David Duchovny said in 2022 that he was nervous and scared when West followed him into acting, especially because she is his daughter. He later described working with her as a once in a lifetime experience, a rare turn for a parent who once worried about the same career path.
West at 27
West is 27 years old and has credits in A Mouthful of Air, Linoleum, Saint X and Painkiller. She played Aubrey in The Five-Star Weekend, and she also appeared alongside him in Soapbox and in The X-Files, including the final-ever episode of The X-Files.
In 2023, West said she did not care about acting at first. She was studying pre-med in college when she acted in a friend's play, then decided it was the first thing she wanted to commit to really getting to know and doing.
Closer in 2022
Speaking to Closer in 2022, he said, "My daughter West is acting. She majored in English in college, just like I did." He added, "I'm always scared of anybody I love getting into acting, especially a child of mine, but I think she has a toughness to her that can help her survive."
He also said, "My son is a naturally gifted, funny guy. He's a storyteller in that way, but has shown no interest in acting." That split leaves West as the family member who chose the same line of work, and it put her under a different kind of pressure from the start.
April on HELLO!
In April, Duchovny told HELLO! that working with West was "a once in a lifetime experience" and "a gift," even though he had tensions in his mind before filming. "I don't want my daughter to see me fail," he said, adding that those worries "went away very quickly" once the work began.
West said her mother, Téa Leoni, was "trepidatious" and "scared for me to enter that world," which makes the family story less about glamour than about whether the work can be carried without damage. In practice, Duchovny's arc is the one that matters now: fear at the start, then a working relationship with his daughter that he says cleared the doubt fast.
