Nicholas Lea on Sci-Fi Buzz

(This interview aired October 11, 1996 on the Sc-Fi Channels' Sci-Fi Buzz, and again November 20, 1998 on Sci-Fi Entertainment.)


Click on the thumbnails to get a larger image.





RealMedia video file of this interview [6.1 Mb]


Transcript of a fall of 1996 SCI-FI BUZZ interview:

The man behind our favorite 2-faced weasel on THE X-FILES.

[Clips from Nick's interview, "Piper Maru" airport]

[more "Piper Maru" clips]

X-FILES kicks off its fourth season with a slate of new episodes that are sure to add some new convolutions to the XF mythology. One of the creepier characters in that mythology is back-stabbing FBI agent, Alex Krycek, played by Nick Lea. The actor has what is referred to in the TV business as a "recurring role," meaning he pops up every now and then.

[Cut to Nick interview footage. He's wearing a pale sage-green polo shirt, small hoop earring in his left ear. Hair pretty much like it was in OAT, maybe a tad longer.]

"As my friend said to me the other day, 'You're basically Scotty,' which is really hard to hear."

Although Lea doesn't get anywhere near the screen time of series regulars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, he has nevertheless developed a following. In fact, he's become a phenomenon in his own right, with an official own fan club and sometimes hysterical admirers.

[Cut to footage of Burbank con. Nick walks out on stage, to screaming of fans. He's wearing a loose, flowing white shirt, untucked and rumpled, and khakis. Holding a bottle of Perrier, dragging a chair.]

Recently Lea and another recurring XF cast member, Bill Davis, narrowly escaped from a crowd of frenzied fans during a personal appearance in an entertainment superstore in Dublin, Ireland.

[Footage of Nick and Bill Davis sitting at a table signing autographs for fans. Looks like the Burbank con again.]

"They actually had to pull us out of the signing because people were mobbing the table. And then we couldn't leave because they blocked the front and back exits. We couldn't leave for an hour. We ended having to go up to the top floor, across the roof to the next two buildings over to psych 'em out. Go down out their back door, their delivery door, out left, left, left, see a red Mercedes, jump into it, we get in the red Mercedes, just the close door, they come around the corner, 'wahhhhhh,' they're like, rocking the car, and banging on it, 'sign this!' and shoving things through the window. And then they chase us for 5 blocks. So, it's, it's a little...you just, you feel like you don't have a lot control over the situation, which is not the best place to be."

[More interview footage, intercut with con footage.]

Lea is positively astonished that a public appearance by him could trigger a near-riot.

"You just get a taste of that, and it's like, can you, can you imagine? Wonder what it must be like with Tom Cruise? It must be just haywire, you know? Crazy."

"You realize really quickly that it's not about you. It's about...umm...in some small way it's about your character on the show and in a big way it's about the show itself."

[Clip of the exploding car from "Paper Clip"]

Perhaps the biggest irony about Nick Lea mania is that he's attracted his admirers by playing a character who's not the least bit admirable. Computer network fans have come up with nicknames for him like "Ratboy" and "Weasel." Lea, however, is more charitable toward Krycek.

"I don't see the guy as being a bad guy, I don't see him as being evil, I see his as, as, as, you know, somebody who's in over his head and is just trying to do the best that he can. Stay alive, now."

[interview footage, "Piper Maru" airport footage, locked in the silo footage from "Apocrypha"]

Although working on THE X-FILES may have given Lea a new perspective on fame, it has not changed his beliefs about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

"It hasn't made an alien believer, I mean, because I already was. So I suppose it's made an alien out of me."

"I think that it's sort of the romantic side of me that likes to believe that there's something else out there, something better or wiser or brighter."

The last time we saw Krycek was last season, when he'd become inhabited by an alien. Lea couldn't give us any hints about what would befall his character in the new season, but with Krycek's growing popularity we can be assured that he will continue to fulfill his role as the guy we love to hate. And that's just fine by Nick Lea.

[More locked in the silo footage]

"I like to have people go, 'Arghhh, that creep!'"



Return to Main