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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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