New interview with Larry Musser, an actor that appeared in no less than four episodes of The X-Files during the original Vancouver years! Courtesy of the Fandom X Archive podcast.
he auditioned several times before he was given his first role
he was Sheriff Oaks in “Die Hand Die Verletzt“
he was bleepin’ Detective Manners in “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’“
he was Vietnam vet and paramilitary group leader Denny Markham in “Unrequited“
he was the affable policeman Jack Bonsaint in “Chinga“
he remembers a lot of long shooting days and rainy nights, but very good vibes from the cast and crew
from “Clyde Bruckman” to “Field Trip”, Larry’s favourites show that he’s a fan!
“In heaven, everything is fine.” / “I hope I see all of you again. Every one of you.”
Goodbye David Lynch, right at the top in my personal film pantheon. Now you know what lies on the other side of the curtain, like his purple quantum foam sea. From first to last, from “Eraserhead” to “Twin Peaks The Return“, imagery and soundscapes that have lived in my dreams from an early age.
In particular, “Twin Peaks” (1990-1991), largely the result of the collaboration between David Lynch and Mark Frost, was a big influence on The X-Files: from its sense of weird and mystery, its out-there male FBI agent, its Pacific Northwest setting, its ambition to bring cinema photography and directing to television… all documented in the influences page — to which must be added a revival many years later. The Twin Peaks revival aired in-between the two X-Files revival seasons, and the two projects have different legacies. Twin Peaks gave us a wildly different approach on how to make a continuation while also subverting fans’ expectations, a project of unique artistic ambition that commented on the passage of time and consisted in a sort of synthesis of Lynch’s entire career.
Happy new year! It’s hard to believe it’s already 25 years — a quarter century ago — since the turn of the millennium — and that new year’s kiss at the end of the crossover episode 7X05: Millennium! But then, at the risk of sounding like a math geek, 2001 was actually the start of the new millennium. The series is getting seriously old — but more and more people keep discovering it. It seems to have passed television muster to become the rare artistic creation that crosses over to a new generation. Here’s to another year of covering all things X-Files.
Lindsey Ginter died earlier this year (September 1). He had portrayed the Crew Cut Man in “1X23: The Erlenmeyer Flask” and “2X10: Red Museum” — a Syndicate operative and Deep Throat’s executioner. His appearances were short but very memorable and gave us some of the show’s most memorable moments. He had other roles in Mercury Rising, Lost and others.
From a private communication with Demijan Omeragic (with many thanks):
Doing “Crew Cut Man’ on X-Files was a dream job for me. The Directors (Casting as well as Production), fellow actors, and the crew were all so supportive of my efforts. I especially loved the strong writing and the contribution my character made to the arch of the overall X-Files legacy. My character’s existence changed the path of X-Files for the next few seasons. I am grateful to have been chosen for that role. Thanks Chris Carter.
Another interview courtesy of the X-Files Diaries podcast, this time with Kristen Cloke-Morgan (Glen Morgan’s wife and creative partner), talking in-depth about the revival episode that she co-wrote, the memorable no-dialogue AI episode. Quick notes below:
On “The Field Where I Died“: she thinks the background of her character was that she was probably abused as a child, every time she got in a difficult spot she escaped into another personality.
Glen Morgan had 3 ideas: drones, no dialogue, AI (maybe?)
She and co-writer Shannon Hamblin boarded the episode at the Morgans’ garage, then photographed the cards and took them to Vancouver for Glen to give notes. It was a collaborative writing process.
They had done an episode of “Space: Above and Beyond” with no dialogue.
The actors liked it.
Scully wearing more comfortable clothes and shoes was not her input.
The funny bits are Shannon’s, she’s more serious.
There are few women in TXF. It would have been awkward if a man had written Scully with a vibrator. The vibrator design had to be approved by the studio! The vibrator idea came out of research they did on connected devices.
They were able to have notes and rewrites on the spot in Vancouver, they were there during prep. They produced their own episode, like Carter had writers do back then, now writers don’t do that any more.
Many of the crew in Vancouver they knew, collaboration was great.
Scott Stence (?) did the videos and graphics, he came up with the design for the smiley face, she had him add teeth to make it more creepy. “Scott is coming for dinner” on Scully’s fridge was an easter egg, it was not scripted.
Hand holding at the end was Glen’s idea, about connection.
Mulder’s line “why is your house better than mine?” was improvisation by Duchovny, they kept it in.
Shooting in Mulder’s house was very cold.
They removed the last line of Scully replying “we can’t teach them to care”, they rewrote that line a lot, maybe it was Glen that cut it out.
It’s inevitable that, where it can, AI will replace humans. But it can’t write something that will move you like TXF episodes written by humans.
In the Tay experiment [Microsoft AI chatbot on Twitter], the female-looking AI was abused by males and taught racist sexist things. She was moved by that.
Robots and AI are much more frequent now vs 2017. Glen used AI images to help for movie pitches. She feels like she is participating in teaching it, and is reluctant.
She had ELO songs in the script originally; she is a Prince fan.
When Mulder and Scully got out of the restaurant, a hug was scripted but a kiss was shot, it was cut out.
Anderson didn’t remember the song “Teach your children well”, Shannon led a rendition for her.
She was amazed at the set of the sushi restaurant, by set designer Mark Freeborn. She was impressed by the robot wranglers, the programmers for the robots’ movements, the drones people. There were few robots on set, they were duplicated digitally.
An important distinction vs TXF in the 90s: with politics now, you believe in the truth you want to believe, you create your own reality, instead of believing in The Truth.
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!
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/
