Today I bring you some notes from The X-Files PhileFest panel with William B Davis (the Cigarette-Smoking Man, CSM). How not to approach this with humour? Selected bits about TXF specifically (given that they couldn’t mention the show do to the strike!):

• Shooting “My Struggle IV” at 4 am: discussion with Carter, on why he had to look at the rear-view mirror while next to him was Reyes and in front of him Skinner, both dying? The director’s answer? “For the shot”!
• Praises the determination and dedication of the crew, especially the first few years, that made the show’s success; but that meant long hours, and some gave up on the show.
• Praises Kim Manners; he had been an actor and was sensitive to actors while shooting.
• On the CSM being Mulder’s father twist: TXF had no show Bible, “went by the seat of its pants”, fans got interested in certain things and writers reacted to fans’ reactions. Initially he thought the CSM was the “top dog”, the “big guy” in the conspiracy, then the Syndicate was introduced and he had to change his back story. A TV series is a living organism, it keeps changing and you change with it.
• “Do you think he [the CSM]’s dead now?” “Considering that I had survived a cruise missile attack…”. He was worried that Carter was done with the character after “My Struggle IV”, he told Carter: “by the way, that was a hologram”!
• The CSM-Mulder relationship in “Redux”: the backstory kept changing throughout the show but some things didn’t change, that Mulder was making a mistake and the CSM was the hero of the story.
• On him returning for the revival but after the second movie happened in the meantime: “Can you believe they did a movie without me?”