From TV Guide Magazine, April
16, 1999
David's New World
by Mark Nollinger
Enigmatic X-Filer David Duchovny leads us on an adventure into his personal
space.
Sitting outside The X-Files soundstage on a chilly Los Angeles afternoon,
David Duchovny seems distracted. In his sixth season of playing alien-hunting
FBI agent Fox Mulder, the actor is about to move behind the cameras for an
episode that will mark his debut as both writer and director, and a conversation
with him is repeatedly interrupted by crew members looking for preproduction
guidance. Truth be told, at this point—two weeks before he is to start
shooting—the rookie director barely has a clue himself.
"I don’t know the work I have to do to prepare, or what questions to
ask," Duchovny confesses, amused more than bewildered. "I’m confident
in the script, but I have no idea what kind of director I’ll be. What
if it’s a disaster? I’ll say, ‘Hold the presses! Don’t
allow that issue of TV Guide to come out!’" Boyishly handsome
in beige cords, navy-blue polo shirt, and Nikes, Duchovny, 38, seems quite
content with his life. And why shouldn’t he be? In addition to writing
and directing the X-Files episode (Fox, Sunday, April 25, 9 pm/ET),
there was the success of last summer’s "X-Files" movie, which earned
$187 million worldwide. Offscreen, in a move Duchovny had been urging since
his 1997 marriage to actress Téa Leoni (The Naked Truth, Deep
Impact), The X-Files departed Vancouver after last season and
relocated to Los Angeles. And he’s now happily anticipating his biggest
role to date: fatherhood. Leoni, 33, is due to give birth to their first
child any day.
"When Téa first got pregnant, I was like, ‘Thank God it’s
nine months—I can prepare,’" Duchovny says, smiling. "Now I’m
like, ‘OK, let’s go—let’s get it on!’" He pauses.
"I mean, I’m not ready. But I’m ready." Duchovny knows that fatherhood
is going to require him to do a lot of learning on the job. The biggest
challenge?
"I think relaxing into parenthood is the toughest thing," he says. "Overcoming
fear [about] keeping the child safe and living with the constant anxiety.
‘Is the baby OK? Is it eating pennies? Is it going to fall in the swimming
pool?’ So it seems like you need 24-hour vigilance, and obviously
that’s not the case."
Duchovny imagines he’s going to have to deal with his own limitations.
"One of the scary things is that, when you’re a kid, you look at your
dad as the man who has no fear," says the actor, whose own parents—mother
Margaret, a retired schoolteacher, and father Amram, a playwright and
publicist—divorced when he was 11. "When you’re an adult, you realize
your father had fear, and that you have it, too."
Those who know Duchovny figure he will rise to the challenge of fatherhood.
X-Files costar Gillian Anderson believes the "huge shifts" in
Duchovny’s life have had a big impact on him. "He’s grounded
considerably," Anderson observes. "In his whole demeanor, he seems more settled,
satisfied. That affects how he is in the world, and how he is with people."
Others agree. "Happier than ever," is how Duchovny’s pal Garry Shandling
describes him. "I think he’s stimulated by changes in his life, even
though they can be scary."
For his part, Duchovny, who resides in Malibu in a house the couple purchased
shortly after their wedding, is relishing a newfound sense of normalcy: "Living
in Los Angeles with Téa helps so much. As lovely as Vancouver is,
it wasn’t home, and my wife didn’t live there," which made working
on The X-Files so demanding that "it felt like a military maneuver."
Now, he says, "it just feels like a job. I get up and go to work in the morning,
and I come home at night. It’s so much easier for me to shoot here."
(Despite feeling this way, Duchovny says he’s ready to leave The
X-Files when his contract expires at the end of next season.)
With Leoni and Duchovny celebrating their second anniversary next month,
the actor says he appreciates the context that marriage has added to the
relationship: "You can relax a bit. You’re not sprinting anymore;
you’re in the marathon. You change your pace a little. And it’s
more comfortable to run a marathon, at least in the beginning."
Professionally, Duchovny remains at full speed. At the TV Guide Awards in
February, Duchovny took a trio of honors: Favorite Actor in a Drama, Sexiest
Male ("I lobbied hard for that one," he deadpans) and Best-Dressed Male.
He also picked up an American Comedy Award recently for his guest spot on
the final episode of HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show, in which he
flashed Shandling while wearing nothing but a robe.
