CULVER CITY, Calif. — David Duchovny says go ahead–laugh at his sex scenes in Californication.
The former X-Files star made the comment today on the set of his racy Showtime series, which returns for a second season in Canada this September on The Movie Network/Movie Central.
Duchovny was speaking to a few dozen foreign journalists invited today to the suburban Los Angeles set. It is interesting traveling with the European and Asian press cats, many of whom are based in Los Angeles. They ask different questions then the usual North American press corps, and often get different answers.
Duchovny was asked, for example, why he’s not crazy about doing nude scenes. “I just think it’s embarrassing to be naked in front of people,” said Duchovny. “I wish I could let my freak flag fly” in front of various cast and crew members, he said, although, the process of filming sex wasn’t his main objection, it was the sex act itself. As Duchovny put it, “Sex is a ridiculous looking behaviour.”
The many sex scenes in Californication aren’t there to “turn on” viewers anyway, Duchovny insists. It is a comedy, albeit a dark, adult comedy. So the sex scenes are supposed to be funny, or as he wryly put it,”When I do it, it’s funny.” (For more, follow this link to the Toronto Star pickup of the CP story I just filed on Duchovny.)
There will be plenty of sex scenes in season two of Californication, although Duchovny’s struggling writer character, Hank Moody, won’t necessarily be at the centre of the action. Co-star Pamela Adlon, who plays the wife of Moody’s literary agent, says there will be plenty of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll this season.”
Part of that comes from her character’s involvement with a hair removal clinic. Adlon, who also does the voice of Bobby Hill on King Of The Hill, had reporters in stitches with her tales of prepping for the role at a real waxing clinic. She described one male customer as having “hair everywhere–beyond Robin Williams.” Adlon got very hands-on with her training, with men and women, saying she had “touched things she had never touched before.”
Her character also struggles with a cocaine addiction during Year Two. Adlon says the white powder she has to snort to simulate cocaine is actually a mixture of powdered milk and sugar. At least that was what the prop guys told her. “David snorted it off somebody’s ass last year,” she says, demonstrating how the Californication star leads by example. “If he’s gonna do it…”
