REAL LIFE
 

When I saw Mitch on the Atlantis set, the first thing he said to me was (in a loud voice in front of the crew), "Hey last time I saw you, you were naked!!" He's a character! I think he such a lovely actor and such a lovely man. No ego, no bullshit. He's the real deal and therefore it's a treat to spend time with him on and off screen.-Amanda Tapping

Patrick Lee: You guys were using cell phones a lot long before they were commonplace.
Anderson: I think I only ever talked to Mulder on that cell phone. I don't think there was any conversation that was ever had with anybody else except for Mulder.
Duchovny: Yeah, you were my Fave Five.
Anderson: Was I number one or number two? Was I number one? My cell phone--remember how big they were? We just happened to have it in our pocket.
Duchovny: Yeah, you had to have a trench coat so it fit. Hello?
Anderson: I know! And the xenon [flashlight] . The cell phone in one [pocket] and the xenon flashlight in the other. ...
Duchovny: Well, the cell-phone question is interesting, because I think it extended the life of the series. Because Gilly and I were so fatigued and the advent of the cell phone--what year? '96? I don't know--was instrumentally in us being able to have time off, because ... we could split up. We didn't have to be in the same room to have a conversation. ... I'm being totally serious. So that I could have some time off, Gillian could have some time off, and we'd just talk on the phone to one another rather than be in every scene together.
Anderson: That's very true.
Duchovny: So, if not for the cell phone, no second half of The X-Files.
July 23, 2008

I had two weeks before Christmas [2007] of basically running around and chasing [co-star] Callum Rennie, who plays the ... running bad guy that I chase all over the place. And that took, like, a good full two weeks of running, even though I know it's only about 10 seconds of the movie. And then Gillian and I started working after Christmas break, and the first two weeks I ... felt a little awkward. I didn't really feel like I wanted to do longer scenes. I was just fine with running around.
DD interview with Patrick Lee, July 23, 2008

Duchovny: When Gillian operates on a human being ...
Anderson: That's when I'm reminded of Scully.
interview with Patrick Lee, July 23, 2008

 Duchovny: She wanted a musical.
Anderson: I like to sing.
interview with Patrick Lee, July 23, 2008

"I love Doctor Who and I remember the first one, which was wonderful in its low-tech quality. I also loved the theme song, which sounded like The Cure to me.
Which character would I like to play in Doctor Who? Who's the bad guy? The Dalek? OK, I'll play him."
-David Duchovny, July 2008

"patrick stewart was the first internet sex symbol without hair but pileggi always thought it was him."
-David Duchovny, July 2008

I heard the Martian Stonewall was a big event -- changed things forever. -DD, on gay life on other planets

Q: Have you read any of the erotic gay fan fiction involving Fox Mulder and his X-Files nemesis Alex Krycek?
A: I never read it, but Nick Lea, who played Krycek, showed me this website with head-replacement pictures of him and me in various homosexual acts, looking at each other adoringly. We enjoyed that.
DD, Advocate interview, June 2008

Rove: Who would you turn gay for?
DD: What do you mean turn?
(Australian talk show interview)

"I have seen the show over the past six years. Usually when I can't sleep and I turn on the TV and it's there. I do watch it for a few minutes and it's nice now. It's like home movies. But with autopsies."
-David Duchovny, May 2008

"You can ask, but my job is to not answer,"
-David Duchovny, on the plot of the new XF movie

"Don't ask me anything, just shoot me. And get the laser dot on my head, because I want to go quickly."
-David Duchovny, when presented with the question: "you're 65 years old and we find you speaking at an X-files convention. What should we ask you?"

"There's two things I gotta do. One is, I gotta update my resume. And then, I have to call my mother."
-David Duchovny, on his character, Hank, in Californication, sleeping with one woman whom he later learns is underaged, and being asked how he felt about being perhaps the first TV character in history to commit such an act
 

I love dogs. They live in the moment and don't care about anything except food and affection. They're loyal and happy. Humans are just too damn complicated.
-David Duchovny

"I think Mulder is the worst FBI agent in the world. He spends millions of dollars investigating these paranormal phenomena and never comes up with any evidence. He's the Kenneth Starr of the FBI." -- David Duchovny

"No spite to Jim, I agree, I think he's funny and good looking. I mean, maybe, maybe he and I could get together, but..."
-Duchovny, on Jim Carrey

I haven't had any experience with UFO's, but paranormal life seems to be all around me...I grew up on the lower east side of New York.
-- David Duchovny

