'You know who the bad guy is all along'
David Duchovny plays a family man under threat in Malice. But it wasn’t just the script that drew him to the role…
SKY
- Emma Cox
Ad
X-Files and Californication star David Duchovny might seem an odd on-screen pairing with UK comedian Jack Whitehall — but the Hollywood stalwart is a bit of an Anglophile, especially when it comes to TV and British jokes.
“People don’t expect me to be as sarcastic as I am,” he says. “I’m more deadpan than most English people. I love British humour and television.”
Beyond that, he would have originally said he was drawn to the part of Tanner patriarch Jamie for the usual actorly reasons — a great script, the concept, so on and so forth, darling. But now, he’s ready to come clean.
Duchovny with X-Files co-star Gillian Anderson. Alamy
“I’d be lying if I said coming to Greece wasn’t part of the reason, because I’ve never been here,” he admits. “Greece has figured prominently in my thinking my entire life. I loved Greek mythology as a kid; it’s the whole basis of Western civilization, thought, literature, poetry and music. But I also liked that the script was kind of a Ripley, where you know who the bad guy is all along, but the thrill is wondering when he’s going to get caught.”
Interestingly, Duchovny was also drawing on his own experiences to play the part, having had a real-life male nanny — not a psychopath, he’s keen to emphasise — to care for his children.
“Having a manny is a different dynamic,” he says. “Our manny was super macho, so it was like having a competitor in the house, and that’s what this is.
Ad
“It’s fascinating. We invite these strangers into our lives in the most vulnerable sense by asking them to take care of our children. There have been horror movies about that, so it’s ripe for that interesting psychological treatment.”
Authors
Emma Cox
Ad
Ad
Get the Christmas double issue
Too much to watch at Christmas? Let Radio Times do the choosing to find something the whole family will enjoy.
Ad