David Duchovny: Coming and Going

Q: What kind of business did the first one do in the end?

A: $83 million here, almost $200 million worldwide. Only cost around $60 million to make.

Q: It seems Gillian is doing more physical stuff than you are on the show. And she wins more fights than you do.

A: Yeah. In the one we're doing right now she saves the day. I get my ass kicked and she kicks the ass of the person who gets me. I think it's silly. People are so deathly afraid of putting women in jeopardy or showing violence towards women that they go away from realism. Once you do that you're pandering. But people are so afraid of being un-PC that female characters become unreal and invulnerable. It's not just physical, they can't show any frailty. So there is no drama anymore, because you're bullshitting. It's like Soviet art. But this show is not my vision so I would never go and rail to the writers, "You're creating Soviet art now for the PC crowd." It's just something I think about,

Q: What's the dynamic between you and Gillian when you're not working? Do you have any relationship at all?

A: Not really. We're friendly.

Q: Has she come over to see the baby?

A: No, It's always been that we've spent so much time together we don't want to see each other when were not working. Not that we don't like each other, it's just she has a life and so do I.

Q: Are you tired of doing the show?

A: Yeah, sure. It's the seventh year. I've come to terms with the fact that there's really not going to be anything new for me to play. It's a little distressing, but I do have the writing and directing, which is an amazing opportunity I thank Chris and Fox for.

Q: How many episodes have you written or had a hand in?

A: Five or six. I have more influence in the back story and the leitmotifs that we hit on now and then. For example, it was my idea that it was Mulder rather than his sister who was supposed to he taken by the aliens.

Q: Do you think audiences will ever let you put Fox Mulder behind you?

A: The more powerful "The X-Files" has become the harder it is for me to be seen in another role. But you look at "The X-Files" and the acting is similar in quality and reality to the acting you have in movies. It's not like a piece of television. I don't feel like I'm making a transition. All I need is a good script, and that's up to the gods.

Q: Entertainment Weekly suggested you become a director. They also thought you should go after CBS's updating or The Fugitive.

A: A compliment and an insult. They can never just compliment.

Q: You were in negotiations to be in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday. He wanted you for the assistant doctor's role, which Matthew Modine eventually played, and you wanted the Dennis Quaid part. But Stone said you didn't have a thick enough neck to play a quarterback.

A: [Laughs] He said that, it's true.

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