A new podcast, “Hey Danny, It’s Mulder“, explores the behind the scenes of The X-Files and has high production values with nice sound effects and script readings to immerse you into the world of the series. It’s incredible that a thirty year old show can still inspire people to explore their passion creatively.

The podcast has an interview with Katrina McCarthy, lead costume designer for The X-Files season 11. But she was also part of the costume department during the early years in Vancouver for The X-Files and Millennium (her work is uncredited, which happened often with the extended crew), and for the prehistoric and Antarctica scenes of “Fight the Future”. As always, some notes from me on the interview:

• Her start for the show was frantic, dressing hundreds of people with US military costumes (could this have been for the military parade in “Unrequited” in season 4?).
• Everybody wanted to work in TXF, but the hours were very long and it was hard work.
• “FTF”: they received the Neanderthal costumes from LA. The preparation was done very early in the mornings in Pemberton, then they were flown by helicopter to the glacier for actual shooting.
• The lead costume designer of s10 was unavailable for s11; for her working for the revival was like coming back full circle. Her interview with Carter was them walking their dogs.
• There are discussions on-set to work with fabrics and colors in interaction with the director of photography and lighting and set design crews, sometimes with the director and actors.

Some notes on season 11:

• There are some 8-10 multiples for costumes, especially for action scenes, like in the gunfight in “This”.
• The “Forehead Sweat” teaser was based on “The Twilight Zone” black and white look, with 1940s fabrics and designs. Carter wanted to revisit many places where they did the revival, like the Ovaltine cafe. Mulder’s “squatchin” suit was from a military surplus shop, run by Ian (the same as the person working on TXF on her 1st day on the show; full name?). The alien suit was inspired by “Mars Attacks!” and “The Twilight Zone”.
• In “Followers”, in the “self-driving” Tesla, the stunt woman driver was *inside* the car’s seat. 
• In “Nothing Lasts Forever”, Fiona Vroom’s suits (Barbara Beaumont) were actual vintage from the 50s-60s.
• Scully’s tan jacket in “My Struggle IV” was meant to reference her look in the early seasons. Mulder and Jackson’s suits were meant to look similar on purpose. The suits were also to accommodate the winter cold: their final day was December 23, with the final shot at 9 am on December 24!

Her portfolio includes some behind the scenes photos from season 11: https://www.katrinamccarthy.com/portfolio/x-files-2018

Also seek out the podcast’s other episodes, with interviews with Paul Terry (TXF Official Archives) and Bethan Jones (Thirty Years of The X-Files book): https://www.heydannyitsmulder.com/

Tags: 1013interviews, heydannyitsmulder, katrina mccarthy, katrinamccarthy, thexfiles, xfiles

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 17th, 2024 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.