David Duchovny – I've Got Stories to Tell

The actor and writer opens up about fatherhood, his career and aging

- By bSusan Hornik

David Duchovny was working on his doctoral thesis and headed toward a career in academia when a friend turned him on to acting. I had a summer free in-between years of graduate school. A buddy of mine had become an actor. It was not something anybody I ever knew did. Nobody. I am from New York, but just didn't know any actors, David tells Closer. I was headed down a very rational, discursive road. I needed to get in touch with my emotions, and acting was my savior. I fell in love with it.

In addition to his starring roles on the television series The X-Files and Californication, the two-time Golden Globe winner is a New York Times bestselling author and a singer-songwriter. His novella, The Reservoir, was recently released. Writing is the one place in all my art that I get to do it all by myself, David, 61, explained during a chat with Closer at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival.

What came first: Your desire to write or act or sing?

Well, not sing. I mean, I've joked about it before, but it's true. I really don't have natural pitch or a singing voice. I had a couple of very negative experiences when I opened my mouth to sing at my church school. So I never thought about singing, period. But I think I would have identified myself as a writer always because I'm not particularly outgoing or obviously energetic in a way that people think of actors.

A lot of actors have very big personalities.

Yes, and I wasn't the kind of person where somebody's like, You seem like an actor, you should act. It was more like, Hey, you're really laid-back and mellow. You seem to not have any problems at all. I was like, I got a lot of problems, I'm just not exhibiting them for you.

What started you writing?