Mitch was introduced by his Vietnam Scene from "One Breath" and was greeted by awonderful round of applause as he came out on stage. Here's what happened after that (any notes of mine or clarifications are noted in brackets [ ] :
MP: Thank you [in response to the applause]. How y'all doin'? [audience respondsthat they are doing well] Nick so funny. He was so worried about having to talk here. [laughter from the audience] Ahh... I thank y'all for being here. Did ya watch the show last night? [audience responds yes] What'd ya think? [variousresponses from audience about it being great] Nick's a great guy. He was tellin' ya I won a couple hundred bucks last night. So, I'm a happy camper. Of course it'll all be gone by tomorrow. I first started out on the show by guest starringin the episode "Tooms" and I have been happy to come back and re-occur in the next season and I'm gonna come back this season as a series regular, I guess. I signed a contract and ahh... I'll be doing it for awhile. [applause and whistles from the audience] I have a great time doing it. It's probably one of the finest experiences I've ever had in acting. Working with the people I'm working with, I think that Chris Carter is an absolute genius. I'm glad he's not here cause he'd be blushing. He's very modest. But the man is brilliant and everything he touches s gold. Working with David and Gillian is just a pure treat. They are both such giving people. And most of my scenes are exclusively with them. They, umm...working with them just makes me, makes me better. It's just a pleasure, apleasure to have that type of feed back when you're working with another actor.Which they give and they give a lot. A lot of times when you're working with somebody, they're just going through the motions. But They're [DD & GA] just totally there and it enhances what I do. Hopefully it does. It's really great.Fortunately they shoot in the great city of Vancouver. It's beautiful up there. I don't know if any of y'all have been there before. It's really gorgeous, I love it up there. We have a great group of directors working on the show. David Nutter is back. He went away for awhile but now he's back, thank goodness. They rest of them are very good. Rob Bowman, ahh..., those are the two I've worked with the most. [Mitch sees me sitting in the audience and smiles.] How ya doing, Paula? [I respond good] Good... And, uhhh... they're really great. So, I have a great time doing the show. I'm not gonna talk a whole lot cause I feel kinda goofy talking about myself. I'd rather talk to you people and respond to your questions and kinda just chat a little bit. So, hopefully you'll have some questions. And umm.... I'd like to talk to you. Is there a microphone down there.
Aaron [who works for Creation]: Yeah, I've got it right here.
MP: [laughing] The roving Aaron.
Aaron: I deliver.
MP: [laughs] Good man.
Linda: Hi, I'd like to know what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing the show in a town like Vancouver instead of working in Hollywood?
MP: I can't think of any disadvantages what-so-ever. To me it's like, the chance to get out of LA. To go to a place like Vancouver it's such a beautiful city and the crews we work with are primarily Canadian, they're great. They're terrific people. It's a joy. I like it a lot.
Me: Hi Mitch.
MP: Hey kid.
Me: I have two things. First I'd like to give you these [I bought flowers to give to him, one red rose and 2 white carnations].
MP: You're so sweet. Thank you.
[Audience applauds and says "Awww.....". ]
MP: [parades around the stage a bit like with the flowers] I feel like a queen for a day, or a king for a day or something like that.
Me: My second thing is a question from the MPEB. It's in regards to your singing [Mitch blushes slightly] I'm not gonna ask you sing, but they want to know if you've done musicals and what it is you like to sing.
MP: Yeah, I've done a few musicals. I did "Jesus Christ Superstar". I played Pontious Pilate. I did that down in Texas, in Austin at The Park. That was a phenomenal experience for me because it was on a huge stage and we played to 3 or 4 thousand people a night. It was like being an LA rock star, ya know. It was really a wonderful experience. And I've done a number of other musicals. I like to sing... I like to sing a lot.
Me: So, sing... sing.
MP: Not right now [laughing] Although, I am in the perfect place to do it, right now. But umm... what do I like to sing? I like to sing Jim Croce, old Elvisstuff, Buddy Holly, a lot of old rock and roll stuff. I just bought a Vancouver guitar. I just bought another guitar down in LA but I bought on up in Vancouver so I don't have to tote it back and forth. I've been playing guitar since I was11 years old but I just recently started taking lessons so I could get some technique and really develop my skills. It's coming along quite nicely.
Me: So we can expect and album soon?
MP: [laughing] No, I don't think there'll be an album. But I may sing for you sometime, Paula.
Question: I'm from Portland and I've come here to see if you'd play in a celebrity volleyball tournament for a non-profit organization called Superior Attitude, Superior State of Mind. We take special needs children on field tripsand special events. And we need a fund raising event.
MP: Portland, Oregon? That's where I was born. [applause from the audience] Thank you. We're having a convention up there soon. [audience asks when] When? I don't really know, I'm sorry. It's gonna be sometime around January, I think. Ya know, I love to play volleyball. Sometimes we play up in Vancouver. We play softball after the shows. We play volleyball. I would love to do that if it worked out, if the circumstances where right. If the show would let me.
