Plus, the scene Darin Morgan ‘couldn’t stop laughing’ about
WARNING!
Spoilers are out there.
This post discusses plot points from theX-Filesepisode The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat.
Credit: Shane Harvey/FOX
There areX-Filesepisodes that are scary.
There areX-Filesepisodes that are funny.
If nothing else, its an episode that is distinctively Darin Morgan.
(He also appeared over the years as memorable monsters the Flukeman and the shapeshifter Eddie Van Blundht.)
EW caught up with Morgan to talk about Forehead Sweat and reveal a few of the episodes secrets.
(He talks in general, less spoiler-y terms about the episodehere.)
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You previouslymentionedhow in 2018, the show is so informed by the current political climate.
How did you find the right balance in talking about the political stuff?
And its sort of another tie-in toThe Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling created the show.
So he figured if he took a sci-fi setting, then maybe itll get his messages across.
But that was a thing thatThe Twilight Zoneoften did.
They made people look at a different perspective than a person was used to looking at.
How would they regard it?
Im not a political writer, per se, and you dont want to offend anyone.
And that seems like everybody can understand it and relate to it.
Which is not to say that everyones going to like the episode!
Some people Im sure will be offended by it.
But thats the price you pay, I guess.
[Laughs] Its the feeling that the worlds gone mad.
Thats what it feels like.
Theyre not recorded bits of information.
Which I had to lose for time.
Whenever I think about my youth, Im like, Why didnt I do this?
Why didnt I do that?
Because I was a kid.
Our memories are sometimes not quite accurate.
Thats one of the reasons of many, I guess.
So thats that idea, and of course, its just a funny way of doing it.
Instead, she chooses to remember things as they were.
Why did you decide to end on that note?Oh.
[Laughs] I dont want to be a jerk, but Im going to leave that ambiguous.
And there are certain things that are hard to pinpoint or explain.
That ambiguity, I kind of like that about the episode.
And I think thats part of what the ending is.
So Ill leave it there.
You dont have to apologize!
I think its a perfect ending.
I also love the fantastic montage of old episodes, re-edited to include Brian Huskey as Reggie.
My script was due, so at like 3 in the morning, I was going through old episodes.
[Laughs] I thought it would be much easier than it turned out to be.
Which I guess is in keeping with the theme of the episode.
There was no place to fit Reggie in.
Eddie Van Blundht makes an appearance, which made me laugh.I get a residual.
Thats where the episode goes into full farce.
Thats how he gets around.
He was riding around on that thing, and it just looked hysterical.
I grabbed the DP, Greg, and I go, Greg, we gotta use this.
It just looks too funny.
So that was sort of an unexpected special treat.
When we were shooting that, I couldnt stop laughing.
Fortunately, the alien speaks telepathically, so it didnt matter that I was ruining takes by laughing.
That made it all worth it, just to shoot that thing.
Usually shooting this stuff is really hard, but shooting that scene…
I havent laughed that hard in a long time.
The X-Filesairs Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
