Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

I had the pleasure of attending a talk (which he was not even told he had to give!) given by William B Davis at London Film and Comic Con yesterday.

He fielded a lot of hilarious questions with good humour and has clearly put a lot of thought into the themes and issues in the X-Files, in part because - as he regularly reminded us - he is in the process of completing his memoirs at the moment. If the book isn't called Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (or Pontiff!), I will be sorely disappointed.

Some of the geekier Philes out there will know that Davis is himself a keen water skiier, and the possibility of CSM water skiing has always been the source of much hilarity in our house. However, it would seem that Chris Carter - ever the surfer boy - was actually determined to work this into the show somehow and when Davis wrote an episode (Season 7's En Ami) it originally included a scene in which the Cigarette Smoking Man teaches Scully to water ski. Apparently Chris was quite downcast when the other writers talked him out of it.

I did manage to restrain myself from asking whether he actually smoked, but someone else brought up the fact that he had given up smoking before starting the show. Indeed, 17 years before filming the X-Files, he had smoked his last cigarette. When offered the part, Davis was given a choice between real and herbal cigarettes and being, as he described it "a real actor", he opted for the real ones. Not long after shooting the second episode he found himself sitting at home thinking "When are they going to call me for that x-Files show??" and decided herbal might be the best route in the future.

The talks were ridiculously short, and I felt that he could have said a lot more about the themes in the X-Files and how it really captured the zeitgeist of the 90's. Indeed, it seems that he does give talks in this vein and has even defended the show against attacks from Richard Dawkins! Having almost 60 years of experience in the industry and having worked as an actor, director, teacher and writer both in film and theatre, plus having spent several years with two of my favourite FBI agents, William B. Davis' memoirs are definitely going to be on my to-read list as soon as a publication date makes its way into the public domain.

If half of his charm and humour comes across in the book, I will be very excited!