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| David Letterman Interviewing David Duchovny LETTERMAN: Our first guest tonight is the star of the hugely popular Television program, "The X-Files," and on Friday, a motion picture version of that very show opens in theatres nationwide. Please welcome the always entertaining, David Duchovny. (Audience applauds) (David Duchovny comes out wearing a blue suit with a seventies shirt) LETTERMAN: Welcome back to the show. DUCHOVNY: It’s nice to see you. LETTERMAN: It’s pretty exciting for you. Friday the big film opens up, and you’ve got the summer right ahead of you. It must be a nice feeling, huh? DUCHOVNY: Well, yeah. It’s … I guess it’s kind of unprecedented for a TV show to become a movie. LETTERMAN: Well, we were talking about that this afternoon, and it’s happened in a couple of cases, but I don’t think it happens often certainly. DUCHOVNY: Well, I think it happened with "The Beverly Hillbillies". (Audience chuckles) LETTERMAN: But that was after … they had gone off the air. DUCHOVNY: No, actually…it happened while they were on the air. LETTERMAN: Is that right? I didn’t know that. DUCHOVNY: It happened with the "Munsters." LETTERMAN: Mmm-hmm. I didn’t know that either. Well, was that after they went off the air? DUCHOVNY: That was while they were on the air. LETTERMAN: Wow. I know it happened with "Beavis and Butthead." DUCHOVNY: That’s true. LETTERMAN: They had a film while they were still on the air. (Audience chuckles) DUCHOVNY: Yeah. LETTERMAN: But it doesn’t happen often. DUCHOVNY: Well, it doesn’t happen often for a drama … LETTERMAN: Right. DUCHOVNY: …on Fox. (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: Now this is probably a dumb question, but you’ve seen the show. (Audience chuckles) Does -- is it the same group of people that do the television show that do the film? Is it the -- I mean, you see the same faces, you work with the same people? DUCHOVNY: Pretty much the same, although the movie is a lot bigger. The movie is a movie. I mean the explosiveness of the TV show is just … it’s made rectangular, if you can imagine that. LETTERMAN: Now, were you worried? DUCHOVNY: But I just have to say in all honesty, it’s the first time in my show business career, which goes back… with you spanning, I don’t know how many, 40 years? (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: Yeah, I would think so. Sure, the ‘50’s, yeah. DUCHOVNY: Back to the 50’s, where I’ve been involved in a project where it’s turned out better than I thought it would. LETTERMAN: Oh, that’s pretty good. DUCHOVNY: I’m honestly so pleased with this film, and I want you all to see it, because it’s… it’s great. LETTERMAN: Well, you couldn’t get a better endorsement than the guy who stars in the film. (Cheers and applause) DUCHOVNY: No, I … I would sell the movie even if it stunk … (Audience chuckles) …but I’m selling it honestly right now. I’m telling you that -- LETTERMAN: I’m going to believe you, is that all right? DUCHOVNY: Okay. LETTERMAN: I don’t want to look like a fool later. I believe you. DUCHOVNY: It didn’t look like you believed me. LETTERMAN: No, I do believe you. DUCHOVNY: I had to sell you. LETTERMAN: Now were you worried in the beginning that "Oh it’s a great television show, does that necessarily mean it would be a great movie?" Were you worried about it kind of living up to the big screen? DUCHOVNY: Sure, sure. You know, you have a success and you don’t want to ruin it by having a worldwide failure. (Audience chuckles) LETTERMAN: Which did you prefer doing more, the TV show or the film? It’s the same, isn’t it really? DUCHOVNY: It’s very much the same for me as an actor. It’s different for the technical people. I would love it if it became a movie franchise and it would free me up to have my years off to do other things. LETTERMAN: So you would rather do just like an occasional "X-Files" movie, and not necessarily the TV show. DUCHOVNY: That’s like