-Our first guest tonight is a Golden Globe-winning actor
and best-selling author you know from his work
in "The X-Files" and "Californication."
His latest novel,
"Truly Like Lightning," is available now.
Please welcome back to the show David Duchovny.
How are you, David?
-Seth, I'm good. How are you? -I'm good.
I have heard tell that you are snowed in in a Pittsburgh hotel.
-Well, either that, or I'm lying
because I purchased the background "Pittsburgh Hotel"
for all my visual calls.
What do you think? -Oh, yeah, it's like...
[ Laughs ] It's very hard to tell, but that...
You know, my dad's from Pittsburgh.
That looks very much like one of their curtains.
-Yeah, I feel good about it. -[ Laughs ]
So, you know, a lot of people have taken up different skills
during quarantine, and you have taken up cooking.
How is that going?
-Uh, not well.
I feel that the smoke alarm in my building
is very sensitive, because... -[ Laughing ] Okay.
-Yeah, I just have a personal vendetta with the smoke alarm
because every time -- I'm very afraid of undercooked meat.
I've been cooking for my son, and I want to nourish him,
of course, but I don't want
to kill him with the undercooked meat.
So I just burn everything.
And the smoke alarm goes every time I cook.
And my son, it's like Pavlovian --
he comes out of the room as soon as the smoke alarm goes.
He comes out of the room just whipping this towel like this
to stop it, while my dog cowers in the corner
because there's some kind of --
there's a primal fear of that sound in dogs.
You know, it's so high and piercing.
And so I've got this dog pissing itself in the corner
and my son acting like Superman
and I'm burning whatever meat --
Or tofu. I'll burn anything.
-So, you don't feel as though you've made any progress
over the course of this last almost year?
-No, I'm confused over the designation "medium-high."
You know, when they say medium-high, I don't quite...
That's high to me.
I go right to high. -[ Laughs ] Yeah.
Well, now, that seems to be on you.
-[ Laughs ] -Now, I --
See, my thing is chicken.
Like, I wouldn't worry about undercooking meat
because, you know, a lot of places, they'll just eat...
You know, a lot of people like meat rarer than I will eat it,
but I feel like you're gonna be okay.
When I cook chicken, my wife is always --
she asks me so many times, "Did you cook it enough?"
that I feel like, by the end, it's like chicken jerky.
-Yeah, they put the fear of God in you with that,
you know, that one time.
You know, the salmonella. Salmonella!
-And then, you know, you touch the chicken
and everybody's like, "Did you wash your hands
after you touched the chicken?" At some point, it's like,
"You know what? Enough."
-It's like the board that you cut it on,
you've got to put it in the fire
and then you've got to scatter the ashes
in four different spots. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. -What's going on?
-You know, and then I'm like, "Wait a second.
The last time you cooked chicken, you didn't have to
go through all that stuff. Why is it, like, these
different rules for me?"
-That's right. -Yeah.
I'm glad we're getting to the bottom of this.
Does your son appreciate -- -Fox Mulder could figure it out.
-Does your son appreciate that he's got a dad
who cooks for him?
-I don't think so. [ Laughter ]
You know, actually, he does.
That's not right.
I think he's really kind of touched by my attempts.
And I'm touched by his cast-iron stomach
for putting it in. [ Laughter ]
-You guys are a nice match that way.
-We are.
-So, you actually, in all seriousness,
you had COVID this past November.
-I did. I did.
-I'm happy to see you're recovered.
Was it a tough go?
[audio drop] ...for me, you know?
And I did it -- I went through it with my son in the apartment,
so we kind of cordoned off the two areas where I would be
and where he would be. And, you know, I'd kind of
FaceTime with him from my room to his,
and it was kind of sweet. -Oh, well, that's very nice.
I want to talk about your book.
This is your fourth book, which is...
We've talked about the fact that you're also an author
when you've been here in the past.
And before I talk about the book,
I realized as I was looking at it, I'm like,
alright, one advantage that you would have as an actor
is your book jacket photo, and it's really good.
I mean, obviously, I feel like you have...
I mean, that's not fair to other authors out there.
Like, the very fact that you knew to, like,
look off over here.
-You know, that was actually --
We were in Russia playing music like 2 1/2 years ago,
and that was taken in Russia.
So that's my Russian photo.
-Four books.
Do you like the process?
I mean, when I write, I'm very when my writing is finished
and I look back at it fondly, but I will admit
that in the moment, I do not like writing.
Do you?
-Uh, I like having an idea that I'm trying to write.
Like you, I don't -- you know, the process of writing is --
it's very difficult. And, but the end result,
you know, when you've crossed the finish line or whatever
and you've written something, there's nothing quite like
that sense of accomplishment, at least for me,
because it just feels completely organic to yourself.
You know, it's just something that happened
between you and the page or the computer or whatever.
So, I know that that's kind of out there if I can get there,
but, you know, the process of doing it is really just
a daily battle with, you know, failure, basically.
And frustration, you know?
-And this was an idea that you had...
The seeds of this idea were planted years ago
when you were writing an "X-Files" script, correct?
-Yeah. Yeah, I kind of based the character on a Mormon forger,
a guy who forged scandalous Mormon documents
knowing that the church would then buy it up to suppress them.
