Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…

Q & A with William B. Davis, The X-Files Cigarette Smoking Man:

In Where’s There’s Smoke: Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, Davis offers readers an honest look at the acting life.

In his memoir Where There’s Smoke: Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, Davis writes about his years on The X-Files, while offering an honest, lively rendering of his life prior to his worldwide stardom and since. I recently spoke with Davis about his book, his thoughts on his craft and, of course, The X-Files.

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Cigarette Smoking Man was certainly an iconic character. How do you see him in hindsight?

Like all villains he, of course, didn’t believe he was a villain. He believed he was doing what he needed to do, while making the compromises that had to be made in the circumstances that he found himself. In some ways, while he was a strong, powerful presence, he was actually a compromiser. I think he’s idealistic. It’s interesting. I think I say in the book where we actually did an episode or part of an episode that we weren’t able to screen because it just didn’t look right. It was where we were all younger and we were idealistic and had a vision of what we were doing.

I think what is interesting about the character is the degree to which he was forced to compromise. And this is very common with many people. I think he gradually hollowed out inside. He just had to shut down this feeling and that feeling just in order to survive. And the smoking was all part of deadening the emotional nerve centers so he could cope.

[themortonreport/Mindy Peterman/11 feb 2012]

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