Duchovny flees 'X-Files' success
By Larry Ratliff

HOLLYWOOD — Even casual fans of "The X-Files" know the look. David Duchovny, puppy dog eyes slightly squinted, is running, running, running.

But this can't be FBI Agent Fox "Spooky" Mulder. Not anymore. Although "The X-Files" will be back for a ninth season in the fall, Duchovny will not. The horrible thing Duchovny is fleeing these days is tremendous success as a TV star.

"It was enough for me," he said. "There was enough of me acting on 'The X-Files.' It wasn't that I thought the level of the shows had dropped or that I had no fan reaction. It was just my personal decision to say that I need to go out and do some other things.

"I'm just thankful that I'm trying to run away from a success rather than a failure because you've got to run away from both of them."

Now, here's the really spooky part. The popular actor with the dimpled chin and the deadpan delivery is still in hot pursuit of aliens in the sci-fi/monster comedy "Evolution," which opens Friday.

The man behind the madness is director Ivan Reitman, who gave huge career boosts to popular TV stars Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray with "Ghostbusters."

Now it's Duchovny's turn. Now he's no Bill Murray, but he has acted funny before. He played Brad, the meticulously groomed bad guy, in 1992's big-dog tale "Beethoven"; Reitman was executive producer.

"I hired him and he was funny. Then he got the 'X-Files' job and he didn't smile for eight years," Reitman said. Duchovny insists there are goofy moments in the 200 hours or so he spent as the usually somber alien chaser. You just have to look for them.

"Evolution," on the other hand, requires very little searching. Duchovny plays Dr. Ira Kane, a former government scientist who sank his career with an unfortunate scientific faux pas. Now he's hiding out as a teacher at an Arizona community college.

When a meteor containing un-earthly life forms plows up the desert dirt near town, Kane and his teacher-partner Harry (Orlando Jones) team up with a brilliant-but-bungling scientist portrayed by Julianne Moore. The desperate plan is to contain the deadly threat of quickly adapting alien life forms.

Moore, last seen handcuffed to Hannibal Lecter, had no problem believing that Duchovny could make a comedy work.

"I kind of always knew he was funny," Moore said. "I actually first met David when we were on 'The Tonight Show' together. I was enormously pregnant and shouldn't have been out of the house. It turned out that we had met before. He was the reader when I auditioned for 'The Flintstones.' It was a humiliating experience for both of us, I'm sure.

"I can remember when this happened. I wasn't surprised that he was doing something like this. You can hear it in his voice that he's funny."

Duchovny knows it will be hard.

"Because Mulder is such a deep impression, such a successful show and a culturally pervasive show — people refer to 'X-Files' all the time — that's just what I have to get out from under. I think for the rest of my life people are going to say, 'I didn't know you were funny.'"

One spontaneous moment in "Evolution" might change all that. Duchovny thought a long, dry scene with his nemesis, Gen. Woodman (Ted Levine), needed punching up, so as he and Jones drove away in a Jeep, he dropped his trousers and mooned the general.

Reitman didn't know if he was going to keep the scene, at first.

"At one of the early screenings he said, 'You know, people really get on board when you whip your (butt) out,'" Duchovny said. "I'm like, 'I'm happy to be of service.'"

Article courtesy of mysanantonio.com.