David Duchovny
All about David Duchovny, why won't you love me?
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For more than three decades, David Duchovny has been a pop culture icon, thanks to his role as Fox Mulder in the alien conspiracy series The X-Files. But this weekend he is going to show British fans a whole new side to himself: as a rock star.
The actor, who has also written novels and hosts the podcast Fail Better, still marvels at his move into music. ?It?s ridiculous. It just goes to show that you never know. That you don?t know what path you?re walking down, or how far it goes.
?It?s an amazing thing. I wish I?d known this shit when I was younger: always go down different roads, different branches. Go out and fail and fail and fail, and keep failing. Just keep trying different things.?
Tomorrow night, he and his band play the 2,000-capacity O2 Shepherd?s Bush Empire before heading to Latitude Festival in Suffolk on a weekend line-up that also includes Duran Duran, Kasabian and Rag?n?Bone Man.
This may be a surprise to many, but Duchovny has actually been making music for almost a decade and has already released three albums, the most recent, Gestureland, in 2021.
He?s also done two European tours which stopped off in London and has been embraced by the fans. ?It?s gone really well. Though at Latitude, when people are waiting for Duran Duran, we?ll see how positive they really are about me being on stage.?
For someone who built his career in front of the camera, and now behind it too, what?s it like to play for a live audience? ?It?s just a different performance,? says Duchovny, who looks at least a decade younger than his 63 years. ?I think of each song as a scene or a character. I?m really just trying to connect? That?s what my focus is on. Oh, and sing the songs the way I wrote them, and not f**k them up too bad!?
The band plays their back catalogue and a few covers ? on their last tour, they covered Alice Cooper and The Velvet Underground. They?re also writing a fourth album and plan to ?bust out a few new tunes? from that ? but there?s no reminiscing about his acting past between tracks, however much X Files and Californication fans may be desperate to hear them. ?It?s just a rock ?n? roll show,? he says simply.
His music is inspired by all sorts of musicians from his youth, he says, from Bruce Springsteen to Sly and the Family Stone, and, particularly, The Beatles. ?I was heavily into the British Invasion,? he says.
Yet, two unfortunate childhood incidents meant Duchovny, who grew up in New York, stayed away from music until his 50s. One was being rejected from the Grace Church School choir when he was 10. He failed the audition for a choir which he?d been told no one was rejected from, after misunderstanding the instructions. He was, he says, humiliated.
?I didn?t think I would ever sing, certainly not recording.? But in recent years he has worked with a voice teacher. ?To a certain extent, it can be muscular if you don?t have a natural gift for it. So I?ve done all I can. I do the best that I can and I?m amazed that I can do it at all because of that Grace Church choir failure.?
That same year he had some uninspiring guitar lessons with a teacher who was less than engaged, and he gave up. ?But ultimately it was on me not to give up the guitar, not on the teacher.?
So he left music behind and instead became one of the most famous faces on TV in the Nineties alongside Gillian Anderson as they played Mulder and Scully, a pair of FBI agents investigating the paranormal in The X Files. The show ran from 1993 to 2002, and then returned from 2016 to 2018.
Asking about how he looks at the show now he says, ?The way I think of it, it was such a central show in its time in the consciousness of its culture and the world? It was a show that was even more popular abroad than it was in America. It?s like the British Invasion was to me ? it got in me because it was the music of my time ? [and] that was the show of a lot of people?s time; it?s still in them.
?I don?t disrespect that. I appreciate that and give all the credit to [the show?s creator] Chris Carter and the writers,? he says. As well as tapping into the zeitgeist of the time, ?even now it?s still relevant? because of all the conspiratorial conversation that?s going on. 30 years ago, he was reading the tea leaves. It?s like Animal Farm or War of the Worlds ? it?s one of these amazing feats of artistic forecasting.?
When asked if he would return to the character again, he is unsure. ?I?m not saying never, and I?m not saying please. I?m just saying, ?I?ll walk down that road. I might walk down that road, I don?t know. I would never rule anything out because that journey is so unexpected.?
He adds, ?I still think it?s a great frame for a show. Whether or not I?m in it, I don?t know, but it?s a good way to look at the world, and a good way to generate interesting stories.?
It was another of his major characters that brought him back to music. Playing Hank Moody in Californication, another fan favourite series that ran from 2007 to 2014, he convinced creator Tom Kapinos that his character should play the guitar. ?I had the brilliant idea that Hank should learn how to play the guitar, and that David should get free guitar lessons.?
After playing covers, and then beginning to shape his own songs, friends put him together with a group of musicians. He released his debut record Hell or Highwater in 2015.
His music ? with influences ranging from Warren Zevon to Tom Petty ? is introspective and soulful, though not as he says ?confessional or autobiographical? I care less about what I?m feeling and more about what other people feel.?
The creative has spoken out about Trump in the past and previously written political material ? the song Laying on the Tracks in his most recent album referenced ?a stupid orange man in a cheap red hat? ? but he isn?t going down that road right now. ?I feel it limits the songs in space and time. It?s hard to have a nuanced political argument through a song, right? That?s kind of the point, at this point. How can we speak to one another? It?s not really about name calling in a song.?