saying, "Would you rather work two days a week or would you rather work seven days a week?" (Pauses) Well … (Audience laughs) … I’ll have to get back to you on that. (Audience laughs) I’m not really sure. LETTERMAN: Now, would the show continue without you? Would they get another "X-Filer” in there while you did the movie? DUCHOVNY: (laughing) I don’t know. That would be… that would be embarrassing. LETTERMAN: Have you talked this over? Have you talked this over with the people? DUCHOVNY: Yeah. I mean, they all know my feelings. They don’t care. (Audience applauds) Honestly, they don’t. LETTERMAN: This sounds like a story out of my life. DUCHOVNY: You’re involved in a huge money-making machine; your wishes don’t count. LETTERMAN: Don’t count, no. But I’ll bet that if you left the show, the thing would just go to Hell, because, you know, after all, it’s still Fox, for God’s sakes. (Audience chuckles) And they’d better be taking care of you, my friend. They’d better. I hope you have representation. I hope they’re taking care of you. DUCHOVNY: Let’s just say that this little clip of videotape will be used in my representation. LETTERMAN: All right. Well, believe me, I’ll help if I can. I haven’t been able to do any good for me, but … DUCHOVNY: I’ll go to bat for you. LETTERMAN: Now in the film, was it a lot of special effects, of not a lot of special effects? DUCHOVNY: There’s more special effects than we use in the TV show. LETTERMAN: That makes it harder on the actor, doesn’t it? DUCHOVNY: It does. It’s more boring for an actor to work with green screens and things that aren’t really there. But we worked with bees. If you watch the TV show, there’s a lot of … there’s occasionally bees on the show … LETTERMAN: And these are actual -- DUCHOVNY: Actual bees. LETTERMAN: Bzzz. Honey bees. DUCHOVNY: I don’t know. What you’ll see in the movie are mostly computer generated bees, because apparently real bees don’t look real …. enough. (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: They don’t photograph? Actual bees don’t photograph? DUCHOVNY: Something happens to them, they just don’t … they just don’t bring -- come to life on the screen. LETTERMAN: Invisible bees. But it must be difficult to work with real bees. DUCHOVNY: There was thousands of actual bees during the filming, and, you know, they’re not like trainable animals. LETTERMAN: No. DUCHOVNY: You don’t see like Stupid Bee Tricks. LETTERMAN: Right. DUCHOVNY: They’re like … they’re like lions with wings, you know? It’s dangerous. LETTERMAN: They’re dangerous. They sting you. DUCHOVNY: They’re tiny little lions with wings. (Audience laughs) And uh … so we’re working with these, and they confused them by taking away the Queen. LETTERMAN: Oh, that does something, because the queen is the leader for the swarm, is that right? DUCHOVNY: Well, not so much the leader, but they will try to protect the Queen. LETTERMAN: Oh, I see. DUCHOVNY: So if there’s a Queen, they will be very aggressive and protective of human beings that are around her. And so if they remove the Queen -- they put her in a nice trailer on the Fox lot. (Laughter.) She kicks up her little legs, you know. She takes her fur off. They’re bumblebees. So they become confused, and they don’t attack quite so much. LETTERMAN: Right, right. Did you get stung? DUCHOVNY: No, I didn’t get stung. Gillian and I were running through, you know, five, ten, 15, 20 times, and finally at around 3:30, one of the producers, Dan Sackheim, came up to me and said, "I’m going to have to force you tomorrow," which means that I don’t get my normal 12 hours off in between finishing work and coming back to work. And I said, "Why? I like … you know, I like my time off." LETTERMAN: Sure. DUCHOVNY: And he said, "Well, the bees have to wrap by 4:00." (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: See, this is wrong. Something is desperately wrong. DUCHOVNY: I … no… And I wish I was making this up. I really do. LETTERMAN: