From TV Times (UK), October 17, 1998

Why I'll Never be X-Tremely Happy
by Gill Pringle

He's got a wife he loves, a baby on the way, sex symbol status and a large
cheque for a new X Files film, but David Duchovny is a very worried man

Scrutinising his reflection in a mirror, David Duchovny points to a patch of skin on his chin. "Look! There it is!" Though he may appear to be one of the most laid back actors on TV, David argues that inside he's a nervous wreck. "Here's my alopecia from stress," he says, indicating a spot where facial hair refuses to grow.

After five seasons of filming the X-Files in rainy Vancouver, David is filming the sixth season of the hit series in sunny LA. This means he can be closer to his wife of 18 months, Téa Leoni, 33, who's currently carving out her own Hollywood career after her success in Deep Impact - and who's recently confirmed that she and David are expecting their first child, due next spring.

Close proximity to his pregnant wife may help David cope with the pressure he feels as the idol of more than 100 million X-Files fans around the world. "I've always been overly concerned about what people think which has resulted in a lot of inner turmoil," he admits, "I try not to give a damn but inside I'm a huge ball of worry"

The 38 year old star uses yoga and a vegetarian diet to help relieve stress, but adds, "I'm just one of those people who can never be totally happy. No matter how much I love my wife, there's still this tiny part of me that refuses to be completely happy."

I believe that happiness is pre-determined -- you're either one of those people who looks on the bright side, or you're not. I have this wonderful career, but even so, I'm still frightened by the possibilities of my own lack of talent, I'm frightened of death, I'm frightened of ending up with no money, I'm frightened of ending up old and unloved and alone. I'm frightened of being an unfeeling person, I'm frightened of.....is that enough?

"It doesn't seem right to me to be married to a beautiful, sexy, intelligent woman and still feel this pocket of sorrow," he admits. "Believe me, Téa is the best thing that ever happened to me, and we're both over the moon about the baby, I think I'll make a good father," he adds. And fatherhood it seems, is something he has been preparing for, as his $2.9 million house in Malibu, with its pool, gardens and private stairway to the beach comes complete with a nursery.

David's marriage has helped quash his reputation as a lothario - he previously dated actresses Maggie Wheeler (Janice on Friends), Perry Reeves (she appeared on a vampire episode of X-Files), Winona Ryder, Melrose Places's Kristen Davis, X-Files guest star Dana Wheeler Nicholson and pop singer Lisa Loeb.

He still denies allegations that he was once a sex addict, attending meetings to try to control his cravings. "Just because you're an actor and you're seen with lots of women, you end up with these labels,' he says. "I was just having some fun and I don't think I hurt anyone in the process. I've always been attracted by intelligence and humour, although I'm also a sucker for a woman who likes to wear dresses."

As the X-Files' FBI Agent Fox Mulder, he's become a smouldering heartthrob. Pictures of him wearing nothing but a Téacup over his privates continue to sell for 10 dollars on the Internet. "Being a so called sex symbol is flattering to some extent, but it's something a bunch of people get together and decide. It has nothing to do with me he says.

His Scottish school teacher mother Meg, who divorced his Russian-Jewish father Amram in 1972, had lofty goals for her three children - David, his older brother, Danny and younger sister, Laurie.

Raised in Manhattan, David was so reserved that his brother enjoyed telling people he was retarded. In fact, he earned a scholarship to the same Manhattan prep school as John F Kennedy Jr. before graduating from Princeton and Yale with a BA and MA in English literature.

Today he reveals that his initial drive to succeed and subsequent desire to act were as a result of his parents' divorce when he was 11. "I hid my feelings during their divorce, becoming an overachiever in order to make everyone happy."

David was just a dissertation away from a Ph.D. when he quit Yale to peddle Lowenbrau beer in a cheesy commercial and bare his butt in low-budget erotic films. Since then he's taken on various quirky big screen and TV roles, including as transvestite drug enforcement agent in Twin Peals. It certainly hasn't hurt his career that he's six feet of telegenic sexiness - but David can't hide the disappointment that he feels that his small screen success has failed to transform him into a Hollywood leading man.

But all that might change now that he is signed for big screen romance. Return to Me, which begins shooting next spring. If Hollywood stardom fails to come his way, David hints he may, in later life, turn to politics, in the grand tradition of Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood and Glenda Jackson. "Public service....public entertainment.....it could happen."

He insists, however, he isn't ungrateful for his X-Files success - including recent spin off movie, Fight the Future - and admits he's more than happy with his $100,000-an-episode pay cheque. "I'm just tired of shaking the Cigarette Smoking Man and telling him to admit he slept with Mulder's mother."

While his off-screen friendship with co-star Gillian Anderson is a frequent source of gossip, he insists, "Gillian and I get along, but we have our moments. I think sometimes we all just go--Goddammit, I'd rather be anywhere else but here and I'm going to make you suffer for it!" But other times I'll look at her and think she's the only one that really knows what I am going though. So there's a real bond there. Besides, if we hated each other as much as we're meant to, then why would we agree to a movie sequel?" asks David, who recently signed for $5 million to make another X Files film in 2000.

"Gillian and I love to joke about who we'd recast for the big screen Mulder and Scully," he adds. "My favourites were always Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. Now I'm thinking Mathew Perry and Courteney Cox."

Pringle, Gill. October 17, 1998. "Why I'll Never be X-Tremely Happy." TV Times.