"Yeah, I still have it, though it clashes with my go-go boots."
David Duchovny (when asked if he still has his kilt)

"I didn't know I was so rhyme-able."
-- DD's reaction to "David Duchovny, Why Won't You Love Me,"

"I’m the one usually wearing the dress, which is what I would’ve preferred, but they wouldn’t let me. It’s been 15 years since I did that and my ass isn’t as good as it used to be."
-David Duchovny

They were real drag queens though. I’m just a dilettante, a dabbler. I’d done it on “Twin Peaks’ and really enjoyed doing the character, and thought I was decent at it. But these guys, they were real performers. I wanted to show them, I wanted the chance to dress up and dance and sing, but they wouldn’t let me.
-David Duchovny

Well, it’s really hard to all of a sudden bust out in a dress and a wig. It’s not something you can do, just give me 30 seconds and I’ll come back with my own drag name. No, it didn’t happen, but maybe if there’s a sequel – “Connie and Carla and That Guy"
-David Duchovny

I think I came in on a Friday with an emery board. That was my big deal. That’s all. That’s what I did during the audition and it worked. And then I remember going home and Melanie probably remembers, my manager who was there when I was born by the way, I just remembered thinking, “Oh my God, I’ve never been in a dress or shaved my legs and now I’ve got to go do this on Monday.” And I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t have to research. All I remember thinking why aside from sexual preference or liking to wear a dress, which I took as a given or not, why would a man want to be a woman? And I just felt, “Well, you get to be more spontaneous and open and friendly.” That’s kind of the approach I took. A very innocent, friendly kind of point of view.
-David Duchovny (auditioning for Twin Peaks)

So apparently that’s what Chris and Frank have is a great “X-Files” idea with another actor or actress who can really score in a really great thriller/sci-fi role. I hope that takes the show towards the fans but also towards new fans. And Mulder will wear a dress, of course.
-David Duchovny

David Duchovny: "Who's your favorite creature?"
Mitch Pileggi: "My favorite creature?"
David Duchovny: "Yeah, on the show..."
Mitch Pileggi: "Well I guess that'd be you."

  "Divas of the red carpet--David Duchovny: A well-deserved honorary red carpet diva. Who says real men can't dish?  A man who clearly can laugh at himself and fill out a size 42 long tux rather well."
-From the book  "Red Carpet Diaries", by Steven Cojocaru

"I called Duchovny, and I said, 'Dave, I'm doing a bit where I kiss Brad Garrett, and I want you to know that I'll be thinking of you. It's you that I'll have in my heart.'"
-Gary Shandling

"Those scenes are embarrassing - especially as you get older, if you know what I'm saying."
-David Duchovny, on filming sex scenes

"Some people perceive Skinner to be complex. I just basically was trying to remember my lines, so I guess that's what they perceive as being complexity."
Mitch Pileggi in an interview during The WB's fall press preview.

"Human nature means that they adore you today but they'll erect the scaffold tomorrow."
- David Duchovny

"But those are just quirks, those aren’t character. You can say “sunflower seeds” and “porn” till you’re blue in the face, but in the end it’s about an attitude. They could have made Mulder interested in gay porn. It all would have worked for me."
-David Duchovny

"I think that Scully would have one eyebrow permanently cocked. They would just think that he was a little rat. And then he would just screw them, and that'd be it."
-James Marsters, on what would happen if Mulder and Scully met Spike

"Glen Morgan, one of our executive producers, says that a good X-Files episode has Scully yelling, "Mulder!" and then a couple of flashlight scenes."
-Chris Carter

"The key is to get to know people and trust them to be who they are. Instead, we trust people to be who we want them to be--and when they're not, we cry."
-David Duchovny

"Repetitively, I made dinnerware."
 -Chris Carter, The Joy of X, March 2001

 "In {Talitha Cumi} when Mulder comes busting into the office, he's so irritated, my line to him was, 'Cool down, Mulder, just cool down'. I couldn't say it. I don't know if you remember much of 'West Side Story', but the song where they go, 'Cool boy, Crazy boy'. They do this whole dance. Mulder comes in and I go, 'Cool down, Mulder.' Then I go, 'Cool boy. Crazy boy' and start singing it, and then he starts singing it. Then the two of us started doing the dance from it. It was pretty hilarious. They had to finally strike the line because we couldn't do it without breaking into dance."
MITCH PILEGGI, FROM INTERVIEW IN X-POSE OCTOBER, 1996

"When I first got the part, I went on my computer and I tried to download the mythology and it was like 800 pages and I thought, 'Holy shit, what have I got myself into?'"
-Annabeth Gish, Dreamwatch 9/2002