Referring to Laying on the Tracks he said at the time that ?it felt urgent to try and make myself heard. I think we?ve been heard, we all know where we stand. The problem is trying to respect one another and trying to compromise, which doesn?t seem to be happening. If I had the words, trust me I?d share. If I had the answer? I would.?
We are talking a few days after the attempted assassination of former President Trump, but before the current incumbent Joe Biden has pulled out of running for re-election. I ask Duchovny about it.
?The incident this weekend comes down to the fact that America has a serious gun problem,? he says, with animation. ?To me that is not partisan, but it seems to play out that way. But if you just look at the facts that a 20-year-old has access to that kind of weapon, it?s nuts.?
As we finish up, we talk about how he?s as busy as ever. A film he wrote and directed, Reverse the Curse, came out earlier in the year ? based on his novel Bucky F**king Dent (he had to change the title because streaming services ?don?t like curse words?) ? he?s writing this new album and working on a screenplay and developing several new TV shows.
He laughs, ?Yeah I?m pushing boulders up hills, making music and just keeping the plates spinning I guess.?
Written by Nick Clark
Published on The Standard
Original link: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/david-duchovny-music-the-xfiles-californication-b1172955.html
The cult classic TV series helped Duchovny discover his love of writing and directing. He's been doing both ever since.
Written by Eammon Jacobs
Published on 2024-07-18T11:15:02
When David Duchovny first started playing the extraterrestrial-investigating FBI Agent Fox Mulder in "The X-Files" in the early 1990s, he wasn't as green as an alien from outer space. But despite having smaller roles in projects like "Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead," "Twin Peaks," and "The Rapture" under his belt, he still felt like he was learning on the job.
"Some actors can really do it from the beginning, and some actors are learners," Duchovny tells Business Insider. "I'm more of a learner."
Though audiences were charmed by Mulder's aloof determination on the hit Fox series, Duchovny looks back at the show's early seasons and sees an actor sometimes inelegantly coming into his own.
"I was afforded the opportunity to teach myself how to do what I do through those many hours," he explains, "so I can look back at it and say, 'That's kind of a lame performance I'm giving in year one or year two.'"
"The X-Files" ended up giving Duchovny a crash course in more than just acting. He credits series creator Chris Carter with encouraging him to try his hand at writing and directing his own episodes of the series, an opportunity that led him to fall in love with both crafts.
Since then, Duchovny, now 63, has followed various different creative pursuits simultaneously. He's directed stars like the late Robin Williams and Frank Langella in "House of D" and written, directed, and starred in "Reverse the Curse," a film he adapted from one of his five ? yes, five ? novels, "Bucky F*cking Dent." He's also continued to stretch himself as an actor, tackling roles like hedonist writer Hank Moody in "Californication" and Method actor Ryan Glenn in HBO's "The Sympathizer." He's even found the time to release three studio albums.
Clearly, being "a learner" is keeping him busy.
For the latest interview in BI's Role Play series, Duchovny breaks down the shock of filming his first sex scene, playing the straight man in "Zoolander," and why Method acting is misunderstood.
On how 'The X-Files' became his acting school
[b]It's been over 30 years since "The X-Files" premiered. If you had the chance to do it all again, what would you do differently?[/b]
I wouldn't have done anything differently. It played out well. I was fairly green as an actor when I got that job. I was incredibly work-intensive in terms of hours and physical stuff ? it really became my acting school.
I don't do it often, but if I watch something from the first couple of years, I see an actor that hasn't figured it out yet. But there's a certain kind of willingness in that person that I see on the screen, and I'm just thankful that I had the opportunity.
[b]Is there a standout moment from working on the set that comes to mind?[/b]
Something that Chris Carter said to me. I said by the fifth or sixth season I'd like to try to direct something. And he said, "If you write something and it's good, then you can direct it." So he pushed me to start writing, and I learned a lot just from doing that show the previous five or six years.
So really, that was the moment when I started directing and writing and actually started taking control of other aspects of my performative life. That stands out to me.
On directing Robin Williams and playing the straight man in 'Zoolander'
[b]You directed Robin Williams in the coming-of-age comedy-drama "House of D." What was your creative relationship like?[/b]
Robin was the reason I could make that movie! It was an independent film and back then ? and to a certain extent now ? financing is dependent on movie stars to get those little movies off the ground. So when Robin said yes, all of a sudden I had a movie.
I had my ex-wife, T?a Leoni, who I think is one of the great actresses of her generation. I had Erykah Badu, one of the great artists of her generation. I had Anton Yelchin, who was going to be one of the great actors of his generation, and Frank Langella before he made his comeback. I had an embarrassment of riches at my disposal.
None of that would've happened if Robin hadn't said yes.
