FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
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| FILM The X-Files: Fight the Future Fox Mulder and Dana Scully suffer from an extreme form of dissociative personality disorder. When they're not dealing with the paranoia of the paranormal, they are occupied catering to their alter egos, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. And while Anderson is actually able to survive independent of Scully, Duchovny is in denial about feeding heavily off the Mulder host. Yes, unquestionably, this sounds like the glib lead to a Hollywood profile, but it is also the bizarre truth underlying an encounter with Those-Who-Are-The-X-files. And it is worthy of an X-File in itself. This is Los Angeles, and Twentieth Century Fox is playing air traffic control for the feature film, The X-Files: Fight the Future, and these are the four main players who make up the legend: Duchovny, Anderson, creator Chris Carter and director Rob Bowman. The buzz is intense, but the rumor mill is also grinding at a fever pitch. First there is the movie, which has had staggering press, but the plot remains under lock-down, a remarkable accomplishment in Hollywood. What is the storyline? It's everything you could want - Mulder, Scully, aliens, conspiracy, paranoia. Add water and stir. Oh, yeah, and no commercials. What leaks there are - and these can be found as the subject of furious speculation in the massive alt.tv.x-files newsgroup (which contains over 1,300 postings) - are largely the result of a deliberate disinformation program manufactured by Carter and Bowman. The method for the disinformation? Test screenings with each print having a slight variation in the story. When the press finally saw the screening on the night of June 5, apparently it was the final version. X-Files creator, executive producer and frequent writer for the series, Carter is the golden surfer boy with corporate clout and the only person ever seen taking a cell phone call in the middle of a round-table interview. But Wonderboy has his own dark side, as evidenced by the fact that he is being sued, not for the first time, for sexual harassment and discrimination by a former employee from the show. Then there is Duchovny, the martini-dry witted actor who likes to remind everyone that before he was an actor, he earned degrees from Yale and Princeton. His world is critically split. He ably accommodates the fans who worship at The-Shrine-that-is-Mulder, yet he likes his irreverence served in heavily salted portions to the point where unnamed sources claim Duchovny's antics are the reason not everyone on the Vancouver set was unhappy to see the show move South. The move to LA was a big deal. He says he just wanted to be near his new wife, Tea Leoni. Given he arrived at the interviews wearing olive khaki pants and a blue, seriously unpressed shirt with the sleeves rolled up, you get the impression he really likes being with his wife and barely got out of the house on time. While marriage is wonderful, fame, he says, is difficult. Yet (and here's the split again) it doesn't stop him from talking to US magazine at length about the minutiae of his life, such as his underwear. He finds his easy success in acting frustrating. "I'm blessed with being able to do many different things," he says, "and cursed because I never know what is the right thing." What he does legitimately struggle with is the stifling nature of the time spent in the job of being Mulder, even though he likes the character. "When actors yearn to do other things, it's often perceived as an insult to the show they are doing, but it's not. It's just human nature." Rumors that he is weaning himself from the show are unfounded. Yes, a new agent (Cigarette Man's son) will be added, but Duchovny will honor the last two years of his contract. "And I'd be perfectly happy to come back and do a movie every four or five years," he says. It is Anderson and Bowman who come across as the reasonably well-adjusted humans. Anderson looks and sounds exactly like Scully, except she is more beautiful and more vocally emotional in real life. Bowman, who has directed 23 episodes, starting with his first, "Genderbender" in 1993, likes Gillian, pointing out that the gag-reels at the end of each season mostly feature her losing it in the middle of a scene. While Anderson isn't joined to Scully at the psychic hip, she recognizes she is connected to the role. "Acting is the only thing I know how to do," she says. "I am fed by the desire to dive into as many different characters and worlds as I can. It feeds me emotionally, physically and psychologically." While Anderson is not a smart ass, she does possess the ability to parry and thrust adeptly. On cohabiting the same body as Scully: "What better character to have that happen with? It's a blessing if anyone thinks I am even remotely like she is." On Scully's sex appeal: "I don't get it. Maybe it's the whole thing about librarians letting their hair down." On the kiss between her and Duchovny in the film: "I think it's enough to last an eon. If the series was not continuing, there'd be more room for that." Is Scully in love with Mulder? She laughs lightly. (Flowers bloom. The sun shines.) On her relationship with Duchovny: "In the sense that I'm in the presence of someone for the amount of time that David and I are together, it is similar to a marriage, although I'd hope for a lot more out of a marriage." The X-Files is a series and now a movie which, for some, approaches religion. For others, it is outstanding entertainment. Like it or not, Duchovny and Anderson have created brilliant roles and now they have to fill them with due diligence, both on and off screen. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's a burden. Rough life, ain't it. There are Several Truths Out There. What is that sucking sound coming from south of the border? Either the American press has decided that Canada-bashing is some kind of payback (along the lines of, "Nyah, nyah, we have The X-Files now and you don't") or Duchovny is amused by the academic exercise of seeing how many Canadian jokes can fit on the head of a pin. · Vanity Fair (June, 1998): Duchovny discusses the "rain in Vancouver" issue. Last fall on a late-night talk show, he made the observation that in that city there is "400 inches of rain a day." The Vanity Fair writer notes that the uproar around this comment means Duchovny can't complain about it. So what is the next line? "Also, since this is Vancouver, it's raining." As if this was the only subject on the planet, they go on to discuss the various theories of running through the rain and then, to add credibility, Duchovny's wife, Tea Leoni, arrives announcing (three guesses) "It's raining - yeah!" · In Los Angeles, Duchovny recalls that this interview took place in March or April, 1998. The weather in March and April, as it happens, was abnormally dry - 19 milliliters of rain in a month compared to the normal 70 milliliters per month. But why bother with facts when you're on a roll. · Details (June, 1998): The magazine ran the following comments attributed to Duchovny. "I have 91,000 (Air Miles) points. The good news is, I can have sex with any airline employee I choose. The bad news is, it's Canadian Airlines." A little later in the article, an actor on the set of Fight for the Future, walks by, dressed as a Neanderthal. "Hey," Duchovny blurts out, "he's an employee of Canadian Airlines." · Fast Forward spoke with Jeff Angel, director of Corporate Communications for Canadian Airlines, and he responded to Duchovny's comments. "His Air Miles points entitle him to become an Executive Platinum member of Canadian Airlines," Angel says. "We will miss him flying with us into Vancouver. But we haven't started the lottery for who he gets to have sex with." As for Neanderthal employees, Angel is happy to report, "We're an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, religion or prehistoric era." · When FFWD relayed Canadian Airlines' comments to Duchovny, he responded by saying, "That was a weird quote (of mine in Details). I don't remember making a disparaging comment about the airline. But everything I say becomes disparaging when reported in Canada." |
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