POSITIVE DRINKING It’s cocktail time for Duchovny’s Hank Moody in Californication.

Photo: Cliff Lipson/Showtime

“At some point, ‘likability’ became everything in this business,” David Duchovny says, speaking via cell phone from one of the Los Angeles soundstages where his new series Californication is shot. “No matter what you’re doing, the notes you get from higher up always seem to come back to, ‘What can we do to make this character more likable?’ ”

Clearly, Showtime wasn’t sweating the likability factor when it gave a green light to Californication, writer-producer Tom Kapino’s series—no relation to the identically named Red Hot Chili Peppers album—featuring the former X-Files star as Hank Moody, a divorced, hard-partying, womanizing novelist afflicted with writer’s block. Hank denigrates himself as a “one-hit wonder,” but that doesn’t stop him from hitting up a sexy young woman named Mia (Madeline Zima) when he spots her reading his novel in a bookstore. He’s a disorganized father to his 13-year-old daughter, Becca (Madeline Martin), an old soul who shares her dad’s mordant wit, and in conversations with his ex-wife, Karen (Natasha McElhone), he affects a weirdly proprietary tone. (Upon learning that Karen is considering remarriage, he blurts, “Don’t I get a say in this?”) When his agent, Charlie (Evan S. Handler), sets him up on a double date, Hank insults his potential match all through dinner, bullying her into vindicating his low opinion of himself.

The above description makes Californication sound unbearable. Yet the pilot episode is more endearing than oppressive­—partly because of its down-and-dirty momentum (fleeing various lovers and sometimes their angry mates, Hank is the Indiana Jones of impulse sex), but mostly because of Duchovny. The actor foregrounds the character’s awareness that he’s a basket case, and presents Hank’s decent qualities (his bond with Becca, his still-deep love for Karen) not as redeeming features, but as vestiges of a time when life made sense.

“Most of the roles I’ve done since The X-Files are, if not straightforwardly heroic, then at least comedically heroic,” says Duchovny. “Hank is an antihero, in the vein of work I admire from the ’70s, a period when you could have a hero do despicable things and still be relatable. When I read the script, I thought of Blume in Love, Shampoo somewhat and even a comedy like Skin Deep, with John Ritter­—stories where being down-and-out is funny. In fact, honesty and desire are likable. If someone follows his heart, it’s likable.”

That’s what’s Duchovny has been doing since the second half of The X-Files’ nine-season run. The late ’90s were marked by perennial behind-the-scenes suspense over whether he’d return to play FBI special agent and conspiracy theorist Fox Mulder for one more year (he always did, although the character eventually became a glorified supporting player), as well as the actor’s $25 million lawsuit charging that he’d been cheated out of syndication royalties. (The suit, which named X-Files creator Chris Carter as a coconspirator, was eventually settled for $20 million. There are no hard feelings between Carter and Duchovny; a second X-Files movie is set to begin production in November, with costar Gillian Anderson reprising her role as Mulder’s partner, Dana Scully.)

In that same period, Duchovny branched into writing and directing, first on The X-Files and then with his debut feature, the poorly received 2004 coming-of-age movie House of D, loosely based on Duchovny’s childhood in early-’70s Manhattan. After laying somewhat low for a few years, returning to series work with something as proudly debauched as Californication might seem like a risky venture for the 47-year-old actor. But he disclaims any sense of pressure, describing the show as “a learning experience” and “a challenge.” He says that in hindsight, he feels the same way about The X-Files, backstage drama aside. “It was great television. It also taught me how to be a competent professional and to figure out what I do best.”

Duchovny says he hopes to direct an episode of Californication next season, and he’d like to make the show’s ’70s-movie lineage explicit by courting icons of that era to play guest stars. (His first target: Ryan O’Neal, whom Duchovny directed in an episode of Bones.) But for now, he’s concentrating on his performance as Hank. “When I read the script I thought, This guy’s an asshole, but I think I can play him in a way that makes him appealing,” Duchovny says. “Then my wife read it and said, ‘I don’t know how you’re gonna pull this off.’ I guess we’ll see.”

Californication debuts Mon 13 at 10:30pm on Showtime.