Jan-03-2001
Hollywood Reporter
The truth is out: Gish taking on role in ‘X-Files’
Nellie Andreeva
LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) — A new FBI agent is joining the alien hunt in Fox’s “The X-Files.” Annabeth Gish will join the drama produced by creator/executive producer Chris Carter’s Ten Thirteen Prods. in association with 20th Century Fox Television in a three-episode arc this season with an option to return in the fall as a regular on the show.
Gish’s yet-to-be-named character will be brought to the team by agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) from the New Orleans office, where she has been working a ritualistic crime detail dealing with reports of satanic cults.
“She is quite unlike any of the other agents,” Carter said. “She has been neither a firm believer nor a major skeptic, either.”
To spice things up, Gish’s character has a personal history with Doggett, who brings her in to help on a case involving agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). Gish’s first episode, which will air Feb. 25, also will mark Duchovny’s return to the series this season.
Carter got the idea about the new character from an FBI agent investigating satanic ritual abuse whom he saw on “Larry King Live” years ago, before he started working on “X-Files.” In fact, that interview was one of things that inspired Carter to create the series, he said.
If the show returns for a ninth season, Gish will become a regular, but she will not replace anybody, Carter emphasized. “It seems to me that we have benefited from the addition of Robert Patrick to the cast, and we’re hoping that we can expand the cast even further and as successfully with Annabeth,” he said.
Patrick and co-star Gillian Anderson are contracted for the ninth season of the show (HR 7/27). Carter is in preliminary talks about coming back next season, while Duchovny’s “X-Files” future is not clear.
Prospects for the series’ coming back for a ninth season look good as the introduction of Patrick has delivered an average of 13.9 million viewers for the season to date, up 7% from last year, and a 7.6 rating/16 share among adults 18-49, up 9%.
Gish, who came into the spotlight with the features “Desert Bloom” and “Mystic Pizza,” followed up with roles in “The Last Supper,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Nixon” and “Double Jeopardy.”
On the TV side, Gish starred in the short-lived CBS drama series “Courthouse” and in a slew of TV movies, most recently “Sealed With a Kiss” opposite John Stamos. Last year, she starred in “L.A. Sheriff’s Homicide,” a drama pilot for NBC.
She is repped by ICM and manager Joan Hyler.
Tags: chris carter, x-files