CULVER CITY, Calif. — David Duchovny seems calm and easy on the set. But there's a glimpse of a disheveled bed inside Duchovny's spacious trailer, his off-camera refuge on the studio lot. It's a testament to his long hours as principal star of "Californication," the hard-edged new Showtime series with a suggestive title.

Beds, in fact, are an essential prop on "Californication," a comedy-drama set in Los Angeles and rated MA for explicit language and nudity.

But "it's not a thinly veiled show that's supposed to titillate you," said Duchovny, best known for his role as dour, alien-obsessed FBI Agent Fox Mulder on the classic cult series "The X-Files."

On "Californication," premiering Monday, the lanky actor plays dysfunctional writer Hank Moody, who drowns his angst over writer's block and his split with his gorgeous girlfriend, Karen (Natascha McElhone), in bouts of drinking and casual sex.

"It was a character I thought would be challenging to play because he wasn't necessarily likable on the page," Duchovny said of Hank.

When Duchovny first read series creator Tom Kapinos' script for the show's pilot, "it wasn't really about a guy who indiscriminately gets into fights, boozes, who has sex with multiple women," he said. "It was actually about a guy who's doing that because he really wants to be with his family."

Hank and Karen's precocious 12-year-old daughter, Becca (Madeleine Martin), also sparks conflict.

The show's title is a play on the term Oregonians coined for the unwelcome migration of Californians to their state, Kapinos said. He shares executive-producer duties with Duchovny and Scott Winant.

"Californication" marks Duchovny's return to television as a leading man after roles in feature films including "House of D," which he wrote and directed, and "Trust the Man." He also played oddball cameo roles in the Ben Stiller movie "Zoolander" and on TV series including "The Larry Sanders Show," "Sex and the City" and "Life With Bonnie."

Even for an actor who specializes in quirky characters, though, Duchovny has picked a doozy with wayward Hank Moody.

"Sex is part of the problem with this guy," Duchovny said. "But we don't preach that it's a problem. It's not like he wants to kill himself every time he has sex with someone. He's actually enjoying it, while at the same time realizing that his time could probably be spent better elsewhere."

Doing Hank's sex scenes doesn't trouble Duchovny, he said. "I've done enough of those scenes to know what they are, and to know what to expect. I'm just taking my shirt off, big deal. I can just act it."

Duchovny finds much to relate to in Hank.

"He doesn't have a conventionally moral way of looking at the universe, and yet ultimately we will find that he actually is a very moral person, that he's one of these guys who tell the truth always, to his own detriment. To me, that's a moral way of living," he said.