"I think this movie is more true to who I am than my persona, which is not so much glib as sort of ironic," says Duchovny, before heading to the former site of the House of D — the Women's House of Detention, demolished in 1974 — at Sixth Avenue and 10th Street in Greenwich Village.

"Audiences may learn that about me through the movie. [The rest] is sort of a character I created to appear in public. "People will say House of D is a personal film, but what makes it personal is that it's about some of my own experiences. And I think the only way to make a movie that's truly universal to everyone is to actually be very specific. "In Hollywood, they say the phrase 'personal film,' as if you did it for yourself. It's not that way at all. I want to connect with people."

He also helps a mentally challenged co-worker, Pappas (Robin Williams), deliver meat around the city, and deals with a drug-addicted mother (played by Duchovny's wife, Tea Leoni). Duchovny appears at the beginning and end as the adult Tommy, now living in Paris and telling his story to his family. "About 14 percent of the movie is from my own life," says Duchovny. "I figured it out: I did deliver meat as a kid, but my mother did not have a pill problem, so those cancel each other out. ... Oh, and the French wife I have in the movie is fictional."