alfornos found this 5-3-05 MONTREAL GAZETTE interview
conducted at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal late
last week (maybe on Friday 4-29-05?)
http://www.canada.com/components/printstory/printstory4.aspx?id=dc430805-2d45-4a51-b342-1637499854cc
D for Duchovny, debut
The onetime prince of paranormal on X-Files steps out as a film
writer/director with the new House of D, hitting local cinemas
on Friday
BRENDAN KELLY
The Gazette
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
CREDIT: ALLEN MCINNIS, THE GAZETTE
The X-Files "just happens to be maybe the best show that's ever
been on television, in terms of an action-drama," says David
Duchovny, who makes his film-directing debut in House of D.
David Duchovny seems to have a French thing going on. First,
there's House of D, the former X-Files star's feature-film debut
as a writer-director. The film, which opens in Montreal Friday,
is the story of Tom Warshaw, played by Duchovny, a former New
Yorker who's married to a French woman and has lived in Paris
for years. Warshaw even has a bit of French dialogue in the film,
which also stars Duchovny's wife, Tea Leoni, Robin Williams
and Erykah Badu.
Now, Duchovny is in Montreal acting in a French production,
The Secret, directed by noted Swiss-born actor-turned-filmmaker
Vincent Perez, who has starred in some of France's most famous
flicks of the past couple of decades, include Cyrano de Bergerac.
The $10-million supernatural thriller is produced by French
uber-producer/director Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita), but is being
shot in English. It also stars Lili Taylor from Six Feet Under.
In an interview late last week at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Duchovny
cautioned against reading too much into the French flavour of his
recent projects. He likes Montreal, a city he'd never visited
before this project, "because it's like a European city.
I like to hear French spoken."
But he plays down the recent Gallic twist to his career.
"It's just a coincidence," said Duchovny, who, in person, showcases
the same deadpan style he made famous as paranormal-obsessed FBI
agent Fox Mulder. "It's just chance that House of D worked out
that way. It's because I needed to have a place to have the kid
run away to and I had enough French to write a funny classroom
scene in French. Originally, I had wanted it to be Italian because
I wanted to go shoot in Rome. But I didn't know enough Italian.
So it became French."
House of D starts with Duchovny's expatriate American artist
living in contem****ary Paris, but it quickly ****fts back to 1973
Greenwich Village to chronicle the events that led Warshaw to
flee America for France.
The 13-year-old Warshaw (Anton Yelchin) has it rough at home,
with a mother (Leoni) still grieving the loss of his father,
and his life at school becomes complicated when his best friend,
the school's mentally challenged janitor Pappass (Williams),
gets in trouble with the authorities. The title is a reference
to Greenwich Village's House of Detention, a prison for women
where one inmate (Badu) provides some street-savvy advice
for the troubled teen.
"I didn't set out to make an autobiographical film or some kind
of vanity project," Duchovny said. "I really wanted to make
a universal coming-of-age film."
Duchovny has starred in a number of Hollywood flicks, including
Connie and Carla, Return to Me, Evolution and Playing God, but
the New York-born actor remains most famous for his nine-year
run as Mulder on The X-Files. He doesn't sound particularly
worried about The X-Files baggage. He drily notes that, prior
to that mega-hit sci-fi detective series, he was best-known
for a cheesy late-night *****c TV series "and I obviously
proved that I could move on from the Red Shoe Diaries."
Duchovny says X-Files was his acting school. He was a
late-bloomer as a thespian, beginning to study acting in New
York only while doing graduate studies at Yale University,
and he learned his craft while playing Mulder.
"I don't think of it as a burden, I think of it as an op****tunity
to have taught myself to act," Duchovny said. "Looking back,
I'm sure there was no better way to learn my craft."
He isn't surprised that long after it ended, people are still
talking about this original drama about a pair of investigators
hot on the trail of criminals, UFOs and extraterrestrials.
"It just happens to be maybe the best show that's ever been on
television, in terms of an action-drama. It was a show that bent
in every direction. It was a comedy, drama, thriller, horror,
it was a medical drama, a procedural drama. It was flexible.
"I can't think of another show that was like that," Duchovny
said, "and I don't think there will ever be another show like
that because they don't spend that kind of money anymore.
Reality shows have ruined producers' taste because they're
cheap to produce and they get good ratings."
House of D opens in Montreal on Friday.
bkelly@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Gazette (Montreal) 2005
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