"We have talked about it, and I'm sure that some day we will. But I would prefer that David writes a movie for me and directs me in it. It would give me a chance to work with him all day long… and then sleep with my director at night!"
-Tea Leoni

"I always loved working with Chris. I was sorry to be told I had to shoot him. I always pretended, thought I didn't shoot him, but I scared him. I guess I did actually shoot him. Those were all good times."
-William B. Davis

"Well, before I was going to come back for the final 2, Chris Carter  called me and said "do you want to write and direct one". And I said "sure, if I get an idea". And then I just started trying to have an idea which usually consists of drinking a lot of coffee, just thinking really hard,turning red faced, sort of pressing... "
-David Duchovny

"...plug, plug, plug, plug, plug."
-David Duchovny (talking about his movies, really)

"It'd be great if we all had some sex. Group sex. I don't know..."
-Robert Patrick (on the series finale)

"I'm always wanting to write Mitch stuff, because I think Mitch is totally underused."
-David Duchovny

"While Havez hacks a smoker's cough, and searches himself for a light, Bruckman shakes his head, as if saying, 'This guy
obviously doesn't realize that not only have recent reports shown that cigarette smokers are more lonely and depressed than their non-smoking brethren, but that Broadcast Standards & Practices does not approve of this activity being displayed on the air. Nevertheless, one shouldn't deny a man an occasional good smoke, especially when knowing that he is about to die soon.'"
-Darin Morgan, description from Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

"The Puppet knocks Mulder's gun out of his other hand, before swinging the agent around and hurling him into the service elevator doors with a discreet amount of force. Mulder drops to the floor like an anvil. But not an unconscious anvil!"
-Darin Morgan, description from Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

"This is a person who is constantly suppressing a great deal of sadness and pain. The way I approach every character is that nobody wants to be in pain. So they do things to combat their pain.  But, there are always a few moments in a script or an episode where the pain comes through, regardless of how much the character tries to keep it down. That's the way I approach the drama."
-David Duchovny, on Mulder

"Yeah, he's my bitch," Duchovny recently deadpanned to a radio station in L.A. "The only problem with Mitch [Pileggi, the actor who plays Skinner] is that his bald head means there's nothing to hold onto when he starts to buck."
-David Duchovny, who often riffs on the Skinner/Mulder theme in
interviews.

"I remember talking to David for the very first time outside the audition as he chatted up the girls and commenting on the fact that I was from N.Y. and not really meaning FROM FROM but the disappointment which flashed across his face when I qualified that I had only actually lived there a couple years. He moved on to someone else."
-Gillian Anderson

"Who's my favorite to work with out of the cast of The X-Files? Ummm...well you know, David and I have a lot of fun you know...we really do. And I love working with Mitch. Mitch and I crack up all the time! And, I gotta tell you something. There was an episode, that I think it aired already. I think it aired last weekend. There was a couple...there was one where it's this really tragic thing where this acid was poured all over these people and we go into this ummm...theatre...this movie theatre
and all these like, like...ummm...dead people are sitting in the theatre seats with like, their skin burned off! And we walk in, and
we shine the flashlights and we're like halfway down and we just started CRACKING UP. It was the silliest thing we had ever seen. It was just like these little DEAD HEADS, all over the place! And so we had to like...Rob Bowman...it was like 3 o'clock in the morning and he's got the cameras rolling and he's like, "NO! NO! Go back and do it again!" And we go running up to the top of the aisle and we get all serious and we go walking down again until we see these dead heads again and we started cracking up and, I don't know. It took forever to shoot it and so that's my experience with working with Mitch. It just, ummm...we take nothing seriously to the bane of our director. Did that kinda answer your question?"
-Gillian Anderson (laughing through this whole account)

"Mitch {Pileggi} has a definite sex appeal.  The man exudes pheromones.  It's uncanny."
--XF co-executive producer Howard Gordon, XF Magazine,
Summer, 1996.

"Supporting characters add depth to a story, and great actors leave their imprint with the audience."
Nicholas Lea at the Genie Awards, 2002

"David [Duchovny] asked me while I was picking out shoes in the closet. It wasn't a special occasion. He just asked, 'Will you marry me?'"
-Téa Leoni

When a reporter asked David Duchovny about the pop song named after him, in which singer Bree Sharp repeatedly asked, "David Duchovny, why won't you love me," the actor deadpanned,
"It was better than 'David Duchovny, fuck off and die.'-- That doesn't really rhyme."

