BookCon 2015: David Duchovny on Spiritual Cows, Circumcised Pigs

BookCon 2015: David Duchovny on Spiritual Cows, Circumcised Pigs, but Not Cancer Man

By Beth Levine |
May 30, 2015

David Duchovny, best-known for his portrayals on TV of Fox Mulder on The X-Files, and Hank Moody on Californication, is finally where he originally thought he would end up: as a writer. Holy Cow, his “charming fable about dignity and tolerance, complete with anthropomorphized animals, and replete with puns, double-entendres and sophisticated humor,” (Kirkus Reviews, starred) came out in February from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Oh, and there’s a cow named Elsie Bovary.

Duchovny, who will talk about and sign his book in the Macmillan Meeting Room (3139) today at 2 p.m., took a few minutes to speak with Beth Levine for Show Daily@BookCon.

Everyone mentions your Princeton and Yale background in English. Were you a writer before you become an actor?

That was my original ambition, the story I told myself when I was thinking about my life after school. The original concept of going to graduate school was so I could teach and write. I came to acting through writing, but it was very lonely sitting in a room by myself. At the age of 22, I couldn’t quite face that. I thought playwrights and screenwriters had more fun because they get to collaborate. When I tried my hand at that, I decided I should learn something about speaking words. I came to acting as someone who was going to write for actors.

Maybe. If I hadn’t been published, I might be now in a shadow government in high levels with a Canadian accent. Thanks to my publisher, FSG, you’ve all been saved.

I had this idea that if I were a cow, wouldn’t I try to get to India if I was trying to save myself from being eaten? It felt like an animated feature. I pitched it to Disney and Pixar. They passed. Seeing the book now, I realize that was probably a smart move.

Joy of expression, yes. But as I grow as an actor, as I feel I get better, words are less and less important to me. What’s more important is what is going on beneath the words.

I hear you’ve signed for a second novel. Can you give us any sneak peeks at that?

It’s called Bucky F@&*ing Dent. It’s set in 1978, when the Yankees overtook the Red Sox and the curse of the Babe continued.

We start shooting six episodes in June in Vancouver. I don’t know when it will air or anything about Cancer Man.

They got together in the last movie.

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?

[Sigh.]

This article appeared in the May 30, 2015 edition of PW BookCon Daily.


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Thanks.