David Duchovny: Why Won't You Love Me?

[festivus]

8 hours ago, Sharna Pax said:

And honestly I'm sort of shocked. Like, I thought he was very good at playing Mulder, but watching Mulder's big emotional scenes on The X-Files is sort of like watching an Olympic figure-skater set up a jump. You know he can do it, but you're never quite sure if he will do it, and there's always the potential for a spectacular crash.

So funny and true. You have a way with words.

I've got Californication on my list but I haven't watched it yet. I haven't been in the right kind of mood for it.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

I haven't watched Californication (or really, much else that either DD or GA have done outside of TXF) but my rewatch made me appreciate more some of the choices that DD made with Mulder.  Like I realized that the way he underplayed Mulder was an actual choice on his part - and not an indication that he can't act or doesn't have range - and that was, in fact, a surprisingly inspired way to play this intense character.  The obvious choice would have been to do the opposite, to play Mulder as this intensely on, crazy guy all the time, and not only would that have been exhausting to watch, it actually would not have allowed us to see Mulder's many layers.

The other thing I ended up realizing is how gifted DD is as a physical performer - he truly was able to end up conveying a lot by a look or an expression. I have often mentioned the little moment near the end of "One Breath," when the phone is ringing, and you can just tell by the expression on his face that Mulder thinks that this is the phone call he's dreading, the one to tell him that Scully has died.  It's an amazingly acted moment without words.  Similarly, in "Paper Hearts," when he's standing over the decomposed body they've discovered, you can just see the anguish on his face because he's figured out that it isn't Samantha, and he's glad about that, and yet he also knows that this is someone else's daughter.  Anyway, I don't think that as a viewer, I gave him enough credit for all of that the first time around. 

[festivus]

13 minutes ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

Anyway, I don't think that as a viewer, I gave him enough credit for all of that the first time around. 

I was too busy watching Scully so yeah I didn't either. BBC America has been showing the X-Files and this time around I've been paying attention to DD and he really does have some good moments. 

I've watched three episodes of Californication and yeah he doesn't remind me of Mulder at all even though his character has kind of a wry sense of humor, it doesn't remind of me Mulder. I'm not sure I'll keep watching though because it isn't really my kind of show. I don't know though. I don't care that much for the ex wife character and if the focus is going to stay on that relationship I don't think I'll watch.

[Sharna Pax]

9 hours ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

I haven't watched Californication (or really, much else that either DD or GA have done outside of TXF) but my rewatch made me appreciate more some of the choices that DD made with Mulder.  Like I realized that the way he underplayed Mulder was an actual choice on his part - and not an indication that he can't act or doesn't have range - and that was, in fact, a surprisingly inspired way to play this intense character.  The obvious choice would have been to do the opposite, to play Mulder as this intensely on, crazy guy all the time, and not only would that have been exhausting to watch, it actually would not have allowed us to see Mulder's many layers.

I totally agree. This is something I've been noticing too. Mulder is such a fascinating character in part because you don't see everything about him at first glance; he seems like a cool jock, but he's actually a painfully isolated weirdo. He seems like the chillest guy you'll ever meet, he has a joke for every occasion, and yet there's this core of fanaticism that drives everything he does. He's someone who could have had one life and has chosen another, and you can see those internal contradictions in the way Duchovny plays him. (This is one reason why I'm fascinated by that scene in Tempus Fugit with the birthday keychain. Mulder is trying so hard to be a normal, fun, supportive friend that he overcompensates and dials the mania way, way up, and you get a glimpse of what the show would be like if Mulder's outward energy matched his inner crazy. It's compelling to watch, but it's also slightly unsettling.)

10 hours ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

The other thing I ended up realizing is how gifted DD is as a physical performer - he truly was able to end up conveying a lot by a look or an expression. I have often mentioned the little moment near the end of "One Breath," when the phone is ringing, and you can just tell by the expression on his face that Mulder thinks that this is the phone call he's dreading, the one to tell him that Scully has died.  It's an amazingly acted moment without words.  Similarly, in "Paper Hearts," when he's standing over the decomposed body they've discovered, you can just see the anguish on his face because he's figured out that it isn't Samantha, and he's glad about that, and yet he also knows that this is someone else's daughter.  Anyway, I don't think that as a viewer, I gave him enough credit for all of that the first time around. 

I love that moment in One Breath too. I also like the early scene where Mulder gets the call to tell him Scully's in the hospital - he looks at the ringing phone and you can feel how listless and depressed he is, like just reaching for the phone might take more energy than he has. It's such a change from that to the later scene, where he's dreading the news but he's also very present in the moment, and you see him make up his mind to take the call and face whatever is waiting for him. I love how the episode is bookended by these two silent scenes, and all you have is body language to show you how far Mulder's come over the course of the episode.

I could list favorite Mulder moments till the cows come home. "I will be right there." The way he loses his voice when he's talking to Marita in Herrenvolk. The moment in the pilot when he's telling Scully about Samantha and you see the light of fanaticism in his eyes for the first time. The bit in Sein und Zeit when he says, "These parents who have lost - who have lost their children," with that little halt in the middle as if just getting through the sentence is physically painful.

