Sometimes you get lucky. NY Times arranged to meet with the actor David
Duchovny this week in Santa Monica, Calif., to discuss his new series “Aquarius,” a period crime drama coming to NBC on May 28, for a coming article. Then something else [X Files] came up.
“They call it a cult show but it wasn’t really a cult show. It was
actually a big hit,” Mr. Duchovny said. “People call it a cult show
because of the subject matter.”
Mr. Duchovny discussed
the legacy of “The X-Files” and why Fox Mulder was the worst F.B.I.
agent in history. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Part of the edited Q&A:
Have you been in hiding since Fox made the announcement?
[Laughs] No I haven’t
been hiding. All the good things are good. The good things are working
with Chris and Gillian again, and getting to do this show again and see
what we’ve got. I’m as curious as anybody else. I’m amazed that there’s
still an appetite for it and I’m touched. I think the frame of the show
is so expansive and so unique and so influential, that it should feel
present.
Why do you think the show continues to resonate?
I don’t know. You look around at these cultural juggernauts, the ones that came after us.
Part of the “X-Files”
legacy surrounds genre, but another part was the way it combined serial
storytelling with the Monster of the Week episodes. And this whole
notion of—
A mythology. It kind
of introduced specialized knowledge, though you didn’t have to do
homework to watch the show. They were always kind of juggling about what
people needed to know, especially when we made the movies. Can we get
somebody in who’s never seen this? And I’m sure we’ll have to juggle
that again with this iteration of it.
When you were on “The X-Files,” did you have any sense that what you were doing was groundbreaking?
No. I was just trying
to pay the rent. I’m really bad with that stuff – I’ve never been
interested in paranormal stuff. I liked horror movies when I was a kid,
but only when I was a kid. When “The X-Files” came around, it was a
well-written pilot and kind of a cool character, this irreverent F.B.I.
agent. But who’s gonna wanna watch a show about aliens? Honestly, I was
the wrong guy to ask that question. I had no idea.
What do you know about the new ones?
I don’t know much at all. We’re gonna do six episodes.
Is it going to be serialized or just like a collection of movies of the week?
We’re gonna do both. I’m pretty sure it’s gonna begin and end with the mythology. But I really don’t know.
Are you shooting the new ones in Vancouver?
Yeah.
Have you and the other principals on the show stayed in touch over the years?
Yeah I live next to
Chris when I’m out here. We’re neighbors. Gillian and I have an email
relationship. I maybe see her once or twice a year. Maybe if we do a
convention — well, I’ve done one.
In “Aquarius” you’ll be playing a detective in the 1960s. Is that your first law enforcement role since Mulder on “The X-Files”?
I think so. The
interesting thing about Mulder is nominally he is law enforcement but he
never solved one case in nine years. So he’s the worst F.B.I. agent of
all time. As F.B.I. agents, I would say we were not by the book.
Especially Mulder.
Are you going to solve a case this time?
I don’t know. I hope not. That would really change the show.
[Source]