldn't want anyone else to play "Spooky" Mulder. "I love the character and I love the show, which is why it's a kind of misrepresentation when they say I'm burned out. I am, but it's not because I don't like the character of the show. You just have to find different reasons to go on.

"I can give you reasons for every year of the show. The first year, it was survival, seriously, just physical survival. It was like a marathon; I had never worked that kind of schedule--I don't think anybody should. I don't think it's conducive to creativity.

"The second season was also about survival. No, the second season was about getting some enjoyment out of the work, knowing that I could survive. The only way I can explain it is--if you've ever gone for a run, the road back seems half as long for some reason. The first season was like the road out; it was definitely long. The second was like running back.

"The third year was about doing the best work that we could; the third and fourth year are together in that. In the fifth year, I think I'm going to have somebody drive me along the road." David Duchovny's fondness for Mulder makes him slightly--but only slightly--defensive about a suggestion that the FBI agent is a fruitcake. "If you didn't have the perspective of the show, which always proves him to be basically right, you would have to say that he was nuts. But if you have the perspective of watching what the audience gets to see, then you would have to say that he's the only one who's not nuts. As somebody who tries to make it real, I can't believe that he's nuts. Everybody is entitled to their own reality, and they each think that they're doing the best think that they can. And Mulder is doing the best that he can."

Warren, Bill. May 1998. "Man In the Shadows." Starlog Magazine.