Same person: I have a T-shirt for you from the Special Olympics.
MP: That's sweet. Thanks. I'll come and get it. [He walks down the stage to get the T-shirt and stumbles slightly on the last step cause it's very high and gives it a funny look. Audience laughs]
Aaron: Watch out for that step.
MP: Yeah, yeah, that's a bit of a drop. [He talks a bit with the lady, then returns to the stage for his next question]
Dawn: I have a two-parter. It seems to me that Skinner is softening in his....
MP: [laughing] Even after last night's show?
Dawn: He was so hard-line about Mulder and keeping him in line. And number two, I don't know if you can answer this or not, but is Cancerman actually an active FBI agent or does he work for some covert group?
MP: Yeah, I think he's, I think he's part of some unidentified group that is part of the Pentagon cause he been seen traipsing around the halls of the Pentagon in the past.[pauses] I think I'm gonna have to do something about that [grins evilly and audience laughs]. And I will [still grinning]. Yeah, I think he's in some kind of deep cover operation that keeps popping up to be a thorn in my side and in Mulder and Scully's side. As far as the first part, yeah, I think he's softening a little bit but, I don't think he'll ever get real soft. He's on their side and think that'll be... well... uhhh.. that's all I'm gonna say [laughing] And I think I said just a little too much. But, I think, he'll be.. a lot of stuff will be...umm... yeah, nevermind [grinning].
Tiffany: Some times Skinner helps Mulder and sometimes he doesn't and a friend of mine wants to know why he won't make up his mind.
MP: Well because he's got pressures from both sides. He definitely got the Cigarette Smoking Man. He's got superiors in the FBI who are stepping on his neck. The Cigarette Smoking Man is... I think it's kinda like he's got something on Skinner. He's hold something over his head. And that's why he puts up with so much garbage from him. I think for the most part, he's definitely doing what he can, when he can, however he can to support Mulder and Scully. And back them help in whatever way that he can. He's put in a tough situation and I think he describes it at one point when he says "I'm standing right on the line that you keep crossing". I think that's what gonna happen. He's trying to control.. you know, Mulder can be a pretty lose cannon and he obviously never listens to much of what Skinner has to say to him [laughs]. So, it's a tough situation. He's really kinda caught between a rock and a hard place. And he's trying to figure out how to handle it the best he can.
Vera: Hi Mitch.
MP: Hi.
Vera: Can you tell us what was going through Skinner's mind when Scully ordered him to the couch [audience laughs].
MP: [laughing] Did you see the beads of sweat on my head? There's a lot of headfor beads of sweat too. He obviously realizes she mis-read the situation. He was trying to figure out how he was gonna fix it if she's gotta gun on him. I think he's just trying to figure out how he's gonna be able to straighten it out and make her realize he was there to help her. Ya know, she's been told that someone close to her may try to kill her. So okay, all of a sudden this guy who's been somewhat close to her who has helped in the past is now saying get in my car let's go someplace where I can talk to ya. Right after this. Going to her house as described to her by the Well Manicured Man. I don't know if you're familiar with that. Isn't that great [laughing]... The Well Manicured Man. We've got another character coming up in an episode called The Well Suited Man. I think it's very funny the way Chris [Carter] comes up with some of the character names.
Question: Do you or any cast members do plays in the off season?
MP: No, I haven't done plays for some years now. It's kinda like, you get a couple months off so if you're gonna do anything, you're probably gonna do a movie, something where you're gonna make some... money. You really don't get much money doing theater. LA is a hard theater town to get into cause there's kinda big group of people and they kinda stick together and it's kinda hard to break into it. I don't wanna deal with umm... that kinda attitude. So I kinda just stay away from it. But I love doing theater. The last play I did I actually went down to Texas to do it. It was Frankie and Johnny in The Claire de Lune. That was alotta fun. Of course I had to traipse around naked for the first 10 minutes ofeach act. Some of those pictures got out some place on the Internet and are floating around [Mitch looks down at me in the audience knowing I played a part in that] Eay?
Me: [blushing and squirming in my seat] I didn't do it, I didn't do it.
MP: Yeah, I bet you didn't [grinning]
Jim: Hi. In the movie "Shocker" you played a homicidal maniac. How do you comparethat to playing the character you play on "The X-Files"?
MP: Besides suits? [grinning] That was the first time I ever worked with Wes Craven on that. And Wes was kinda like "Kick out eh jams, let's be crazy." And,that was a character that obiviously you just like go as far as you wanna go and obviously I did. [laughing] I had a lotta fun doing that. Sometimes I have a hard time watching it. Ya know seeing yourself like that is not a treat. But it was a lotta fun to do. It was just a very different type character because I think that Skinner is tries to keep it toned down. And working with David and Gillian helps a lot because obviously I have the capability of going over the top like you saw in "Shocker". So, working with them kinda tones me down a bit brings me back into a more real, umm... situtation. Does that answer your question kinda?
