David Duchovny on the Appeal of "Aquarius" & Revisiting "The X Files"

Baruch here in New York where David Duchovny is proving to be the ultimate Renaissance man. From TV shows to a book, and yes, even prepping to go on tour with his first music album, seems he really can do it all.

You're a born and bred New Yorker, that's pretty rare.

No, it's my first time here.

Is that right? Well, you fooled me.

Yeah, I grew up on 11th Street and 2nd Avenue in the late 60s, on St. Mark's Place.

And how did that influence your life so far?

St. Mark's Place was really one of the epicenters of the 60s. All the things that you associate with the 60s took place under my window. I grew up on the third floor.

So nothing shocks you anymore?

No, not the things that most people think are shocking, but I'm shocked by other things.

Well, your latest work has been getting great reviews. I know that you attached yourself to Aquarius before it was even acquired by a network.

Yes.

What spoke to you?

Having grown up, like I said, in the 60s, I'm based in that time psychically in a way. The figure of Manson was fascinating to me because I knew, I knew of it when I was a kid. You know, every generation has its big murder, you know, from Lizzie Borden, Leopold and Loeb, Manson, O. J. , I don't know what we got now. Maybe it's coming down the pipe, who knows. I hope not. Every generation does get some big murder case. The thing about Manson was, he really was used to bring the 60s to a close, at least in terms of how the media treated it. If the kids continue to run the store, if they continue to do drugs and to have sex and be hippies, Manson was used to kind of say, well, this is, this is what's going to happen. People are going to be murdered senselessly and you're going to have this guy carving a swastika on his forehead and, no, it's over, you know, now it's the 70s. So I always found that to be interesting that Manson was kind of used as a straw man to bring the 60s to a close. I haven't seen her in a while. What's a while, a day, a week? I don't know. I don't know. I don't remember. Do you know who my father is? Not a clue. Get your hand off me or you're gonna find out in court.

Of course, another project you're working on is The X-Files reboot. Is it true that you cried when you first read the script?

I, I felt emotional. I, I was alone. But yeah, just to see Mulder in then dialogue, well, it's more like Mulder and dialogue, see that, and see Scully in dialogue, and it was just like, oh, it's almost like watching home movies, home movies that you're about to shoot.

So what did it take to get back into that X-Files head space?

I'm not there yet. I have to do it, I have to be there in about ten days. You know, I'm gonna go to Vancouver and that's where we started the show. Gillian'll be there and Chris'll be there and we'll all kind of get to that spot, hopefully.

Now, I hear that you like to keep things fun on the set of Aquarius. What was the most entertaining thing that happened when the cameras turned off?

Gray Damon and I, we, we were shooting in, in summer in L. A. , we're shooting in the period car which has no air conditioning. So, it was about a hundred and twenty in there and we had to shoot with the windows rolled up for some reason. So, Gray and I, we had fun comparing the places that sweat can actually come out of you. We were both sweaty guys and the, the stigmata of our sweat was fascinating.

Now, the world is getting to know you as a true Renaissance man. You released a book, you released an album. What's unifying all of these different projects?

I, I guess I just see it as all part of a similar expression, whatever that is. When I wrote the novel, it's, it's, it's a different, different thing. It's coming from a different place in me and the music is the same.

Would you like to go on tour with the music?

Yeah, yeah. I think we're gonna try and tour after we finish shooting The X-Files.

How about a musical to fuse all your different talents?

No, I don't have that kind of voice. I, I, I don't belt. I, I kind of, uh, I can barely sing. So I'm not, no, I'm not.

I was listening to you on Spotify this morning. It, it sounded really good.

I had many tries at it.

Is that right? We were talking about your fans earlier, you have so many die-hard fans from all your different projects. What's been the most outrageous thing a fan has done to get your attention?

There was a, a woman who had a, um, I can't remember where it was on her. It was my photograph, an image of me. She found me in a, in L. A. , I was sitting eating and she came up to me and she showed me me on her arm and she asked me would I sign it so that she could get the signature tattooed.

You know, and did you sign it?

Yeah, yeah. So, so I signed her arm with a pen and then she went to get that tattooed. Now, I wouldn't recommend it for anybody, but I thought, well, that's interesting.

Well, David, we're looking forward to seeing you out on tour and we're looking forward to Aquarius.

I appreciate it.