Actress Tea Leoni said in New York it was her idea to act in husband David Duchovny's big-screen directorial debut, "House of D."

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The "Spanglish" actress said she initially tried to distance herself from Duchovny's project, but admitted his script was so good, she just couldn't resist asking for the part of a grieving widow raising a 12-year-old boy in 1970s Greenwich Village.

"I kind of waited around, thinking that if I made myself available in bed and, yes, in the living room and every where else, that eventually he'd get the idea, 'I'm right there!' But it never came," Leoni said.

Leoni said she waited until the "X-Files" hero was about to offer the role to another actress before she revealed she wanted it.

"I didn't care that I'd put him in a terrible spot. I knew I was beyond asking for it. I was pretty well demanding it, if he knew what was good for him. And I got it, as well I should, sleeping with him and all," she quipped.