|
USA Today: The Truth About David
Duchovny
by Gillian Anderson (March 24, 2000)
Gillian interviews David. Hmmm. Simple idea. Why hasn't it
happened before? Friction? A conspiracy? USA WEEKEND sends the X-files
co-star on assignment.
"David Duchovny is standing outside his trailer on the Los Angeles
set of the X-files, waiting for his co-star, Gillian Anderson. 'She's
on the phone with Mike Wallace,' he says with a half smile (my addition
here ::sigh::) 'She's getting interview tips.' He's kidding. Anderson
hasn't contacted the 60 Minutes bulldog. But when she does show
up for her first-ever assignment as a journalist, she's exceedingly
well-prepared (me again: what a shock! :) She was 'thrilled' when
USA WEEKEND asked her to interview Duchovny and was flattered to
learn he'd suggested her for the job."
Sitting "Indian-style" beside Duchovny on a couch in his trailer,
Anderson consults eight pages of hand-written questions and leads
a frank, funny exchange that X-files fans will surely consider historic.
The actors touch so many bases (me again ::he he he::) : the rumors
that they despise each other; the reasons their "biggest fans" are
annoying; the final image viewers should have of their characters,
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, when their show ends its run. Anderson,
31, is especially curious about how Duchovny, 39, shook his persona
as the deadpan Mulder to play a charming romantic in the new movie
Return to Me, in theaters April 7.
4:03 p.m. Los Angeles
Anderson: Are you nervous about being interviewed by me?
Duchovny: I'm not nervous. I can't wait to see your questions:
"What's it like to work with Gillian Anderson? Are you two friends?
Do you hang out after work?"
Anderson: Well, first of all, I saw the movie.
Duchovny: That's very interviewerlike of you.
Anderson: I loved that there wasn't an ounce of Mulder in it.
What's scariest for you when you start a non X-files project?
Duchovny: It's such a reality at this point in my career that
{audiences} are you to look for Mulder. I can't fight it. It's so
hard -- all of a sudden you're trying to do something different. It's
hard to keep track of it, because so much is unconscious.
Anderson: God forbid you do a movie and they ask you to look
scared. You have to do a different version of looking scared.
Duchovny: And you're stuck with your face and body. (me again
::sigh::) If you're not in heavy makeup or doing an accent, there
will be similarities.
Anderson: What drew you to Return to Me?
Duchovny: I liked the old-fashioned quality of the movie. The
simpleness of the humor and characters couldn't be farther away from
the convoluted movements in The X-files. {He plays a widower who falls
for Minnie Driver, a transplant patient who receives his late wife's
heart.}
Anderson: Did it jar you to act out a romance where you actually
do go to the next level?
Duchovny: I remember the work I did before The X-files. There
were plenty of love scenes. I didn't feel the need to show that I
could simulate coitus onscreen. {Anderson laughs}
Anderson: Here's one for you. How do you perceive our relationship?
Duchovny: It's like the roots of a tree. It's very twisted,
but it's growing. You know the tree is alive, and it works in it's
own treelike ways, yet you couldn't untangle it. You could, but you'd
need the help of a gifted professional.
Anderson: {roaring with laughter} Like a therapist?
Duchovny: Yeah. I always think back to the third or fourth
episode. I was sitting in the office with {X-files creator} Chris
Carter, and he actually wanted us to get help. He was concerned with
how we were relating onscreen. He said, "You seem bored or angry with
each other. Maybe you should go see somebody." I thought, "What? We'll
go as our characters? 'Hi, my name is Fox Mulder. This is my partner,
Scully. We're here for couples therapy.'"
Anderson: I have no memory of that.
Duchovny: You might not have been in the room. But maybe we
should have therapy for long-running series actors. It'd be good for
the cast of Friends to have group therapy. We'd have couples therapy,
because we're not an ensemble. Actually, when Chris said that, I thought
he was insane. But we do spend so much time together, and it's a hard
relationship to navigate. As soon as I say, "No, we don't see each
other after work," then it's -- "You hate each other." There seems
to be no room in fans' minds -- as the fans are portrayed through
journalists -- for a complicated relationship between us. It can't
be summed up with "I love her. She's the best!" or "I can't stand
her!"
Anderson: Ever hate Mulder?
Duchovny: No. I hate that people think I'm Mulder. It's very
odd. I hate being called Mulder. I don't like being called Scully,
either. Do you ever get called Mulder?
Anderson: Yes. It's very weird.
Duchovny: People say to me, "I'm a big, big fan, Scully! ...
