The following is the official transcript of the July 15, 1995
interview with Mr. Bruce Harwood. The interview took place at the
Flamingo Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Mr. Harwood plays the part
of Byers, one of The Lone Gunmen, in the FOX television show The
X-Files. He was interviewed by America OnLine Chat Host XFC Wombat
(Linda Mooney) for the benefit of the America OnLine X-Files Club
and ABC Radio Network News. This interview is copyrighted by
MacWombat Press, and may not be reprinted in whole or part without
written consent.
Wombat: We're talking to Mr. Bruce Harwood, who plays the character
"Byers", who's one of the Lone Gunmen on the X-Files, and good morning,
Mr. Harwood! It's so nice to have you here, and we're glad that you
could make it.
Harwood: I'm really happy to be here, too. It's quite, umm, well,
I was saying to someone just a minute ago it's kind of overwhelming.
I've never been to Las Vegas before and, plus putting a science - sci
fi convention on top of all that, it's kind of overwhelming, I guess,
like I said before.
Wombat: Okay! Is there any chance we're going to get to see The
Lone Gunmen in the series premiere, or any time real soon after that?
Harwood: You mean our own series? I haven't the faintest idea.
People keep passing the rumors around, but, uhh, they're only rumors,
you know. No one's actually said, no one really important has
actually, you know, called me into a corner and said, "You know we're
really thinking of . . ." No one's actually said that. So I would
say not a chance, friend.
Wombat: Oh, but the fans would love to see you in a spin-off. What
was it about the show that made you seek the part of Byers?
Harwood: (laughs) No, that's a . . . I'm afraid that's a very, going
to be a very dull answer to an interesting question because I'm an
actor and I just look for the roles. And it sort of, it came up. And
at the time, I have to be honest, I didn't, I wasn't watching the
X-Files, didn't know anything about it. In fact I haven't seen, except
for that one first season episode that I was in, I haven't seen any
of the first season episodes except in reruns. It wasn't until the
second season when they called us back and said, "You're going to be,
you know, semi-regular characters" that I thought, well, maybe I
should start watching this show because it's the only show, uhh . . .
You know, I've done a number of TV shows and people ask me, "Oh,
you're an actor. What have you done?" I say, "Oh, I've done this
and done that." And they go, "Ohh . . .yeah." And they've never
really heard of it. When I said, "Oh, I was in The X-Files", and
suddenly people, ordinary people, jump, sat up about two inches higher
and said, "You were in the X-Files? What a great show!" And then
finally, when we were, let's see, the next episode we did in the
second season, the crew were talking about this flying shot they had
to do for the opening, the flashback where Mulder's remembers his
sister being taken away by aliens? And they talked about how long it
took them to fly this poor girl out the window, and how they had to
shift and move everything and there were, you know, miles and miles
of cord and stuff. So I finally said, "I might as well sit down
and watch the show." And after that, since that, I've been hooked.
Now I am an X-Phile.
Wombat: So now you're a fan of your own job?
Harwood: I'm a fan of the show, now. Yeah, I know. Heather and I,
my wife, we sit down and watch it every night, you know. We even
watch the reruns. So I guess we are fans, if you put it that way.
Wombat: That's great! To me and to several fans, Byers is the more
solid of the Lone Gunmen. He wears a suit. Do you have any input
into his character?
Harwood: Umm . . . I mean, just, my performance, I guess I could
say is the input. I never change any lines necessarily - oh, change
one or two lines, but that's not really important because the scene as
it is is written as the essence of what's going on. And that's too
late to change when you come in. So really all the input is the
performance, and stuff like that. And, you know, he's changed a
little bit over the - I've gotten more relaxed about playing him.
Initially he was a very tense guy, but he's no longer as tense as he
was.
Wombat: Was it your decision to put him in a suit?
Harwood: No, that was the, uhh, that was in the script. I remember
they all had to look completely different. So they had one guy in
a suit . . .
Wombat: The Garth look-alike . . .
Harwood: (laughing) Yeah. They had, yeah, the Garth look-alike.
Everyone's said that about him, poor guy. Too bad he isn't here.
He'd love to hear it, I'm sure.
Wombat: Well, I have his button that says, "I'm not Garth".
Harwood: (laughing) And, and then Tom, of course, as a sort of
grubby weirdo. Hmm, I suppose my contribution is actually the beard,
cause I grew the beard to change my look, and the first job I got
after I grew the beard was the X-Files role. So I think of the beard
is the X-Files guy.
Wombat: What else have you been in? What other shows?
Harwood: Oh, let me see, well . . . I can never quite remember when
people ask me that question. I've been working professionally since
1987. I've been in . . . you remember MacGyver? I was in that show.
I had a recurring part for a season in that, and I also played, a
couple of years earlier, I played a mad Irishman who wanted to bomb
everything. Umm, I was in smaller shows like JJ Starbuck . . . Danger
Bay. Canadian show called The Beachcombers - you probably, I don't
know if you've heard of it or not, but that thing sort of sold all over
the world while it was running.
Wombat: Are you Canadian or . . .
Harwood: I am Canadian, yeah.
Wombat: Okay. Do the Gunmen have any first names? I mean, we
only know them by their last ones.
Harwood: No, not as far as I know, but I have invented, I've sort of
. . . someone was asking, Heather asked me, "What do you think Byers'
first name is?" And I was guessing things like Ernest or Oxford or
something like that. I think on a show where the lead character is
named Fox, anything is possible.
Wombat: Well, I want to thank you very much, and we wish you
continued success. And we'd love to see, we love to see more of The
Lone Gunmen. Whenever we know that the Gunmen are on there, it's
like YES, I'm definitely going to catch this episode! But thank you
again for your . . .
Harwood: Thank you very much. I'm always glad to be on it. Frankly,
it's a really good show to work on.
Wombat: Thank you! I appreciate it!
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