David Duchovny makes curiosity companionable, with dry wit and little visible strain. We rate him most highly opposite Gillian Anderson: their shared attention makes The X-Files inviting even when its mysteries begin to test our patience.
Fi1m perspective
Fox Mulder persists with an enquiry that could easily become a lecture, and David Duchovny keeps it conversational. In The X-Files (1993), his ease gives us time to take an interest in the questions without being bullied into finding them important. We grew fond of Mulder because Duchovny makes his curiosity warm rather than forbidding. He allows an investigator absorbed in unexplained events to remain someone worth spending an evening with.
Anderson's Dana Scully is crucial to this. Her replies receive as much attention as his lines, and Duchovny stays engaged while she speaks. The two suggest a continuing interest in each other without insisting that we notice the acting. That helps sustain a series whose secrecy can be wearing, although even their company cannot make every delayed answer satisfying.
Before Mulder, there was the recurring role of Denise Bryson in Twin Peaks (1990); later came Hank Moody in Californication (2007), another television lead, this time in contemporary dramatic comedy. That move suits an actor whose dry wit is as recognisable as his intellectual curiosity. His consistency across a long series is a substantial strength. We do not need him to make a fresh impression every episode. A short comic part can suit him too, since his dry delivery leaves room for the absurdity of the situation to do its work.
The film work is less reliable. His timing serves the hand-model cameo as J.P. Prewitt in Zoolander (2001), where Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's performances carry a flimsy conspiracy plot. There is less to recommend in Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal (2002), which casts Duchovny as Gus, a producer with a birthday. Here, the ensemble's lengthy accounts of unhappiness give us little reason to care about the people speaking. Start with The X-Files, and allow for the possibility that watching the investigators will be more satisfying than getting an answer.
Biography
David Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He is best known for playing Fox Mulder in the television series The X-Files (1993–2002, with later appearances) and Hank Moody in Californication (2007–2014). Both roles earned him Golden Globe awards.
Born on 7 August 1960 in New York City, Duchovny graduated from Princeton University in 1982 with a B.A. in English literature and received an M.A. from Yale University. He appeared as Gus in the film Full Frontal (2002) and has credits including a recurring role as Denise Bryson in Twin Peaks (1990–1991, 2017). He has also directed episodes of series such as The X-Files and Bones.