He had this amazing gig going for a while.
And I kind of read a little about Mormonism at that point,
and then I created this Hollywood stuntman
who retires and goes into the desert to raise his family.
He converts to Mormonism and he raises his family
totally off the grid,
and for some reason, which you learn when you read the book,
he has to send three of his kids back into high school
in Rancho Cucamonga in order to like apply himself to the law.
And then, it becomes this amazing story.
If you could imagine like three kids who have been raised --
they have never met another human being.
They have never seen a cell phone,
they have never seen a TV,
and now they're in suburban Southern California.
-And how -- I mean, I would imagine you have to do
a fair amount of research in something, you know,
a religion that obviously you don't practice
before you write about it. -Well, yeah.
And I'm really lazy, Seth,
so research is not my bag, you know.
[ Laughter ] So I was like --
I just like to get down and start writing.
But I figured I was going to have to go to Utah, you know,
because I figured that's where most of the Mormons are
and I figured that's where the story would happen,
so I kind of found out some research and I said,
"Can you tell me where there are pockets of Mormons,"
kind of hoping that there would be a pocket of Mormons
somewhere that I knew the land, you know,
where I wouldn't have to go live for a year.
And lo and behold, it turns out
that Mormons founded San Bernardino.
And I had no idea.
So, all of a sudden, I could write an L.A. story
and I could put a bit of a spoof of Hollywood
in the middle of this book, which is what I do.
So I was like, "oh, I don't need to travel anywhere."
I could write this book just sitting on my ass
in my trailer in Malibu. -[ Laughs ]
Well I'm glad that the lazier option presented itself to you.
-Sometimes, you know, laziness can be the mother of invention.
I'm not sure that's how the saying goes, but it can be true.
-Now that I think about it,
you mentioned that it's a Hollywood story as well,
and the stuntman who's sort of the main character.
-Yeah. -Is he like stuntmen
that you have worked with in the past?
Have you had close relationships with stuntmen over the years?
-[ Laughs ] -Professionally.
-I feel like you're really digging in there.
-[ Laughs ]
You seem like a guy who would fall for a stuntman.
-[ Chuckles ] They're very macho.
Yeah. I mean, it is just a world that I knew, obviously.
Just the world of making movies and television or Hollywood.
And I kind of was able, because of --
and I understood kind of the --
I guess really what it is, Seth, is the athleticism of it.
I loved playing sports when I was younger,
and there is a certain kind of professional athleticism
to being a stuntman that it's tougher to get older.
You know, it is tougher when you can't play ball
like you used to, so I understood
his kind of searching at a certain point in his life
for that immediacy of physical contact and risk.
-And now, this has actually been optioned
to be a television show.
You were going to play this main character,
but you were not going to adapt your own work.
Is that correct? -No.
No, no, no, no, no. -Why were you hesitant?
Because obviously, you have written television
and you've wrote the book
that this television will be based on.
-It's almost like, "Hey, loved the monologue, Seth.
Could you sing it now? Could you sing it for us?"
-Oh, my God. I'm so glad someone finally asked.
[ Laughter ]
-Can you do it as a play? -Right, right.
-Can you build a building
that looks a little like your monologue?
You know, it's just the idea of --
And also because I love collaboration.
I have no interest in just filming the book.
The book is written. The book is what it is.
I would like to make something new,
and that happens with collaboration.
-That's really exciting.
I have also heard that you are --
I feel like we're all having a different reaction
to this new political moment we're living in.
You know, mine is a relief.
But you're missing -- are you missing it a little bit?
-Well, I -- the truth is, Seth, that I -- you know,
of all the Donald Trump impersonations,
yours is my favorite.
I don't think it's the most accurate.
But, no, no, no.
I mean, you're not like an impersonator,
but what you do, it is hard for me to put my finger on it
because your Trump is -- he's got a certain kind of joy
in him that Trump doesn't have.
There is a certain kind of childish-like wonder
in your Trump
that I wish Trump had but he doesn't.
And when I see you do it, I just -- I laugh.
I just love your Trump.
So I guess I miss your Trump.
I don't miss Trump, but I guess with Trump gone,
hopefully, I will miss your Trump.
-That's very kind.
My whole goal was that he would see it
and aspire to be my version of him.
-I appreciate that.
And like a good critic,
I think you were trying to help the nation,
and I'm sorry that it didn't work out.
-Thank you for -- It's nice to finally hear that from someone.
Thanks so much. It's always such a pleasure.
-Before you kick me off,
was that a conscious decision on your guys' part?
Because it's so not part of who he is,
that kind of -- he was childish, but --
-There have been -- I have made zero conscious decisions
about any impressions I have done
since I started doing this show,
which is a great departure from how much I thought about them
when I did them way worse at "SNL."
-Really? -You know, I feel like I put
so much thought into them that they were without joy.
-Right. -And so, I think the lack of --
Yeah.
I also think that thinking not at all about a Trump impression
is helpful because Donald Trump thinks not at all
about what he says either. -Well now, I totally screwed up
here because now, you're going to be thinking,
"Oh, is that what I'm doing?
Now I got to do that."
And I apologize.
But next time I come on,
I want to talk about all your impersonations.
We're going to go through them all.
-So we will probably go through them next week.
-Yeah. -Thanks, David.