Bees, Bees are getting better treatment and first consideration over the star of the film. DUCHOVNY: This was my response. I said, "The bees have to wrap by 4:00?" LETTERMAN: Yeah, exactly. DUCHOVNY: And they said, " Well, as the sun starts to go down, the bees start to get cranky”. LETTERMAN: Oh! Oh! DUCHOVNY: "Queen or no." LETTERMAN: Yeah. DUCHOVNY: And I said "You think those bees get cranky?" (Audience laughs) So actually, what happened was in the end I changed representation. Now the bees’ agent represents me. (Laughter and applause.) LETTERMAN: Yeah. Here’s how you handle… here’s how you ought to be handling those bees. Something like this, just… (Dave slaps the table with a paper) (Audience laugh) LETTERMAN: Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ll be right back here with Mr. "X-Files" David Duchovny. (Commercials) LETTERMAN: David Duchovny is here, Stevie Nicks. I asked you during the commercial how long you’ve been married. And it’s a year and a half or so? 14 months, something like that? DUCHOVNY: Yeah, yeah. 14 months. LETTERMAN: It’s working out pretty well for you? DUCHOVNY: Yeah, it is. It’s kind of in a groove, now which is nice. LETTERMAN: What does that mean? Everything’s easy? Everything comes … everything’s quite healthy? DUCHOVNY: Well, at first, it’s just, you know, you get … everybody just wants to know what’s it like being married … LETTERMAN: Mmm-hmm. DUCHOVNY: …which is I guess what you’re asking right now. LETTERMAN: That’s what I was saying, yeah. (Audience laughs) DUCHOVNY: Yeah. But you know, and then eventually people start to accept the fact that you really are married and they stop asking that question. LETTERMAN: Your wife is a well-known actress in a big blockbuster summer film. DUCHOVNY: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she is. LETTERMAN: Yeah. DUCHOVNY: Yeah. LETTERMAN: Do the folks know who this is? DUCHOVNY: Oh, Tea Leoni, is my wife, yeah. (Audience applaud) LETTERMAN: Yeah. She was in the, the "Deep Impact," whatever it’s called. DUCHOVNY: Yeah. Well, in Italian, it’s "Impacto Profundo." (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: That’s lovely, isn’t it? "Impacto Profundo”. (Audience laugh) DUCHOVNY: Isn’t that better? I just love that. LETTERMAN: That’s a huge film, a huge success, isn’t it? DUCHOVNY: Got a profound impact. LETTERMAN: Yeah. (Audience laughs) And there is like, a little rivalry because now your summer blockbuster is coming out, and hers already, you know, made 130 and climbing… 130 million. DUCHOVNY: Yeah. LETTERMAN: Is that cause … That’s silly, though, to worry about stuff like that, isn’t it? DUCHOVNY: Yeah. No, no, I mean, I think people got another spare eight bucks to spend on our movie, I’m hoping. LETTERMAN: Mmm-hmm. Yeah. DUCHOVNY: The one problem is that, you know, we come to New York and hang out with her in-laws a bit, and…. LETTERMAN: Now you say a problem. You identified that as one problem. DUCHOVNY: Well, I’m identifying it as a problem only because of what I’m going to do right now, which is … this is a hat that my mother-in-law has made. (Pulls out this huge white floppy cloth hat with a black electrical tape X and what looks like a miniature beehive on the brim and puts it on his head) (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: Oh, they’re Amish. (Audience laughs) DUCHOVNY: Now I’ve made it the official "X-Files" hat. I mean, that’s so you can actually -- this was made by Emily, my mother-in-law, and you could -- it’s a sun hat --that you can tell. (Duchovny does a model pose) (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: Yeah, is it … (Audience laughs) And for your mother-in-law, is it a hobby or is it therapy? (Audience chuckles) DUCHOVNY: She’s actually making these hats to sell. (Dave laughs) DUCHOVNY: And I think -- LETTERMAN: It’s a beauty. (Audience chuckles) DUCHOVNY: Thank you. Would you like to try it on? LETTERMAN: Oh, yeah. I’ll try it on, sure. I hope it