Canadian-born actor Chris Owens is no stranger to The X- Files. He first appeared as the young Cancer Man in Season Four's "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man," a role he would reprise in the episode "Demons." This year he guest starred in the bizarre black and white episode "The Post- Modern Prometheus," disguised under layers of heavy prosthetics as the Great Mutato. Then, in March, he joined the show proper as a recurring character, Jeffrey Spender, a young FBI agent who will play an important role in the show's ongoing story arc.
Becoming the CSM
When asked how he originally won his first role in the series, Owens laughs.
"It was one of those rare occasions in my brief career where my looks have worked in my favor," he says. "They were trying to match someone up to Bill Davis and the funny thing is that I had only been in Vancouver for a few months. I had moved out from Toronto and when I was there I'd only seen the show a few times, but I quite liked it. So I was looking forward to auditioning for the series and sure enough the opportunity arose.
"I didn't know who the Cigarette Smoking Man was, though, and I didn't have the entire script; I only had these few scenes so I made up my own backstory to help me in the audition. The scene I was given was the one where the young CSM and Lee Harvey Oswald are talking about the gun that was purchased and my character says to him something like 'Cigarettes cause cancer' or 'Those will kill you.' Because I wasn't familiar with the CSM character, I assumed that maybe the character had traveled back in Time and that he alone knew that cigarettes caused cancer," he says, laughing again. "It could happen.
"So I did all this stuff and when I showed up for the audition, I went in once and then I got called back. I learned some more about the character in the first reading and was getting pretty excited about the part."
Deadly assassin
For his second reading, Owens was given pages for one of the most pivotal scenes of "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man," in which the young CSM is invited to take the assignment that will define his life thereafter. "They gave me the conference room scene cold, without any kind of prep, and this was the scene with the most dialogue. I suppose they wanted to see what I could do with it. But the casting assistant told me that the producers were also very interested in a guy from Los Angeles. I thought, 'Oh, here we again; this is the way the business goes'. So I went off and had a coffee to calm down because the assistant told me that I might be reading for another part. She gave me the conference scene with the part of the general circled. I thought, 'This is ridiculous. I'm too young for that role.' But I tried to be professional and when I went in they wanted me to read the young CSM after all. I read through the scene and while I was doing that I noticed this fellow sitting on the couch, a blonde-haired guy, tall. He didn't say a word.
"About an hour after the audition, though, I got hired so I figured that this guy must have some kind of pull. It wasn't until later that I found out it was Carter!"
With that first hurdle over, Owens had more homework to do in order to create a performance that would convincingly dove- tail with that of Davis.
Musings an the CSM
"The X-Files production office furnished me with a few copies of Bill's early work, episodes that I could take a look at to pick up some of his mannerisms, the way he smoked the cigarettes, that kind of thing. But I didn't actually meet him until the final day of the shoot. I was walking towards him and I happened to have one of the herbal cigarettes going since I had just finished a scene. The first thing he said to me was, 'Oh my God, you don't actually smoke those things, do you?' [Davis, an ex-smoker, has commented more than once at how much he hates the smell and taste of herbal cigarettes.]
"Then he looked at me and said dryly, 'You're not tall enough," Owens laughs. "He's an interesting combination. He's got this sort of soft-spoken shyness, but he's also a teacher and can really hold your attention. He's very funny and he's also totally convinced that Cancer Man is the true hero of The X-Files."
By the time the role of Jeffrey Spender came along, Owens was an X-Files veteran. "After I had played the Mutato in 'The Post- Modern Prometheus' - which Chris directed - my agent received a call that they were interested in bringing me back as a possible agent. Chris gave me the first part of the script ["Patient X"] and phoned me at home to ask if I had any questions or input. He is very generous that way. He told me at that time that I was going to learn a deep, dark secret about the character [Spender] in the second episode and hinted that I would be Cancer Man's son.
"I thought, 'Okay, that makes sense to me'. After that, each part of the character and story has just fallen into place for me; things come as they come. So I don't know where Spender is going exactly. I know right now that his perspective falls some- where between Mulder and Scully, in the sense that his belief is that his mother [Veronica Cartwright] is delusional, that she wasn't really abducted by UFOs as she thinks. He doesn't believe in that sort of stuff, so in that sense he's more on Scully's side. On the other hand, though, I think it's pretty clear that his mother really was abducted and the reality of that leans more towards Mulder."
Changing beliefs
The irony of the two episodes in which Spender first appears is that Mulder's belief has been crushed, making his point of view much closer to Spender's.
"Yeah, that's right," Owens says. "I thought that was wonderful, the way they switched back and forth throughout the two-parter. At a certain point in the episodes, Mulder was a total non-believer and then by the end of it, they were going back to their original perspectives again. I thought it was a great twist."
