“The X-Files” creator Chris Carter is excited to unveil his latest venture to his fans: a gallery exhibition full of personal items, mixed media art and spooky creations that span the past three decades. Before he ever started work on the iconic Fox sci-fi show, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, Carter was an art major in college who specialized in pottery. The Emmy-nominated writer, director and producer is also an avid surfer, and visitors to the exhibit can see some of his decorated surfboards on display.
Carter’s items are “all personal” to him, he told me when I visited his collection at Legacy West Media in Downtown Los Angeles. The artisan prefers to keep mum about “the inspiration or the impulse or what went into them,” because he much prefers to see what other people “imagine what they might mean.” Also in our interview, Carter mentions the previously announced Ryan Coogler spinoff with a “diverse cast,” what he considers to be the best TV show in recent memory, and how he’s set to work with his wife Dori Pierson for the first time since the 1980s.
The Chris Carter Collection is open to the public at Legacy West Media from now until March 10 (1 p.m. – 5 p.m.), by appointment only. For more information or to purchase a piece, visit the official website. Watch our video interview above or read the transcript below.
Marcus James Dixon: Chris Carter, all of your “X-Files” fans know you as a writer and a producer and a director, but tell us about the artwork. How long have you been in this field?
Chris Carter: I have to say, longer than “The X-Files.” I was an art major in college. I put myself through college as a potter, production potter. I got paid for piecework, so I made literally tens of thousands of pieces of pottery, so I worked as a craftsman. That was sort of an extension of my art background.
MJD: And so how did you decide which pieces to show off here in Downtown L.A.?
CC: This is almost — except for two pieces, I think — this is almost everything that I have created, produced, whatever you want to call it.
MJD: My favorite was the one called “Typewriter.” At the bottom of the frame there’s the typewriter with the branches coming out, and then you have the images from “The X-Files” up above. What can you tell us about that piece?
CC: They’re all personal, and when people ask me to tell them the inspiration or the impulse or what went into them, I don’t tell them purposefully. I want them to imagine what they might mean to me and why I made them.
MJD: I could totally see you sitting at that typewriter. And my friend Michelle, who’s helping me, she noticed all of the buttons had X’s on them, which I didn’t even notice.
CC: It’s funny. They aren’t “X-Files” pieces. There are very few that actually relate to the show, and that’s intentional. That’s on purpose.
MJD: The Ronald Reagan picture — I couldn’t believe he’s a fan of the show. Is he?
CC: Not anymore. (laughs)
MJD: He was?
CC: They set a picture down in front of him and they told him about “the truth is out there,” and he wanted to personalize it, so he wrote it to me, and it’s something that’s one of my prized personal “X-Files” possessions.
MJD: It’s not every day an ex-President gives you a pat on the back like that.
CC: It’s not, and I’ve had run-ins with Presidents since then. None of them have been as personal as that one.
MJD: There’s another piece, the William the Rabbit, and obviously the name William comes up in the show a lot. What can you tell us about that one?
CC: I can’t tell you anything. I should say, I won’t tell you anything. Yeah.
MJD: The feeling I got is that this rabbit travels the world with you.
CC: That’s memorabilia, I didn’t create that. I’m sorry, I was confused. That was given to me by a fan who had sent it around the world. People have touched it and it has touched them, as you might imagine. It’s completely unexpected. Did I ever expect to get something like that or to generate something like that? No.
MJD: What can you tell us about the future of “The X-Files”? Is there going to be a spinoff?
CC: Yeah, there’s going to be a spinoff, I’m told. I had a nice conversation with a talented, very talented guy named Ryan Coogler, who’s made his mark in the movie world. He wants to reboot the show with a diverse cast.
MJD: And you give him your full embrace on that?
CC: Yeah.
MJD: I can’t wait to see it.
CC: Yeah, me either. Oh, by the way, 20th Century Fox or Disney as it is now, doesn’t want me to tell you that, so consider it to be top secret. [laughs]
MJD: After “The X-Files” went off the air, what keeps you busy?
CC: I surf a lot.
MJD: We saw some surfboards downstairs.
CC: Yes. Not on those surfboards, but those surfboards are a part of my life experience. I’m working on two different things that I’m very excited about, so maybe some projects will appear. I’m working on one with my wife, which is really exciting. We only worked together once. We haven’t worked together since the mid-1980s when we wrote and produced a Disney Sunday movie together.
MJD: Wow. What would you say is the best TV show in the past 10-15 years? Does anything come to your mind immediately?
CC: That is really hard because I’m really partial to Vince Gilligan’s work. I think that “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” are masterpieces for me — some of the best. And to know Vince is to appreciate the inspiration. He’s created them with a partner and just to know him is to know a multi-talented, original television creator.
MJD: Do you have a favorite episode of “The X-Files” of all time?
CC: People ask me that and I tell them no, I don’t have a favorite. I have many favorites. Some of mine are mostly of other people. The one that I consider to be among the most personal is the black-and-white one called “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” and that came out of, I can’t tell you where, but it’s like one of those things where it comes from your unconscious.
MJD: I think the best one you ever did was “Triangle.” I could watch it over and over and over.
CC: It’s amazing. That was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock who made a movie where he did it in real time with movie tricks. But I wanted to do the same thing. That is an amazing episode to me because you have to do television to right around 43 minutes, and 17 minutes are of station breaks and commercials and stuff like that. And so I had to do it in 43 minutes and 46 seconds, let’s say. But I’m running all those shots together and it’s going to come out to exactly the length it wants to come out because it’s supposed to be beginning and ending in real time. I used the film tricks to do that, and it came out exactly the length it was obligated to be.
MJD: Well, final question. We’re an awards website at Gold Derby and David Nutter just got a life achievement award.
CC: I was there.
MJD: You were there?!
CC: The DGA Awards, yes.
MJD: Oh, I love that. What was going through your mind? Because he directed some of the best “X-Files” episodes of all time.
CC: The 30-year mark was going through my mind. That we had been through so much together. That I was touched that he called me to join him in celebration. That he gave such a heartfelt speech. That he’s gone on to so much more than “The X-Files,” and he came to us as a seasoned director. He had worked for Stephen Cannell before that, but he was young, he was really young. But it’s like he was born to direct.
MJD: Well, thanks for chatting with us today. We hope everyone comes down and sees the art exhibit.
CC: I hope so, too. I’m curious about people’s impressions and love it or hate it, I want to know what they’re thinking.
MJD: Thanks a lot.
CC: Thank you.
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