Interview with Jonathan Levit, courtesy of Sammensværgelsen, the Danish XF podcast. He was Billy LaBonge in The X-Files’ season 7’s “The Amazing Maleeni” — the young magician alongside the more experienced Ricky Jay.
- It was his first acting job! He always wanted to be on TXF. He had moved to LA about 2 years prior.
- He had studied both as a magician and as an actor, unlike many in the audition, so he fit the bill.
- He was nervous during the shooting. Director Tom Wright immediately told him “I’ll take care of you”, Tom was great and ran a very tight ship. He worked with Tom again later. [This was Tom’s 3rd and last TXF episode, after a long run on Millennium.]
- Tom told him: this is like “The Sting” [1973 movie with two con men], Ricky Jay is Paul Newman, you are Robert Redford.
- He did the hand turning trick in the audition, that’s where co-writer Vince Gilligan and Tom took it from, the script was not specific on the tricks.
- Vince and Tom wanted to be ‘realistic’ with how they portrayed the magic. Tom asked him for ideas on magic tricks, there was improvisation. They made sure the tricks were in one continuous shot.
- He taught Duchovny how to do the coin trick, and Anderson how to do the hand turning trick.
- There was going to be a discussion scene on another magic trick, a body being cut in half, but it was cut for time.
- After the episode he became famous in the magicians world. It was a great experience to work with famous magician Ricky Jay [passed away since].