Jim: Yeah.
Question: What other shows have you been on.
MP: I've done a lot of episodic stuff. It's so wierd cause when someone asks me that question my mind goes blank. I should carry a copy of my resume around with me. I did China Beach, I had a recurring role on Dallas some years ago. I did..umm, I don't know I can't remember [chuckles]. There's a movie that's coming outthat Wes Craven directed and that Eddie Murphy is in called "Vampire in Brooklyn". With Angela Bassett and Allen Payne and uhhh... uhhh..... some other people [laughs]. It's kinda funny cause Wes brought back actors from movies hehad worked with in the past. He brought them back for like these little cameos, so there were like five or six who came in and did small roles in that movie. To watch it and see these people he had worked with in the past in these small roles was kinda fun. That's the most recent thing I've done. There's a bunch of other small part stuff that, you know, that I don't think you'll ever see.[laughs]
Karen: Hi Mitch I'm from Magic 105.5 and we got a chance to interview earlier.
MP: Oh yeah, right.
Karen: And I wanted to ask you cause you didn't specifically answer it when we interviewed you, is there a chance of Skinner getting a love interest this season?
MP: [laughs] If Skinner ever has sex it's gonna be with an alien. I think I told you, that there's a possible story line that was... umm... ya know I reallycan't.
Karen: Aww.. come on.
MP: I'd love to but I can't. I'll tell ya what, it's just something that...that... you'll see. I'm sorry. I just can't. They'd kill me. Big time. There's something possibly that may happen that sounds very, very interesting... uhhh...yeah.
Question: What do you like about acting?
MP: You get to go some place else, be someone different that who you are. And just... kinda... I think I'm still a kid at heart. It's my recess, my playground.I'm like swinging on the monkey bars. It's something that I love, it's deep in mys oul. And I don't think I'll ever do anything else. Atleast I hope I don't haveto do anything else. I really love it. I enjoy it a lot.
Chris: What's the funniest thing that's ever happened in you career?
MP: The funniest thing that's ever happened in my career... oh gosh... There's alot of funny things that happen that you don't see. Like shooting "The X-Files", the outtakes when we mess up, make mistakes, or we just plain get goofy. They'rea lot of fun. We just get kinda crazy and sometimes they keep the camera rolling and a lot of the stuff, you'll never see on the blooper reel... it gets... it gets pretty racey. [grinning] But sometimes we goof up and kinda take it and run with it and have a ball.
Craig: I have two questions for you. The first, and maybe I missed it last night,but how did Mulder get out of that boxcar. And two, how do you think the show contributes to how the American public views the FBI?
MP: Umm... well the people who work for the FBI love the show. I don't know if that answers your question as far as that goes. I know that, I've run intopeople. One time I was leaving Vancouver, I was going through customs and this guy came walking up to me and said, I was actually wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, and he goes "FBI". I said, "No". He goes "FBI". And I said, "I'm sorry.." And he goes, "You play Skinner on the X-Files" And I go "Yeah." He goes "I'm and FBI agent." I said "Oh... okay..." [grinning] "Very glad to meet you".So anyway, he proceeded to go on and on about how everbody at the FBI loves the show. He said they were doing training films and were trying to get a hold of X-Files coffee cups because they all wanted to have X-Files coffee cups sittingon their desks. [laughter from the audience] He took me back in his office at immigration and showed me all this stuff and all the wanted people they're looking for. It was really cool. And the last convention, I was signing autographs and this man and this woman walked up and pulled out these...these.... these... uhhh... badge things. You can tell I'm up on my FBI lingo right? These badge things [laughing]. And they flip out these FBI badges. I lookup and go "Man those are really cool. Where'd you get 'em?" They go "We kinda work for 'em. We're FBI agents." [audience laughs] I think I said "Oookayyy". And they proceed to tell me how they really enjoy the show and they invited me to come down to the LA headquarters and take me around. I haven't done that yet. I plan on doing it. Cause I'd really like to go down there and see what's up. Now what was your first question?
Craig: How'd mulder get out of the boxcar?
MP: Oh, oh, yeah... Did you notice after they pulled the rock up and pulled him out, there was a little alien body there? So obviously there was like a tunnel.... that they, ya know... the old tunnel trick [grinning]. So obviously these aliens were trying to get out of that . And he just happened to find it in the nick of time when they fire bombed that boxcar and that's how he escaped.. got out of there. I don't know if that's the tunnel aliens had dug trying to get out or something that was just there. But it's TV [chuckles] Ya know what I mean?