I love your show, Scully." {Both laugh uproariously} Or they say,
"Where's Scully?"
Anderson: What's been the most difficult thing in the last
seven years?
Duchovny: Probably the stuff in Vancouver. {He'd made disparaging
comments about that Canadian city, where The X-files was shot for
five seasons. He later said that he'd been joking.} I felt I had put
myself in a situation that I wasn't able to right. People were angry.
There was no remedy.
Anderson: Now that The X-files has moved to Los Angeles, do
you miss Vancouver?
Duchovny: All the time. But I was stubborn. I refused to say
I missed anything or anybody {in Vancouver}, because I was so angry
at them for misinterpreting me. I didn't want to be misconstrued as
apologizing. Then they'd say, "He's sucking up." I thought it was
a great place. But L.A. is still a better place for me.
Anderson: What's the biggest misconception of you?
Duchovny: That I don't like rain. {Pauses} I don't know. By
answering questions like that, I'd be giving power to the misconception.
Even if people never thought of me as having red hair, if I talk about
it, they'll think, "Maybe he does." The next thing I know, people
will be saying, "I thought you had red hair."
Anderson: Is your public persona at all close to your private
persona?
Duchovny: You don't want to be exposed, to give away things
that are meaningful to you, on a silly situation like a talk show.
You want to do your job as an actor, which is to feed this {publicity}
machine, yet you also want to go home at the end of the day and not
have to scrub six layers of skin off to feel clean. So I appear not
to take things seriously. I joke. But I take it all very seriously.
Anderson: Is solitude important to you?
Duchovny: You're not the only person I don't see after work.
I've always been pretty solitary. Tea understands. She doesn't get
hurt if I want to be alone.
Anderson: If you could live two different lives at once, one
being the life you're living now, what would the other one be?
Duchovny: Can I use a lifeline? Call somebody in America? {She laughs.
He thinks} I'd be a pro athlete or teaching.
Anderson: If you could do the last seven years over, what would
you do differently?
Duchovny: I'd have had a lot of things put in writing instead
of just a handshake.
Anderson: What do you know about me that I don't know about
myself? It can be a negative thing. I'm a grown-up.
Duchovny: You should not cover up your mole. You should have
refused to do it in the beginning, and you should refuse now. It's
a Chris Carter thing. I know it's not vanity for you. He deemed your
face not big enough for the mole. It looks like you have a boogie.
For both Scully and Gillian, the mole is fine. (me again --- awww!)
Oh -- and it's a beauty mark. Don't call it a mole. It doesn't have
a hair growing out of it, does it?
Anderson: No
Duchovny: You don't like it when I ask the questions, do you?
Anderson: {Laughs} Do you think we could make a non-X-files
movie together?
Duchovny: Absolutely. It would be fun to play characters whose
relationship is more overt than covert. It would be fun to have a
volatile relationship.
Anderson: There have been times where a movie I've been looking
at to do, I heard they wanted to use you as the male. (me again --
WHO wouldn't?!?)
Duchovny: Theoretically, it's fun to think about, but practically
there'd be no way we'd do it. Unless it was the best script either
of us had ever read and we'd say, "Screw Mulder and Scully. We have
to do it." (me again -- insert your own version of 'he he he' here
:) It would be silly otherwise. People would just go to movie theaters
to make fun of us. {Both laugh} Don't underestimate how much people
want to make fun.
Anderson: I don't know about making fun, but they'd certainly
judge.
Anderson: At the time Piper {her 5-year-old daughter} was born,
I got so many handmade gifts from people all over the world. It showed
me another aspect of fans that I hadn't been aware of before -- that's
based more on appreciation and love than annoying neediness. Do you
know what I mean?
Duchovny: No. My fans aren't big knitters, I guess.
Anderson: Is there anything you collect? Like little jade elephants?
Duchovny: Yes! Starting now. Please, fans, send me jade elephants.
Big, small -- I'll collect them all.
Anderson: Any thoughts on the end of the show?
Duchovny: We'll do another movie, at least, so I don't think
it'll actually end. There'll be an ending image, but by the sheer
fact that it's a self-conscious ending image, I think it'll be overloaded
and won't work. (me again -- good call, Dave) My favorite image of
the show's seven years is the end of the black-and-white episode,
where they had us slow-motion dancing. However it ends, to me, that's
my favorite. (me -- ::heavy sigh::)
Anderson: That's it. I've asked all my questions.
Duchovny: I'd never have taken it as seriously as you did or
done as good a job. So now are you going to call me in two weeks with
follow-up questions? {Both laugh.}
END
|
