“X” marks the spot for David Duchovny on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
After nearly three decades of acting in film and television, Duchovny will finally land his star Jan. 25, the day after his most iconic character — conspiracy maven Fox Mulder — returns to TV in the first half of a two-night launch for Fox’s limited series revival of “The X-Files.”
Even though you can’t separate Duchovny from Mulder, the actor’s career has spanned far more than just the FBI agent aptly nicknamed “Spooky.”
To wit, at the same time as he’s promoting “X-Files,” he’s also shooting the second season of NBC’s period drama “Aquarius,” has the book “Bucky F&%@ing Dent” due out in April and continues to support the release of last year’s solo rock album, “Hell or Highwater.”
“I don’t know what I really want to do when I grow up,” Duchovny says. “I like acting a lot, but at some point maybe I’ll just stop and figure out something else to do.”
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Don’t bet on it. Duchovny is a workhorse — his IMDb credits betray no significant gap on his resume since his debut with a bit part in 1988’s “Working Girl” — and frequently balances multiple projects. At the moment, he’s looking ahead to the Walk of Fame honor.
“It’s a cool thing to happen,” he says.
“I grew up on 11th Street and Second Avenue in New York and the Second Avenue Deli was (a block away). They had their own walk of fame in front of the deli with stars of David on the street. I thought maybe I’d get one of those one day, but this is even better.”
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| lights, camera … Duchovny, on the set of “Californication,” aims to spend more time in the director’s chair. Courtesy of Showtime |
Although he hasn’t had time to take it all in just yet, Duchovny expects he’ll feel the full impact of the sidewalk star at the ceremony.
“I think when I see the actual (star) that’ll be something,” he says. “It’s tangible and something that feels like it’ll last a while. That’s something special and something to reflect upon I think.”
It’s also an opportunity to reflect upon a career that has spanned major Hollywood features (Ivan Reitman’s “Evolution,” Ben Stiller’s “Zoolander”), indie passion projects (Steven Soderbergh’s “Full Frontal,” Jake Kasdan’s “The TV Set”) and three series regular roles (“The X-Files,” Showtime’s “Californication” and “Aquarius”).
If there’s one thing Duchovny still wants to conquer, it’s the director’s chair. He’s helmed three episodes of “X-Files,” six of “Californication,” one installment of “Bones” and the feature film “House of D,” but he still has the itch.
“I’d like to get back to directing and make a couple more movies before I quit,” he says. “The movie ideas that I have had up until this point that I’ve written have all been independent, low-budget, human stories and they’re hard to make. You can’t make them on TV either.”
Instead, Duchovny has taken to turning the screenplays he writes into novels, including the soon-to-be-released “Bucky,” a father-son baseball drama set in the late ’70s.
“Maybe someone will buy it and turn it into a movie. That would be funny,” he says. “Maybe me.”
Either way, he’s just proud to get the work out there. “I had a good time turning this script into a novel and there’s another one I want to do,” he says. “You only get so many ideas in this lifetime. If it didn’t work in one form maybe try another.”
| “You only get so many ideas in this lifetime. If it didn’t work in one form, maybe try another.” |
| David Duchovny |
In the meantime, he’s excited to continue his role as Sam Hodiak on “Aquarius,” as a detective investigating a case that leads to the Manson family in the years before their infamous murder spree. The show didn’t burn up the ratings during its limited run last summer, but did gain a cult following and NBC proved its commitment by ordering a second season. Duchovny is hoping to extend that for the next few years.
“John McNamara, the creator and showrunner, has five 13-episode seasons in mind,” he says. “If we’re lucky and enough people get involved and watch us, we’ll get to do five. It would be a shame not to. The investment is in the first couple of years, heading towards the catastrophic events of the Tate-LaBianca murders with the Manson family. It’s really the aftermath of that that’s the heart of the show. I hope we get to do it.”
And of course he hasn’t closed the book on “The X-Files” just yet. Although neither he nor co-star Gillian Anderson can commit to reviving the series full time, they’re both open to the possibility of doing more episodes beyond the six soon to air on Fox.
“Right now it’s just, and this has always been my attitude, ‘If this is the end of it, that’s fine,’” he says of “The X-Files” experience. “I couldn’t be prouder of the show, period. Nothing that can happen can take any of that away. The show is what it is, and that doesn’t change, no matter if we shit the bed horribly this time or not. Which I know we’re not going to do.”