David Duchovny Auditioned for All Three ‘Full House’ Male Leads and Thought ‘It’s Going to Change My Life,’ He Didn’t Get a Single Offer: ‘I Was Really Bad’ at Sitcom Acting
David Duchovny recently revealed on his “Fail Better” podcast that he auditioned for all three leading male roles on the sitcom “Full House”: Danny Tanner (played by Bob Saget), Jesse Katsopolis (John Stamos) and Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier). It turns out Duchovny got rejected thrice over on “Full House,” although he admitted that sitcom acting was never his strong suit.
“I auditioned for all three parts on ‘Full House,'” Duchovny said. “At first, they had me for, I think, the dad. And then they had me for the Stamos character. And then they had me for the other guy. I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to get one of these, and it’s going to change my life.'”
More from Variety
The “Full House” auditions took place during a time in Duchovny’s career where he was going up for tons of sitcom pilots. He thought “each one” might provide him his big acting break in Hollywood, adding: “I just needed to be able to pay my rent too.”
Duchovny never got his breakthrough from the sitcom world, probably because “I was really bad at that kind of stuff,” he said. By stuff he means the sitcom style of acting.
“I did not know how to do that sitcom stuff,” he said. “I don’t know what they were thinking, that they thought I was going to exist in that world. I mean, I guess I could have learned, but I wasn’t ready for that kind of, energetic performance that they need.”
“Full House” launched in 1987, but Duchovny would have to wait a few years to become TV’s hottest actor. That took place when “The X-Files” debuted in 1993 and served as Duchovny’s long-in-the-works breakout role. He played Fox Mulder opposite Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully for 11 seasons and 218 episodes between 1993 and 2002. The two actors would also reprise the roles in two movies: 1998’s “The X-Files” and 2008’s “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
