Summary
David Duchovny returns to the director’s chair for the first time in 20 years withReverse the Curse. The four-time Emmy nominee is generally best known for his star-making turn asFox Mulder in theX-Filesfranchise, co-leading both the original show, its two movies and two revival seasons with Gillian Anderson. In the years since, Duchovny has found further acclaim with the Showtime comedy showShameless, as well as the NBC historical crime thriller,Aquarius.
The dramedyReverse the Cursenot only marks Duchovny’s first return to the director’s chair since 2004’sHouse of D, but also an adaptation of his 2016 novel,Bucky F*cking Dent. The story revolves around Ted Fullilove, an aspiring writer in the ’70s who can’t seem to break free from his job as a peanut seller at baseball games. When Ted finds out his father is dying of cancer, he begins looking to find ways to care for him, before ultimately realizing that when the Boston Red Sox play well, his father begins to feel better. Ted conspires with the neighbors in his dad’s town in the hopes of tricking him into thinking they’re on a winning streak.
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In addition to writing and directing the film, Duchovny co-leads theReverse the Cursecast as Ted’s father, Marty, withUpgrade’s Logan Marshall-Green starring as Ted andBrooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatrizas Marty’s nurse, Mariana. Joining the trio in the dramedy are Jason Beghe (One Chicago), Evan Handler, Santo Fazio, with Daphne Rubin-Vega and Pamela Adlon. Having made its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival,Reverse the Curseis now opening wide.
Ahead of the movie’s wide release,Screen Rantinterviewed David Duchovny, Logan Marshall-Green and Stephanie Beatriz to discussReverse the Curse, the emotional journey to bring the book to life on screen, and Duchovny’s thoughts on Ryan Coogler’s in-developmentX-Filesreboot.
FindingReverse The Curse’s Tone Was Important For Duchovny
Though already intimately familiar with his source material, Duchovny recalls that one of the biggest keys to bringingBucky F*cking Dentto life withReverse the Cursewas landing on its unique tonal mix of comedy and drama. The filmmaker ultimately pointed towards casting Marshall-Green and Beatriz as a major benefit for how he pulled off this tricky tight rope:
David Duchovny: You know, novels and movies both have what they do well, and they’re not the same things. So, I knew the book worked, I knew the screenplay had a chance to work, but it was really all about finding the right tone, the tone that could sustain a man dying of cancer, and also a fart scene. So, you’ve got your two sides there, and I needed to hire actors who could sustain that, and live in both those worlds. When I cast Logan, and when I cast Stephanie, that’s when I knew I was on the way to making a successful movie and finding the tone that I was seeking.
Marshall-Green Was Shocked Duchovny Wanted To Cast Him In The Lead
For Marshall-Green, he was not only thrilled to get to partake in the film, but even recalled being a little taken aback by Duchovny approaching him to leadReverse the Curse’s cast, noting how he hadn’t been offered similar parts with “those dynamics and the tone” of the movie before:
Logan Marshall-Green: Once I read the screenplay, I was like, “Wait, they want me for this?” I hadn’t gotten that role before, I hadn’t gotten those dynamics and the tone. I read the screenplay, but then you read the book, I kind of really understood the tone, because there’s so much left out in the screenplay, whereas David’s words just really filled in so many blanks. I immediately was like, “This is a duty.” I really mean it, I was like, “I am not going to let David down, because it’s such a beautiful role, and it demands so much of an actor.”
It’s a dream role, I feel like, and I just like disappearing, and he offered me an opportunity to all the way through the process. It was a set that allowed me to just stay in a real Teddy area, which is kinda like a little zen-y and, at times, not zen-y [Chuckles]. But yet, I don’t know, there was something really safe about David’s set to be totally unsafe in, and that’s all I ever want as an actor, is that process.
