As we speak now, in september, you're in your ninth month of
pregnancy. you're also filming new episodes of the show in studios in
vancouver. how are you able to film?
Very carefully. my character is mostly sitting down. or doing an
autopsy. things like that. the writers and directors have been very
creative with the camera angles.
Very little has been published about your background. could you give
a basic autobiography?
I was born in chicago in 1968 and raised in london and in michigan.
my family went to london because my dad went to film school there; in
fact, we still have a flat there. I went to the goodman theater school
at depaul university in chicago; and i did bits and pieces with the
summer program of the national theatre of great britain. Then when I
graduated from college I moved to new york and did a couple of plays:
"absent friends" off-broadway and "the philanthropist" at the long
wharf theater in new haven. I did a film, which I believe is now called
"the turning." then I moved to los angeles. and did nothing. basically
all I did for almost a year was audition for different things. Then
finally I did an episode of "class of '96." then I landed "the
x-files." so--it's not much experience!
Your character, scully, is a skeptic; a central tension of the show
is her search for a scientific explanation for bizarre crimes and
phenomena, while mulder totally buys into the paranormal. Is it going
to be a challenge for you and the writers to maintain scully's doubt as
she keeps getting hit over the head with these events every week?
I don't think she's really been hit over the head with them too
much; it wasn't until the last couple of episodes last season that she
started to have more first-hand experiences with paranormal events. Her
first instinct is always going to be to turn to what she knows. She has
a very strong belief system, a very strong dedication to her
background, which is medical and scientific. That belief system is
always going to be the first thing that she turns to when she has to
come up with explanations for situations--when she's doing an autopsy,
or making any kind of decision, or presenting a hypothesis. There is
always going to be--not necessarily skepticism--but her rational mind
will always be jumping to the forefront, before she accepts any idea or
hypothesis of mulder's. She is, I will say, more open-minded now and
not so judgemental of mulder and his ideas.
Do you think scully and mulder should have a romantic relationship?
No. I think it would ruin the show. The show is not about romance.
That would lead it off into a whole 'nother area, and from what I
understand, the audience also doesn't want it. There is an attraction
between them that's physical, but it's primarily an attraction to each
other's mind, and passion about the work. and that's enough.
The parity between the two of them is so interesting--for instance,
there's a moment in the episode "squeeze" where *you're* the first one
to go down the ladder into that dark basement.
That parity has been changing to a certain degree right now because
of my situation; being pregnant, i'm not able to be at mulder's side
for investigations as much. I do think it's very important for the
audience to see partners, two capable human beings, working
side-by-side, and not one behind the other according to sex. In general
I think the writers try to be pretty careful about that, although there
have been moments where I felt that scully has been left behind to
catch up.
What's most difficult about the role?
It's not necessarily in this role, but in shooting a one-hour series
in general, and especially now, when I haven't been at my normal
capacity--the hardest thing is to have full energy and concentration
and commitment in every single scene and every episode. It's
frustrating, not feeling on top of every scene.
Jeff Jarvis wrote in tv guide, "it's the perfect show for a
generation raised on kennedy conspiracy theories, global paranoia,
self-indulgent feel-good cults, tabloids, and talk shows." why do you
think the show is hitting such a cord?
I think what you just quoted seems to make a lot of sense. I think
there are a lot of different elements to its appeal. one of the
strongest of these is just simply telling a good story, with a
beginning, a middle and an end. our endings may be somewhat
transparent, but they're still there. People love a good story; the
human desire for that goes back through the ages. Also, there's the
appeal of stories that keep people on the edge of their seats. people
love to be scared. We do the kind of horror movie stuff that used to be
in theaters; here it is in the living room. and it's an intellectual
horror rather than horror for horror's sake. The show deals with
questions that we've all perhaps tossed around at one time or another;
questions, and subjects, that are all over the place, that are
intriguing to a wide range of people. and it's a very good-looking
show, with the lighting and the camera work--the production values. And
I think people are intrigued by the relationship between mulder and
scully, where there's a professional connection between them without it
being sexual.
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