Robin was just a creative powerhouse. He was just full of a life force. The question was, "How do we harness whatever we're trying to do here?" And he was an actor, so he knew how to do that. I was very fond of him personally and professionally.
[b]You also worked with Ben Stiller on "Zoolander" in your cameo as the world's greatest hand model. What was it like ad-libbing with Ben Stiller?[/b]
I give him this long monologue that serves as the backstory to how models have been fucking up the world since time began. And then he says, "But what about models after that?" And I said, "I just told you," or something like that. It's not a great comedic moment or a great ad-lib, but I think it remains in the movie.
I remember I wanted to be kind of word-perfect because it was a lot of exposition. I felt like I could be funniest as a straight man. I thought, what if I play this guy like he's Gene Hackman in "Conspiracy Theory"? No winking at all. I'm in a different movie and that'll be funny.
[b]I mean, it worked. Do people ask you about how to be a hand model?[/b]
They don't so much ask me about how to be a hand model, but they'll ask me which hand was in a biometric chamber, things like that. That little role has a certain amount of staying power. It's interesting to me because it wasn't a hit when it came out. It became kind of a sleeper hit after its original life.
On shooting his first sex scene and making sure everyone was comfortable in raunchier scenes in 'Californication'
[b]Another fan-favorite project of yours is "Californication," which was pretty raunchy at times. How difficult was it to manage the sexy atmosphere in those scenes? This was before intimacy coordinators were commonplace, after all.[/b]
It was common decency, which is something I've tried to practice in my life forever. It's basically what intimacy coordinators do now. It's just trying to figure out how everybody's going to be comfortable, what they're comfortable with, what they want to do. And it was kind of a no-brainer to me.
The first sex scene I ever did was in "The Rapture," and forget about intimacy coordinators.
I had a director on a megaphone across the furniture store on Santa Monica Boulevard saying, "Come!" And we had never spoken about this, and of course, I'm not going to come, but he wanted me to act like I was orgasming.
It's very different from what we tried in "Californication." We're making a comedy, we're not making porn. These are actors and these are people and everybody needs to be respected and comfortable.
That was always first and foremost in my mind as the lead actor on the set. How's everybody going to be comfortable? How's everybody going to be safe? And how are we going to all be in the same tone of this show? I consider that my job.
[b]What are your thoughts on using intimacy coordinators nowadays?[/b]
I think it's great that there's a way to make actors comfortable. Now, I think it's difficult for directors, because it's another person telling you what's okay to shoot. But it's a time and place that we're in, and it's probably going to do a lot more good than hurt some director's feelings or whatever. It's going to protect people.
There was a lot of bad behavior, and that's not just in Hollywood. So there should be intimacy coordinators all over the world, in every profession. That'd be great. The more we can protect people that need protection, the better.
On playing a Method-acting jerk in 'The Sympathizer' and adapting his own book
[b]This year, you starred in "The Sympathizer" as Ryan Glenn who, respectfully, is an absolute maniac Method actor. Did you try double down for the role and go Method yourself?[/b]
Well, Method, it's kind of a misnomer, to be honest with you. I mean, I studied the Strasberg Method. That's supposedly a dumb Method. But I think in pop culture, we have this idea now that the Method means that you never break character.
That's not something Strasberg ever taught. I don't think it's something anybody ever taught. I really don't think it's something that people do very much ? the people who are going to be badly behaved are going to find ways to justify it.
So the Strasberg Method is different from a guy who refuses to break character or who does shitty things under the guise of staying in character. The way I looked at that character was just that he cares that deeply about the work, and I could relate to that. I could relate to somebody who thinks that superficial work is being done around him or being applauded around him, and he's going to show up and he's going to do the work from the heart.
He's a jerk, but he ends up getting a great performance out of his costar, in a way.
[b]Out of all the characters that you've played, who's your favorite?[/b]
I have to say I'm probably most proud of "Reverse the Curse" at this point as a work of art or commercial art. I loved playing Marty, the father. It was never something that I had planned on doing. I wrote this story originally as a screenplay 15 years ago, and I was going to play Ted, the son, that Logan Marshall-Green plays.
I got close to doing it a few times. I'm happy that it took long enough for me to age out of that part and to have to confront myself playing Marty because it's not a role that I've ever played before. It forced me to do certain things that I haven't been forced to do before. And I really enjoyed that challenge. So today it's Marty.
On my deathbed? I don't know? I don't know what it's going to be.
[i]This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.[/i]
[quote]danascully09 wrote:I'm going on feb 22 in london, and to the theatre for Gillian's all about eve on the feb 20... The last time I saw her was in april 2004 for "the sweetest swing in baseball". Never saw DD, I can't wait :nerdmulder: [/quote]
Say hi to him from us :)
I'm going on feb 22 in london, and to the theatre for Gillian's all about eve on the feb 20... The last time I saw her was in april 2004 for "the sweetest swing in baseball". Never saw DD, I can't wait :nerdmulder:
Trust no one! :deepthroat:
NEWS: David Duchovny on becoming a rock star and returning to The X-Files