Reverse The CurseTook Beatriz Back To Her Stage-Acting Days
While people may know her best for her work as Rosa inBrooklyn Nine-Nineor Quiet inTwisted Metal, Beatriz has quite the extensive background of exploring different genres with her performances. When it came to finding the unique balance of comedy and drama presented inReverse the Curse, the star compared it to her early career acting on the stage, with drama being something she finds “really fulfilling in a totally different way” from comedy:
Stephanie Beatriz: I like that stuff. When I did theater, before I ever started doing television or film, most of the stuff that I gravitated toward was drama, you know, Shakespeare, or American classics; Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller. That was the stuff that I was getting cast in, and that was the stuff that I was doing. It wasn’t until Brooklyn where I really tried to even do comedy in a much bigger way, so for me, it’s really thrilling to be able to go back to something that I find really fulfilling in a totally different way.
Obviously, it’s very fulfilling when you make someone crack up, but if you’re able to also make somebody feel something, or at least access some emotion that maybe they’ve been trying to push down or put to the side, and you can make them laugh within the same kind of story, that’s really a gift for an actor, because it’s how we handle stuff in real life. You have to sometimes just take the air out of the thing with a joke. When my dad was dying, he was f—-ng hilarious, and it was all about s–t that was not funny, not really funny, but because of the situation.
It was funny, and that’s what a sitcom is, right? It’s situational comedy. And there were elements of the situational comedy in this movie that I really loved. Like the farts in the bed, but like so many other things, too, where people in the scenes just have to make a joke, because you can’t survive without it.
Duchovny Has No Thoughts On TheX-FilesReboot (But Wishes Them Luck)
After co-leading the charge on the supernatural thriller show for every prior installment,theX-Filesfranchiseis going in a fresh new direction asBlack Panther’s Ryan Coogler is currently developing a reboot. While Gillian Anderson has recently shared her interest in the project and potentially reprising her iconic role of Dana Scully, Duchovny is a little more reserved, instead just wishing Coogler and his team luck:
David Duchovny: I don’t really have any thoughts on it. It seems to be a whole separate project. I wish them luck.
Reverse The Curse’s Costume Design Helped The Cast Embrace Its Period Setting
In reflecting on the movie’s ’70s period setting, Duchovny humorously remarked that “necessity is the mother of invention” when it came to authentically depicting the era, given he “had no money”. The filmmaker and Marshall-Green and Beatriz also went on to praise Costume Designer Lou Schad, with the latter in particular noting that the outfits lent to the feeling of “real people” and “lived-in” clothes.
David Duchovny: I had no money. [Laughs] I just had to get locations that looked right, hire a thrifty production designer, Luke Carr, who was smart and thrifty. Hire a DP that knew how to hide certain things of the modern world, and what to shoot at, and put great actors in front of things that didn’t fit in this world that I was shooting in. [Chuckles] Necessity is the mother of invention.
Stephanie Beatriz: I thought the costume design really helped with that.
Logan Marshall-Green: Lou Schad, she was great.
Stephanie Beatriz: It didn’t feel like a Halloween costume of that time, it felt like real people, real clothes, lived-in. Most of it, I think, was vintage stuff that she sourced, so much time and care. I wore her grandmother’s bracelet for quite a few scenes, there was just a lot of story in the clothes, life in the clothes, so it just felt very real and realistic.
David Duchovny: Thank you for bringing up Lou Schad, that’s totally right.
AboutReverse The Curse
Reverse the Curse follows Ted (Marshall-Green), a failed writer-turned-Yankees Stadium peanut slinger who moves back home after learning of the failing health of his Red Sox-obsessed father, Marty (David Duchovny). While Marty strives to make amends for his past, his health drops abruptly whenever his beloved Sox lose a game. To keep his dad’s spirits up, Ted takes matters into his own hands and manufactures a winning streak with the help of a crew of dad’s neighborhood pals. In the process, Ted strikes up a bond with Marty’s charming “Death Specialist,” Marianna (Beatriz), and the prospect of a new love reignites his ambitions. An ode to the bond between father and son, this warm and witty film demonstrates how life truly belongs to the losers, and that the longshots are the ones worth betting on.
Reverse the Curseis now in select theaters and on VOD.
