It has been said that David Duchovny has hinted, maybe even threatened, to leave TV's cult hit series The X-files. It is also been said that it is not the result of a dispute over money, or script content or Hollywood's most famous reason, 'creative differences,' rather TV's Fox Mulder has a very personal reason to express himself and his personal interests. It's a woman, the 'other' woman in his life that the public seldom sees with the actor.

For the past five-plus years, David and co-star Gillian Anderson have become two of TV's most recognizable faces. One can't think of one without thinking of the other. They are in simple words, Mulder and Scully, and the mere mention of those names brings instant recognition to most TV viewers.

"I think the characters are bonded in such a way that people are interested in watching them do what they do," David explains when asked about the relationship he shares with Gillian. "In terms of relationship, it's been a steady working relationship from the beginning.

"There is no such thing as anybody doing anything on the show alone.," he offers. "I don't do anything without Gillian and she doesn't do anything without me so it's really dealing with other people's perceptions and trying to stoke rivalries between us that really have no place in the relationship that we have."

Yet, as close as the two actors are , they don't always share their problems. "Not really," the 1997 Golden Globe Award winner for Best Actor in a Drama Series says. "I mean occassionally if the problems are pressing they come to work. Professionally you try and leave your problems at home, but sometimes they come to work because you can deal with them better with the people you work with."

"But I wouldn't say that I am a confidante of hers and she is not a confidante of mine," he insists. "We have a good working relationship, and if she needed help I'd definitely be there but I don't think I'd be the first person she'd come to." Nor would David go to the woman most prominent in the view of most in his life. Rather he turns to the woman with whom he seldom gets to live with: his wife , actress TPa Leoni."

"It [marriage] completely changes everything, I think," he says. "I mean I'm still susceptible to getting caught up in the madness of show-business from time to time, but its less pressing than it was. I mean, when you have somebody that you trust and somebody that you can tell your secrets to, it makes all the other things , not that they are superficial, but they kind of wash away at the end of the day."

"So I don't think it makes it easier to like pull away from the business, but I think it makes it easier to commit to it when you want to and when your done to just have your life," he explains, "I don't think I appear any different but it is completely different and it is the best thing, best work I ever did."

"He grins that Duchovny grin before laughing aloud when he's reminded of the quote he's often credited with making about his wife, that she always talked a lot!

"About five or six years ago," he says, "they were kind of interested in me to be a guest on The Tonight Show." The Tonight Show is a long running late night TV talk show that is a coveted credit by most Hollywood performers, be they actors, comedians or singers. Being on the show is indicative of someone 'making it' in Hollywood.

"When they are just 'kind of' interested, the producers interview you to see if you're charming or a funny storyteller, if you have anything on earth to say. It's kind of like the weirdest thing you can imagine. It's like, here I am as a person, am I interesting enough to sit on the velvet couch?"

"So we set up the lunch with the producers and to make this even worse, they invited somebody else to be interviewed at the same time. That was Téa. I didn't know her, I had never heard of her , and likewise me to her, and she proceeded to talk through the entire lunch, very charming, very funny, all those things, and I hated her because I didn't say anything."

"I couldn't get a word in, and afterward, whenever I heard her name I would say, 'she just doesn't shut up, that one.' Then , about a year ago, my agent called and said, you'll never guess who's sitting in my office? And I said who, and my agent said 'Téa Leoni', and I said, 'Oh, is she still talking?"

"At the same time," he continues, "Téa said, 'I think he doesn't like me for some reason.' Then, after it was like, "Is she single?' and the next step was I said, "I'd like to take her out to dinner."

"The agent let it be know to Téa that David wanted to take her out to dinner but a moth elapsed before phone numbers were eventually exchanged. By that time, however, Duchovny was back in Vancouver.

"I wasn't able to come in from Vancouver for three weeks so we actually started to talk on the phone," the one time college basketball player explains. "We talked for about three weeks before we really went out to dinner. After like two weeks I would actually look forward to coming home from work and talking to this person that I barely knew."