In classic X-Files fashion, the hard edge of Spender's scepticism is smudged slightly when he plays a videotape for Scully of a young boy undergoing hypnotic regression, describing his mother's abduction. Like Scully, we are surprised to discover that the little boy is Spender when he was a child, creating an eerie reflection of Fox Mulder's own experience with his sister. It's a can of worms that helps to give Spender great- er depth and dimension.
"Exactly," Owens says. "At the time of the scene, he tells Scully that the whole thing was a story concocted by his mother, told to him so many times that it became truth to him. But, of course, who knows how authentic that theory is? That just might be Spender's mental defense to protect himself from things he doesn't want to face."
With the potential importance of the character and a backstory that is already intriguing, Owens nonetheless has to wait along with everyone else to find out what is in store for Agent Spender.
Making it up
"Basically, I have to take most of what I can glean from the script, but occasionally I have to fill in some stuff of my own. From script to script, I'm not exactly sure where things are going so I have to be ready for just about anything!
"For example, in the first part of the two- parter that we did most recently, there was a little sequence I had in the hallway which was actually the first time that Spender meets Mulder. David and I looked at each other and said, 'Well, we don't know each other, so I guess we'd shake hands and then we would get on with the business at hand'. So we shook; it was a more or less friendly introduction and then I turned to Gillian and started talking to her about my mother. Well, when we got to the second part, we realized that there was a lot more tension going on so we actually reshot my reactions to Mulder in the hallway and then inserted them into part one later on.
"That's really the only change I can think of. I'm always surprised as each draft comes out, but usually the only changes are minor ones, just to tighten things up by removing a line of dialogue here or there. Usually, you don't run into anything major," he says.
"It amazes me that they don't have to make more adjustments considering the pace at which they work. On the set they refer to it as 'feature TV-making.' I've done other episodic shows and I won't see the episode I worked on for a year, but these guys are putting them up on the screen in maybe four weeks and doing a quality job. It's incredible."
Spender and Mulder
By the end of the second episode the relationship between Mulder and Spender is pretty clearly defined - antagonism on Spender's side and a sort of befuddlement from Mulder. Spender's hostility may spring either from honest concern for his mother or perhaps something less obvious, maybe having to do with his father, the Cigarette Smoking Man.
"I think it's a combination of both," Owens says. "The character's definite priority is to find out what's going on with his mother and every time he tries to find her somehow Scully and Mulder are involved. Mulder, of course, has a reputation at the FBI for his 'spooky' X-Files and as a man who believes in the phenomenon wholeheartedly. And since my character is someone - for the moment, at least - who is a non-believer, it creates a nice dynamic between us.
"I know I am going to do one more episode this season which will probably be the cliffhanger in April. I don't know exactly what my involvement will be just yet, but perhaps we'll get to see more of that interaction. Maybe Spender will find out that Mulder really doesn't have anything to do with what is going on with his [Spender's] mother, so maybe there is a chance they can still talk."
Season Six and beyond...
As Owens reveals, there is a future for the character past this season.
'I'm going to do this one and then for next season, it appears, if things go right and they pick up my option in the summertime, then I'll do about half of the episodes next year."
Contrary to reports spread through the more hardcore segment of the X-Files fan base, however, Owens' character was not brought on board to replace Mulder.
"I think that started with the National Enquirer - the question, 'Is David leaving the show and is this new guy here to replace him?' I had to keep running around saying, 'No, no. No one is replacing David.' In fact, David had a hand in getting me on the show. I think he suggested that I could be used more often. And the two of us get along re- ally well, too.
"In fact, during the Mutato episode, he and I hung out quite a bit and I thought, 'This guy is a big star. He's very busy and has such a tight schedule, but what the hell.' I said to him, 'If you want to go out for a beer some time, here's my number.'
'He said, 'Thanks. I'd like that, but I won't know what you look like.' Of course, at the time, I had the two-headed appliance on.
"At the end of the shoot, though, they were having the 100th episode party and he said to me, 'Come up to the party and introduce yourself.' When he came up to me at the party, he said, 'I recognized you from Cigarette Smoking Man, of course. Now I know who you are.' He's got such a great wit. Dry, very dry; it's the wit of the Sahara."
With a greater involvement in the show's future seasons assured, Owens is definitely affected by the production's recently announced move from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
"Well, my girlfriend and I are a bit in shock. We knew this was a good possibility. But Vancouver has been good to me and I am hoping that LA will be, too. It should be quite an experience."
And if he starts missing Vancouver, a city as known for its rainfall as Los Angeles is for its desert climate . Owens laughs. 'I can always take a shower.'