Mr. DAVID DUCHOVNY ("Evolution"): He's humble.
Mr. ORLANDO JONES("Evolution"): I'm very humble. I don't speak to this sort of thing. Except when people ask me, 'David Duchovny, is he funny in the movie?' I go, 'He's hilarious and don't you ask me again. He's absolutely hysterical.'
Mr. DUCHOVNY: Kiss me. Kiss me now.

 "Certainly not for me, There may be for David."
Garry Schandling, when asked if the 'love sparks' from the Larry Sanders Show will appear in 'The X-Files
(Fandom, February 2000)

"The clothes are coming off!"
-Nicholas Lea, on the set of Shot In The Face

"Maybe someday I'll donate my red Speedo to the Smithsonian. They can stuff it with two plums and a gherkin and put it on display."
-David Duchovny, September 2001 issue of Games World of Puzzles

"TV directors just aren't sexy for some reason, Although, you know, Rob and Kim [Manners] are very sexy in my eyes."
-David Duchovny, TV Guide, 1999

"He wants to help Mulder when he can, but he has to be careful of his own back, especially with the 'smoking man.' It's
funny, but the guy who plays him [William B. Davis] doesn't actually smoke, and I do. In one episode when he's in Skinner's office, there's a sign on the desk saying NO SMOKING."
-Mitch Pileggi, on Skinner

ROBIN MAYHALL: A Krycek hater asked if there were any plans for Skinner to kill Krycek, preferably with his bare hands? (I added that last bit)
MITCH PILEGGI: I've been lobbying for a long time to let Skinner take care of Krycek. Bare hands would be nice.
email interview, October, 2000

"Sometimes I get to spank him a little to blend the colors. I defy anyone to say that David and I don't
 know how to have fun."
-Tea Leoni, on butt painting for charity

"If I could make a dumb analogy, M&S's UST is like a beautiful butterfly that everybody  smiles at and cups in their hands. M&K's UST is some weird bug that crawled up out of the drain and 1013 just can't help but poke it with a stick and squeal when it skitters around."
     -Magpie on alt.tv.x-files.analysis

"Daddy tiny girl here."
                D.Duchovny,doing his West impersonation, we hope

INTERVIEWER:  ...which two characters in tv history should have got it on that didn't?
DAVID DUCHOVNY: Gilligan and the Skipper.
(2001 - TripleJ Radio)

"I don't know about the baby, but I will be interested to see, like anyone who's a fan of the show [how it's resolved]," he said, and then joked, "They'll have to resolve me while I'm not there, so I hope they don't say, 'Oh yeah, Mulder's gone, what an asshole. He had a baby with me, he kissed me and then he left.' "
-David Duchovny, E! online, Jun 4, 2001

"Skinner-marinkey-dinkey-doo."
-David Duchovny (found this on Andrea's site-see bookmarks for her little corner of fabulousness, and I have no idea where she got it, or even if it's real, but I laughed so hard I fell out of my chair, which, I think, is ample justification for posting it here!)

"If Fox Mulder discovered that Larry Sanders  was a clone? I think he would stab him . . . but it wouldn't be with an ice pick."
Duchovny, David. Online posting. MSNBC Chat. 11 June 1998

"I think pornography is fine. Without  getting into a discussion about how it demeans women and all that shit, I like to watch other people fuck. That's the fun part-they're doing all the work. Something funny happened to me in Vancouver.  At hotels in Canada you get full porn, unlike in America, where they cut out all the penetration and  private parts, and you just get a shot of the guy from behind, which I don't need to see. When I  watched porn, I'd rent three tapes and do reconnaissance work first- I'd fast-forward to see what caught my eye and then I'd catalog it. Then I'd make my choices and go back and watch. But you  can't do that in a hotel because the movie won't play again for another eight hours. So if you're  masturbating and not just watching, you have to make a decision fast. I had to change my  porn-watching habits and commit early. In Vancouver I learned that beyond the initial commitment to the scene where I wanted to get off, I had no control over the moment I got off. Once you go over  that edge to an orgasm, you can't pull back. So you give over and then you're at the mercy of the cuts-and all of a sudden you're looking at a guy's sweaty ass and you're coming, and then you're thinking, Oh my God, I'm questioning my sexuality, because that wasn't half bad. That's my porn story from Canada."
-Duchovny, David. Interview with Lawrence Grobel. Playboy Dec. 1998.

