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David Duchovny is having fun playing a monster.
Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE about his TV comeback in the new thriller series, Malice, Duchovny, 65, opened up about what it’s like to play a character that is unlike him.
“It makes me sick as a person, but it’s fun to play as an actor because it’s foreign to my way of thinking,” Duchovny said. “That’s the challenge of [it].”
He continued: “It’s almost like playing a monster, and it’s fun to play a monster. But he doesn’t think of himself as a monster, and you can’t do that either.”
Amazon
Duchvony explained that as an actor, he has to “fully embrace” a character as arrogant as Jamie Tanner, whom he plays in the Amazon Video series.
“This is a guy who, even though he has all this power and certainty and money, there’s an episode of actions that he’s taken in the past that have echoes and come back to haunt him,” Duchovny explained.
Malice follows Adam Healy, played by Jack Whitehall, a charming tutor whose one goal is to tear the Tanner family apart, and Jaime — the patriarch of the family — is at the center of his vengeance.
The six-episode series, released on Nov. 14, was created by James Wood and stars Duchovny and Whitehall, along with Carice van Houten, Phoenix Laroche and Teddie Allen.
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The X-Files star revealed that his character’s egotism drew him to play the role. He thought to himself, “Can I pull that off and also make him a human being? A real human being?”
“I had not played a guy like that,” he added. “It’s just that tingle that you get, like, ‘Oh, here’s a challenge that I like.’ ”
