Monster-Mania in August afforded me one of the best opportunities this side of X-Fest to add to my ongoing quest to get as many of the cast and crew involved in the making of the show to sign my copy of The Complete X-Files. (The current tally sits at 47 autographs after four-plus years.)
The convention's biggest draw for me was Lance Henriksen and for far more than just Frank Black's wrap-up episode. I'm a big fan of the wild three-season ride of Millennium, but he was also in my all-time favorite movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Among the other favorites of mine are when he played Wally Schirra in The Right Stuff, and of course, Bishop in a couple of Alien sequels.
Henriksen's role in Close Encounters was pretty unique. He only speaks three words, but he was in a lot of the film as the bodyguard for Francois Truffaut. In fact, when I watch the movie, I was always add an extra line of dialogue on his behalf when the alien ships converge on Devils Tower -- "How the hell am I supposed to protect him from that?" Lance gamely paraphrased my words when he signed my lobby card and then told me how he lobbied to have director Steven Spielberg add another scene when the aliens come out of the mothership. "I told Steven I wanted to throw my jacket over one of the little ones and drag it into a Porta Pottie. He said, 'That's a different movie.'"
I also wanted to converse with him about Vilmos Zsigmond, the cinematographer who won an Oscar for his work on the film. When Mark and I ventured to Wyoming for my first long-awaited visit to DETO, we took some time out to try to recreate shots from the film and that's when I realized how much hard work went into Vilmos' vision and the overall look of the movie that I love so much. I showed him our side-by-side pictures of the Moorcroft horizon that Zsigmond took in 1977 and Mark took great pains to get in 2017. Henriksen said Vilmos was "brilliant" and he was lucky enough to work with him twice, but he couldn't recall the other project and I came up empty trying to figure that out on iMDb.I had donned a Team Black shirt in support of the ongoing "Millennium after the Millennium" documentary and campaign. Lance pointed out the uroboros right away. "It's so cool you wore that," he said. And he got particularly animated when it came to The Right Stuff, telling me about his field day at NASA and the friendship he cultivated with original Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper. Henriksen added he made history by going along for the ride when Cooper first flew a plane fueled by methanol to Colorado.
We agreed that the X-Files episode "Millennium" (Season 7, Episode 4) didn't do the Frank Black character much justice. But I spent so much time talking about those other things that I forgot to even mention I have been a contributor to the studious Millennium podcast, "The Time Is Now," so I hope I get another chance to meet Lance in the future.
The next person I sought out was Shawnee Smith, and she perfectly summarized her character in "Firewalker" (S2E9) in just a few words. "Poor Jesse, she was such a tragic character," she said. Shawnee had very fond memories of her guest appearance on The X-Files, recalling that the episode's director David Nutter bought her very first Starbucks cappucino and she bonded with David Duchovny over tunes from the '90s. "He had great taste in music," Smith recalled.Tony Todd had a pretty unique experience when he joined The X-Files for one of the stronger episodes that year -- "Sleepless" (S2E4). He had just finished an arc on Homicide: Life on the Street and he flew from that set on the East Coast to Vancouver to portray the deadly tortured soul and Vietnam veteran. Then it was on to New Orleans to reprise his role as the lead in the Candyman sequel. He enjoyed playing three totally different kinds of roles in such a short span.
Todd's eyes widened when I laid out the yearbook for him. I believe his exact words were, "All right! Something different!" He recalled his ep was one of the first helmed by Rob Bowman, who went on to become one of the show's most prolific directors as well as providing the introductions for Steven Williams and the character of Krycek (Nicholas Lea). Tony even knew Williams' informant, Mr. X, was originally supposed to be played by a woman, but that the concept hadn't panned out. Before I got on the sizable line for James Hong, I stopped by Annabeth Gish's table to say hi and give her the secret X-Fest brunch hand gesture. She got up and gave me a big hug, then introduced me to Kate Siegel -- one of her "girls" from The Haunting of Hill House. Annabeth's sweet nature explains why anyone who meets her becomes a de facto Gishie for life.
Hong's line was pretty lengthy, there were a lot of Big Trouble in Little China and Kung Fu Panda fans queued up. They were thrilled that, every now and then, he got up to say a line or two from the films. He also really liked to dance with the ladies, myself included. Are we sure he's really 80? He had at least twice the energy I had that day.
Both of us tried ... and failed to remember his X-Files character's name from "Hell Money" (S3E19). Where are my X-Fest trivia buds when I need them? I felt less bad when I checked IMDb after and it said merely "Hard-Faced Man." But he did recall working with Lucy Liu, whom he considers supremely talented. "She's so good," he said, beaming, although he bemoaned the end of her series, Elementary. That makes one, I really tried to get into it, but just couldn't.
The last person I met that day was Elden Henson, and although he wasn't on The X-Files, he did have the opportunity to work with the show's other lead, Gillian Anderson, on a favorite under-the-radar film of mine from 1998 called The Mighty. He reminded me so much of the sweet, soft-spoken and misunderstood boy from the movie ... at least until he colorfully recalled working with the f'n "biggest movie star on the planet," Sharon Stone. Even though, he's far better known for Daredevil and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, I said I hoped he loved it as much as I do. I just wish the rest of the world knew about it too.