"Mulder doesn't get off on Scully sexually - that's not what attracts him to  her He doesn't want to fuck her; he wants her understanding. He listens to her and needs her skepticism to keep his head screwed on straight - at least as straight as possible"
-David Duchovny; O'Toole, Lesley. "Dilemma for Mulder." Neon (UK) August 1998.

INTERVIEWER: Have you ever fantasized about your own funeral?
DAVID DUCHOVNY: "Yeah, mm-hm. It's always open casket and I look fabulous."
-Udovitch, Mimi. "Lord of the Files." Details June 1997.

The only episode which was completely my idea was for Mitch Pileggi, the actor who portrays Skinner, the Assistant Director of the FBI. He appears often in the series, but only for a few scenes. You know virtually nothing about him. I wanted him to have an episode that was his alone, so I wrote Avatar for him. He even has a scene that's pretty . . . hot [knowing smile]. He was very happy."
David Duchovny, "Duchovny X-Rayed." Studio (c) (France) Nov. 1998.

"[I got married] a bit late, I agree. In any other period of history I'd have been dead at that age and they'd have assumed I was gay. Like Michelangelo, or Leonardo da Vinci. But I was a late  developer. I didn't go through puberty until I was 35."
-David Duchovny, Duncan, Andrew. "Duchovny Xplains it all."
Radio Times (UK) 22-28 August 1998.

"Why is this man in so much pain? Why is he obsessed? Why would anyone want to live their life this way? How do we heal him? How do we show him the truth? Mulder thinks about UFOs the way other men think about sex."
-David Duchovny "An Audience With . . . David Duchovny." Cult TV Oct. 1997: 24-27.

"What I liked about Mulder was his quality of not caring what other people thought of him. He was very independent.  He wasn't interested in women. I liked that. He had kind of an intellectual quest, but not a sexual quest. That was the challenge of Mulder. Here was a guy that got almost sexually excited about aliens. And I wanted to be able to do that!"
  David Duchovny, CLEO May 1996.

"We like to keep the sexual tension underplayed, especially between the Smoking Man and me. Once we thought he was my father . . . it got more interesting."
-David Duchovny 1998

Q: " You got into some trouble with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) when you used the words "fag" and "sissy." did you have to apologize for being insensitive?"
A: [Laughs]"Nah, they called and said, "Oh David, you're smarter than that." I said, Look, I used faggot not as a homosexual term but as feeling emasculated. I understand what you guys are doing and it's great. People should be tolerant. Gay bashing is abhorrent. But I feel good about the English language and I like having the word faggot at my disposal, because it's a powerful word with a lot of associations. I won't have anybody take my words away from me."

"Obviously people's feelings are going to get hurt when you use certain words, but you can't outlaw words. They're really the history of our culture. They tell you what's going on. When you make words politically incorrect you're taking all the poetry out of the language. I'm pro anybody living their lives the way they want to live, sexually and otherwise; and I'm anti any kind of language repression."
-David Duchovny
(Both of the above quotes are from Movieline magazine, the April 2000 edition, and courtesy of Sherrie. I'm not sure how I feel about the first one, but I think the second one is brilliant)

TSW: You are very popular on the internet, as one might expect.
Duchovny: I am going to give birth on the internet.
[Today Show Weekend 1998]

Q: Are you planning to use Krycek more this season? I heard there was supposed to be an all Krycek episode last season but Nicholas Lea wasn't available for it. Will there be an episode explaining Krycek and Skinners relationship this season?
CHRIS CARTER: Yes. Krycek and Skinner will kiss! On New Year's Eve. Blame it on the nanotechnology!

INTERVIEWER: " Explain the apparent homoeroticism between Mulder and  Skinner."
CHRIS CARTER: " We're saving that for the cable series, 'The Triple X-Files.'"
   -- salon.com April 28, 2000

MAXIM MAGAZINE: What did your wife, Téa Leoni, think of it?
DAVID DUCHOVNY:"First she said, "I wish I'd written you that  song." And then she goes, "I wish somebody would write a song about me." So we wrote "Téa Leoni, Why Don't You Blow Me?" together. It's a beautiful tune."

"Every time Mulder smiles, people say, 'God, it was great to see you smile. Mulder never smiles.' I say, 'Mulder smiles a whole lot. He smiles at least once a show.' People get these ideas in their heads and they're impossible to shake. But, to be honest with you, Mulder is every bit as vulnerable and quirky as Ally McBeal. I think Mulder has pretty good legs, too."
-David Duchovny , Sci-Fi TV 1998

"That's great, now my crotch is gonna be up all night"
-David Duchovny, in an outtake for the episode Post Modern Prometheus