fits. (It is huge.) I hope I don’t look ridiculous. (Audience laughs) There you go. And I’ll tell you, it’s from the "X-Files" beekeeper edition. (Audience chuckles) It’s a collection of bee-keeping items. Well that’s very thoughtful, and it is … it’s functional, absolutely functional, and you got to -- DUCHOVNY: Well, you know it folds up. LETTERMAN: Oh, I didn’t realize you got to fold it up…. DUCHOVNY: Fold it up. I don’t know how to fold it up. LETTERMAN: I don’t want to… Does it fold up of -- does it wad up? Two completely different techniques there … DUCHOVNY: I wouldn’t know how to begin to answer that question. LETTERMAN: Well, that’s sweet that they’re thinking of you though. DUCHOVNY: Isn’t it? LETTERMAN: Yeah. Let’s show the folks a couple of seconds from the film. DUCHOVNY: Yeah, yeah. LETTERMAN: Do you know what we’re going to see here? DUCHOVNY: Yeah, I think we’re not running from bees in this one, although we should have been. We’re running through cornfields in this one. Yeah, this is a little taste of the big action. LETTERMAN: This is you and your co-star, Gillian Anderson… DUCHOVNY: Gillian Anderson, right. LETTERMAN: She was here a couple of weeks ago. DUCHOVNY: Yeah. LETTERMAN: She’s nice. DUCHOVNY: Yeah, very nice. LETTERMAN: Lovely woman. DUCHOVNY: Lovely woman. LETTERMAN: Is she married, that woman? DUCHOVNY: No, she’s not. LETTERMAN: Really? Attractive. (Audience laughs) DUCHOVNY: Yeah, I mean … you know, I can get her number for you if you want. LETTERMAN: Really? (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: It wouldn’t kill you, would it? DUCHOVNY: Yeah. (Audience chuckles) LETTERMAN: Be a sport. DUCHOVNY: I will. I’m sporting. LETTERMAN: Yeah. All right. See what happens. (Audience chuckles) LETTERMAN: Be like calling that newspaper in Louisiana. (Audience laughs) Doesn’t seem to be working. What happened there? All right, so it’s … here is David Duchovny in a field. It’s a scene from the… DUCHOVNY: We’re being chased by the bad guys. LETTERMAN: Here you go, "X-Files," opening Friday. DUCHOVNY: Yeah. (Clip starts) (MULDER and SCULLY being chased through the cornfield, longer than usual) MULDER: Talk to me, Scully!!! (Clip Ends) (Audience applauds) LETTERMAN: There you go, there you go. Wow. (Audience applauds) And that was shot in Bakersfield, California? DUCHOVNY: Let me just say that, I’m very proud of my acting in that clip. (Audience chuckles) I thought I ran well. (Audience laughs) I thought that -- LETTERMAN: You were doing some crouching. I thought that was first-class crouching. DUCHOVNY: Thank you. I thought I crouched beautifully. LETTERMAN: Yeah. It wasn’t squatting; it was crouching. DUCHOVNY: All I can say is that is not representative of the film in any way. (Audience chuckles) DUCHOVNY: It’s so hard to bring a clip that doesn’t give away too much, but that’s just an idea that … it’s bigger than the TV show. LETTERMAN: What I like is it’s reminiscent of that scene from "North by Northwest" Hitchcock film. DUCHOVNY: Reminiscent is a kind word. LETTERMAN: Yeah, and …. (Audience chuckles) which was also shot I think, in the cornfields near Bakersfield. DUCHOVNY: Was it? LETTERMAN: In the same location. DUCHOVNY: I didn’t know that. LETTERMAN: I think pretty much the same deal, yeah. DUCHOVNY: Yeah, that’s very possible. LETTERMAN: Yeah, yeah.. DUCHOVNY: Yeah. LETTERMAN: And are there other little things like that on the film? DUCHOVNY: I... I think there are, but I’m so ignorant that I don’t … (Audience chuckles) LETTERMAN: No, you’re not. Come on. DUCHOVNY: I don’t know… LETTERMAN: Come on, put the hat on. Put the hat on! Here we go. (Duchovny puts on the hat again) (Audience laughs) LETTERMAN: Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. "X-Files," David Duchovny. We’ll be right back with Stevie Nicks. (Audience applauds) THE END |
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| June 16th 1998 |
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