The bit grew out of a visit Shandling paid Duchovny and Leoni at their hotel
following last year’s Golden Globes. "Téa and I were just hanging
out in these big white robes, and Garry dropped by," says Duchovny.
Shandling and Duchovny have been friends for several years. "He’s really
a loyal, caring person," says Duchovny, who plays basketball at Shandling’s
house. Does Shandling have game? "Well, I’ll say that he does, because
he’s very sensitive," Duchovny jokes. Says Shandling of their friendship:
"We talk about life, and creative struggles, and we usually end up laughing
about it. He’s, uh, like a sister to me." Shandling has no doubts about
Duchovny’s directorial debut. "David’s a natural-born director,"
he says. "In fact, I think when his wife gives birth, he’ll probably
be standing there saying, ‘This is fantastic! Let’s try one
more.’"
A natural-born director Duchovny may be, but in his debut behind the camera,
he had to write the script first. Titled "The Unnatural," Duchovny’s
story is told primarily in flashback and features retired FBI agent Arthur
Dales (played by Darren McGavin in the present and Fred Lane in the past).
The script revolves around a baseball-loving alien in 1947. Duchovny’s
inspiration came after reading a story about Joe Bauman, a New Mexico minor
leaguer who set a record in 1954 by hitting 72 home runs but never made it
to the majors. Bauman’s team was the Roswell Rockets. "I thought,
‘Roswell, that’s weird,’" recalls Duchovny, alluding to the
New Mexico town’s notoriety as the site of a reputed—and
disputed—1947 UFO crash. "What if he [the slugger] was an alien?" Duchovny
set his story in the old Negro Leagues and made race a subtext. After he
wrote it, he says, "I thought if I can write one, I might as well direct
it."
Chris Carter, creator and executive producer of The X-Files, concurs:
"David wrote a great script, and it’s always better when you direct
your own script if you’ve got the ability and the desire."
Which is why Duchovny, two weeks after expressing his initial apprehension
outside The X-Files soundstage, finds himself in a stadium in Ontario,
east of Los Angeles, directing a crowd in the stands. "Watching the game,"
he blares through a microphone. "Action! There’s that home run! It’s
gone!" The crowd erupts in cheers. The director is satisfied. "Cut it!" He
appears surprisingly loose for only his third day in charge. In fact, he
is nervous about running out of natural light. "We were cruising, but now
we’re behind," he explains. "When you’re an actor, the day takes
forever. When you’re a director, it takes one second."
The pressure builds during the next shot, an exchange between guest stars
Jesse L. Martin (Ally McBeal) and Lane. The amplified bell of an ice-cream
truck ruins several takes, and Duchovny flings down his headset in disgust.
"What else can go wrong?" he mutters. Luckily, the next take is perfect.
Though Duchovny is currently consumed by the task of directing, his future
remains in front of the camera—at least for the time being.
This spring he begins filming the feature "Return to Me," a romantic comedy
about a widower who falls for a waitress (Minnie Driver) who has received
his dead wife’s transplanted heart. And a second "X-Files" movie is
tentatively scheduled to be shot the summer following the series’ farewell
next season. But when Duchovny is asked where he thinks he will be 10 years
from now, the answer has nothing to do with acting or directing.
"I’ll be playing a game of catch with my son," he says, smiling, then
quickly adds: "Or my daughter—she can play sports, too." He pauses and
looks off. "That’s what I’ll be doing—playing a game of catch."
For David Duchovny, the truth isn’t so far out there after all.
Mark Nollinger is a Los Angeles–based freelance writer.
Direct Response
Whenever David Duchovny needed advice on his X-Files debut behind the camera,
the voices of experience were right at hand: veterans Rob Bowman (30 episodes)
and Kim Manners (31 episodes) have directed nearly half of the shows to date.
"The X-Files" is a very physically demanding show-it takes tremendous
concentration," says Manners, 48. "It's all-consuming," adds Bowman, 38,
who also directed last summer's succesful "X-Files" movie. "Each episode
is so different from the last and requires far more storytelling than most
other television shows," he says.
"They are as responsible for the success of the show as any of us," Duchovny
says. So how come their names aren't household words? "It's the nature of
television," Bowman says. TV "perceived as a writer's and producer's medium.
The director somehow gets lost." Says Manners: "This is Chris [Carter's]
show, and David and Gillian are the stars. But my grandkids will know what
I did." Still, Duchovny thinks it's a shame. "TV directors just aren't sexy
for soem reason," he says. "Although, you know, Rob and Kim are very sexy
in my eyes."