My favorite Duchovny performance, though, is in Closure. It's an episode that's loaded with silly plot contrivances and could so easily not work at all, but it rings true to me on an emotional level, and most of that is down to Duchovny. He plays Mulder with this eerie, unnerving quietness, like he's halfway in another dimension; he has so much to process that he's not quite all there. He doesn’t spend the episode sobbing; instead he seems like someone who’s all cried out. I find the scene where Mulder reads Samantha's journal to Scully particularly moving, the more so because Mulder never loses control.

And you can see the moment – a few seconds after Samantha hugs him - when he finally accepts that this ghost child is his sister. You don’t fully appreciate how tense Mulder usually is until you see the tension leave him. And when he comes down from the hill and Scully asks him if he’s okay, and he says, “I’m fine. I’m free,” you know it’s true. My mind boggles at the thought of how good the acting has to be here, to make Mulder’s realization that Samantha suffered for six years and died at fourteen into a transcendent moment.

[Sharna Pax]

16 hours ago, festivus said:

I've watched three episodes of Californication and yeah he doesn't remind me of Mulder at all even though his character has kind of a wry sense of humor, it doesn't remind of me Mulder. I'm not sure I'll keep watching though because it isn't really my kind of show. I don't know though. I don't care that much for the ex wife character and if the focus is going to stay on that relationship I don't think I'll watch.

Well, if you don't mind spoilers -

Spoiler

yeah, the focus definitely stays on that relationship. You know the scene in the Odyssey where Odysseus almost makes it home, he's within sight of land, and then someone opens the bag of winds and back he goes? That's the show. Over and over, for seven years.

I can't say I recommend it. And I'm not crazy about the show's blend of pointless crassness and maudlin sentimentality. I did find Hank's character compelling, though, which is why I kept watching in spite of myself. I'm a sucker for those stubbly substance-addicted antiheroes.

[festivus]

Hmm. I don't think I'll keep watching then. Only three episodes in and I can already tell that I will never care about that relationship. Thanks.

[Taryn74]

4 hours ago, Sharna Pax said:

My favorite Duchovny performance, though, is in Closure.

Totally agree.  A thousand times agree.  That moment that he finally just lets go.....I just have no words for it.  I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes right now.

And after having the weight of 20+ years suddenly lifted from his shoulders, he still has the presence of mind to come down that hill and try to break the news to Harold as gently as he possibly could.  "You have to let him go now, Harold. He's protected. He's in a better place. They're all in a better place. We both have to let go, Harold." 

*cries all the tears*

[mledawn]

I started to watch Californication and it was sort of stupidly fun at first but then it never evolved. I went back to watch Callum Keith Rennie on it, then left. I think I read some recaps to find out how it all went down but...Meh.

I'm going to attempt Aquarius again. I tried and stopped, but the first season's on Netflix and why not.

[festivus]

2 hours ago, mledawn said:

I'm going to attempt Aquarius again. I tried and stopped, but the first season's on Netflix and why not.

I really liked him in that but I stopped watching too sometime in the first season. I just couldn't deal with the fictionalized Charles Manson. I wish it could have just been a show set in the 60s and left CM out.

[Sharna Pax]

8 hours ago, mledawn said:

I started to watch Californication and it was sort of stupidly fun at first but then it never evolved. I went back to watch Callum Keith Rennie on it, then left. I think I read some recaps to find out how it all went down but...Meh.

If you were going to watch more (and there's no reason you should), I'd say Season 4 is the way to go. The show pretty much treads water for the second and third seasons, but at the end of Season 3 all the Mia stuff comes back to bite Hank and his world falls apart, and that at least is a story.

8 hours ago, Taryn74 said:

That moment that he finally just lets go.....I just have no words for it.

The scene that I really have a hard time putting into words is the one just before the dream-vision, when they go to the nurse's house and Mulder hangs back and lets Scully and Harold talk to her for him. Duchovny plays it like part of him is already on that hill with the ghost children, like he's so deep inside his own mind that talking to another person would be unbearably jarring. He's tuned to another frequency; he's listening for something that we can't hear. So that when the ghost child appears, and the music starts, it seems right.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

Re Closure - I could write post after post about why I love Mulder's character (which is a little different in how I feel about Scully - I think I respect Scully more than I love her) but it comes down to the fact that I think Mulder is the rare male character we see as authentically vulnerable on a consistent basis while not being emasculated in any way.

We see his vulnerability around Samantha, with the way he interacts with his parents, with his relationship with Scully - and yet, he also seems completely masculine and not weak. And yet, he's not an example of toxic masculinity (for the most part - even Mulder has his moments).

And I give a lot of the credit for that to DD, as much as I do to the writers. Because he is able to convey both empathy and sexuality in equal measure. Without those things, the character of Mulder isn't the iconic character he became.