He might have a hot new show on the go with Californication, but David Duchovny was more than happy to return to the one that made him famous with the new big screen movie The X-Files: I Want To Believe.

How does it feel to be Fox again?
"To be foxy? It was good. It took a little while to get back into it, but once I was working with Gillian [Anderson] again, it all kicked in. Once Mulder and Scully got together, we figured it out."

Was there anything you especially missed about him?
"It wasn't so much that I missed Fox Mulder, although I did once I started playing him again. I like his spirit and I like his drive and curiosity. I mean, I like the man a lot, I like the character; his integrity, his morale - I like all that stuff."

Why so many years since the last movie?
"It was just a matter of timing. Right after the series ended, everybody was dying to not do it any more. [Creator] Chris [Carter] had run the show for nine years, which is a long time, and he burnt out. I was burnt out, and so was Gillian. It wasn't like any of us were going to rush back in and do a movie. We finally just got off the television show after nine years. So, it wasn't going to happen right then. We were talking about it for two or three years, and it just happened to come together now. And we'll see if the timing is right. I don't know if we can stand back objectively and say, 'I know exactly when this movie should come out.' This feels like the right time. It might be too early, it might be too late. We'll see. I don't know."

There have been a few rumors swirling around - what can you tell me about the kiss? Is that an integral part of the movie?
"You mean with Xzibit? Oh dear, I gave it away. Mulder has changed..."

Your kiss with Gillian Anderson! Okay, what about the rumour that Mulder and Scully are one person, that it's all happening in someone's imagination?
"What does that even mean? 'Mulder and Scully are one person'? I understand it as a philosophical concept, but as an actual question? Do we at some point realise that Mulder and Scully are like Anthony Perkins from Psycho?! Wow! I will safely tell you that that is not true! Happily. I am sorry that I even have to!"

One other rumour - are there absolutely no aliens in this movie?
[pauses] "I'm not sure if that's true. Security was so tight on the story. I read the whole script, obviously, but the script that I carried around had only my scenes in it. I don't remember if there were aliens in the other scenes. There may have been. They're never completely out of the picture, I would say. As long as Mulder is around, there's a possibility that they'll show up."

Regarding the zeitgeist of the TV show - it being hugely successful for its time - how will this movie fit in?
"Well, that was never the purpose. To get big like that was just a matter of luck and timing. If you try to do something like that, it never works. Somebody said, 'You know, for the opening of Californication, we need to have some kind of viral YouTube-style promotion.' Well, how do you go about making a viral YouTube thing? It just happens. So, [the success of the show] that just happened. Another thing was the difference between the Clinton Presidency and the Bush Presidency. When we were making the show, it was mostly the Clinton Presidency and it seemed like an open air presidency. We knew what was going on, for the most part, as much as we do know what's going on with the presidency [in the government]. It seemed like most stuff was happening above board. We were at peace. The economy was doing well, for the most part. And then we have a Bush presidency. So, we have this guy, Mulder, who is seeing conspiracies everywhere and saying that these people are lying, and the people in government are lying and the FBI is lying and it seems like he's crazy because it doesn't seem that way. But the show says it's different. Now we have a Bush presidency where most people would be comfortable saying they work secretively. They seem to be a covert government. We're involved in a war, the economy is not prospering and there are people seeing conspiracies for real everywhere. And now Mulder comes back and the question is, 'Do you like him more now? Do you want to see him more now?' He seems to be more in tune now with some zeitgeist, in many ways. The zeitgeist thing always really confused me, because it's just an entertainment. It doesn't become a huge phenomenon if it's not good; just because it has the right ingredients, it doesn't become good. That doesn't compute. I always said we made a good show, some classic television, so that's why it got that big. Hopefully we still know how to make good entertainment. That will lead to success in this endeavour as well."

So how about those conspiracies?
"In my experience, it's not possible to keep secrets that well, especially when they are as big as the ones we are talking about, like the existence of aliens, or the fact that the US government [may have] attacked itself during 9/11. Things like this; these are big conspiracies. And it's not possible that somebody on their death bed hasn't said, 'Hey, you know what? I know where the aliens are. Here they are.' It's not possible that somebody knows who killed Kennedy and hasn't said it. What I know of human nature, how they like to spill the beans, it doesn't work that way. Conspiracies don't jibe with my conception of the inability of human beings to keep secrets."

The X-Files is released on July 24.