If anything changed the life of Californication star Evan Handler, it's his bout with leukemia over two decades ago.  Before he earned recognition for his role in this show, as well as an earlier one in Sex and the City, he battled a supposedly incurable form of leukemia, which interrupted his budding acting career.  Four years later, he was cured of it, and has since become a strong advocate of patients' rights.  It also formed the backbone of his autobiography, Time on Fire: My Comedy on Terrors.

With a newfound appreciation of life that has followed him throughout his revitalized career, he has written a follow-up to that book, entitled It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive—a collection of essays on life after he recovered from illness, endured multiple break-ups and later found himself happy with a wife and daughter.

“So the first book was really a blow-by-blow account of managing to survive a supposedly incurable illness, and this is the story of really reintegrating myself in life and reinvesting myself in life and the 20 years since becoming declared cured of the illness and the surprising irony and complexities of being able to re-embrace life,” he said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.  “I came out of that experience really having lived my life backwards, in a sense, being reduced in my 20s to a dying old man and re-emerging around 30 and trying to live my 20s in my 30s, not sure whether the future could be trusted or not.”

He also admitted to aiming for a more casual read, as compared to his first memoirs.  “I thought, [that's] not the way people really get to know each other,” he said.  “Wouldn't it be interesting if you could give people just as complete a sense of a person and even of a story that covers a period of time, but in the way that you get to know people that you meet, which is through their individual anecdotes?”

Inevitably he also got asked about his experience on Californication, where he stars as the best friend and agent of novelist Hank Moody.  David Duchovny, who plays the lead role, recently finished his treatment for sex addiction, and Handler admits he hasn't discussed the issue with him.  “I have not spoken to David since our last day of shooting the season that's currently airing,” he said.  “I mean, I can say that David and I have a great working relationship, but never once has he shared any of his private or personal life with me … And I've been told he's doing well, so I would say that I'm blissfully ignorant in this situation.”

Californication returns with a new episode tonight, with Hank paying a visit to Ashby's (Callum Keith Rennie) former lover to figure out the truth behind their troubled past relationship.  Catch it on Showtime tonight from 10pm.


-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Detroit Free Press
(Image courtesy of Showtime)