"So I knew that something was going on and then we went out to dinner and we've been together ever since. I mean, we had these three weeks. It became an intense personal conversation without physical contact so it was kind of scary to actually go out because we'd gone further, you know, talking to each other about each other on the phone than you would normally."

"Finally, I went down to LA and she picked me up at my hotel and we went to this restaurant and we were sitting there for about 10 minutes and she said, 'Look, nobody's looking. I want to kiss you right now.' And I said, 'what do you mean nobody's looking' and we kissed."

"It was like, lets get this kiss out of the way so we can stop thinking about that and so we kissed and then we relaxed a little more. We both grew up in New York, we both have similar experiences, it just seems that we've known each other for a very long time."

In reality they knew each other just a short time before getting married, and now as husband and wife, they want to be together.

"I was ready", he says without hesitation when asked about getting married to someone he'd known for just a short period of time." "I don't think that I knew that. It's like I was an accident waiting to happen, you know, in that way. I was ready, but I think also, I was old enough [36] and wise enough to know who wasn't right. I may have felt like I wanted to or that I was ready to get married, but I wouldn't have gotten married until that person came along.

"So I think that when I met her, I was ready completely. I mean, it was one of those moments in my life. It's one of the clearest moments in my life because I didn't agonize over it at all. It was just apparent to me that I wanted to marry this woman and that she wanted to marry me.

"So all the explaining was to my friends and family about, you know, why am I getting married after four months? I never had to explain it to myself and I never doubted it and I haven't had a day of doubting it."

He has no doubt that he will much prefer filming the series in Hollywood rather than Vancouver. So won't it be more expensive filming the show in Los Angeles?

"Yeah" Will he be taking a pay cut? "Absolutely not. I've been working abroad so to speak for five years now," he says simply, "and not necessarily by my choice, but because it saves [the studio] money. So now, you know, we're all making money. [The studio] continues to make money from the show and we'll continue to make money if we shoot it in California, or in New York or anywhere."

"So it's just a matter of making people happy and of making a work environment work for the people that are involved in the show. It's something that I need to do because we all have lives in Los Angeles. I think its legitimate to ask our employer to be concerned about that."

It's a candid observation from someone whose reputation is more often related to words such as subdued, low key, rather than an extroverted and opinionated actor. But it is important to him that he be a part of his wife's life rather than be apart from it.

"It's up to me to break out of that persona," he responds when quizzed about his personality trait. "I mean, getting back to my wife, I think when I look at the kind of work she does, which is very physical and energetic, I'm inspired by that, inspired to try something like that.

"It's really what a role demands, and whether or not I get a chance to take the chance to do that. It would be alien to my nature so in that sense I think it would be a good idea. And if people would say, 'Hey, what happened to the other guy?' I find that the more I do in this business, the less interest I have in what other people think about what I am doing."

"Which leads again to his marriage and his perception of how to make two careers work in an industry known for failed marriages because of two career conflicts.

"I can't answer that question until we are in that situation," he says. "I think the first thing would be, 'Is this like a once in a lifetime chance?' or for her, 'Is this something she has to do?'

"I know she respects what I do, and for me, I'm completely in awe of what she does/ I look forward to seeing her work. It would be great if I could sit at home and watch her make movies.

"But more than that, she's somebody, like a lot of people who are truly talented and sincere, the business is very hard for her because, I don't know, it just hasn't seemed that a project has come along that is commensurate with her talent. She gets despondent about it and talks about giving up and I tell her, I won't let her give up until she does a few things that are equal to her.

"I feel that it is my job to make sure she works long enough to do those things, and I think once she's involved with those kinds of projects, then, her outlook on the business will be brighter. As will mine."

And will there be a family?

"I just think of having a full, a real life," he says. "Not a public life, a private life. A full one, a profound private life."

Cummings, Jean. July 1998. "Past and Future." XPose Special #4.