Some En Ami Trivia
Behind the Scenes
"En Ami" was written by William B. Davis, who portrayed The Smoking Man. The main theme of the episode is The Smoking Man's desire to seduce Scully using an agenda she would understand: in this case, medical knowledge. Davis approached series creator Chris Carter with his idea, who was intrigued. He assigned executive producer Frank Spotnitz to work with Davis and craft a full-fledged script.
Davis saw his character as a romantic hero. Carter and Spotnitz, however, did not want "Scully trusting this man she's spent seven years hating" so easily. Eventually, the producers tweaked the script, adding "the reality of The X-Files's existing mythos and past character development" to ease the transition. Davis later noted, "I was basically happy with the way [the episode] turned out, despite the fact that there were many other ideas that I had that I did not get to see. My original conception of the story was that Cigarette-Smoking Man was a much better actor at winning Scully's affections and that Scully was less resistant to this attention to her." Because The Smoking Man was able to manipulate Scully, Carter later referred to "En Ami" as "the creepiest episode of the year."
Part of the inspiration for the episode came from the Shakespeare play Richard III, most notably, the interaction between Richard and Lady Anne. The biggest inspiration for the episode, however, came from the fact that Davis wished to have an episode wherein he would interact solely with Gillian Anderson. He later noted, "if they're not going to give me a scene with Gillian, I'll just have to write one myself."
Production and filming for the episode were rushed. The scene featuring The Smoking Man and Scully eating dinner at a restaurant was filmed on two different days: Anderson's side of the scene was shot on one day and Davis' side was shot on another. The short schedule resulted in some quick scene construction, most notably for the dock sequence near the end of the episode.
A majority of the lake scenes were filmed at Lake Sherwood in California. A stunt actor, Danny Weselis, filled in for Anderson during the scenes that called for her to drive the motor boat.
"En Ami" was directed by Rob Bowman and marked his last contribution to the show: "Artistically I felt like I couldn't help any more," he explained.
Originally, "En Ami" was supposed to air early in the seventh season, but the producers realized that placing the episode so close to the Mulder-centric "The Sixth Extinction"/"Amor Fati" made character development problematic. Thus, the producers decided to move the episode near the middle of the season.
Trivia
The script went through many revisions; several scenes were cut, including one that featured The Smoking Man teaching Scully how to water-ski.
Originally, Alex Krycek was in the script and an alliance between him and The Smoking Man was "integral to the storyline." As the script was written, however, this element was eliminated.
The first draft of the script was finished in four weeks.
The episode's title, "En Ami," translates from French into English as "as a friend." The title also functions as a pun, reading phonetically as "enemy" in English.
Parts of "En Ami" were filmed at Lake Sherwood, California.
Errors
On the correspondence that Mulder receives, his email address is shown as 'fmulder@fbi.gov.net'. On the emails that Scully receives, her email is shown as 'dscully@fgi.gov'
Allusions
Mulder: I just wanna know if it's Roma Downey or Della Reese.
This is in reference to the inspirational tv show, Touched by an Angel. Mulder is saying he'd like to know which of the characters, Della Reese or Roma Downey (whose character worked for Della Reese's character) healed the young boy of cancer.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_Ami
http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/En_Ami
http://www.tv.com/shows/the-xfiles/en-ami-644/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751113/
The Complete X Files Behind the series, the myths and the movies
All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6
"En Ami" was written by William B. Davis, who portrayed The Smoking Man. The main theme of the episode is The Smoking Man's desire to seduce Scully using an agenda she would understand: in this case, medical knowledge. Davis approached series creator Chris Carter with his idea, who was intrigued. He assigned executive producer Frank Spotnitz to work with Davis and craft a full-fledged script.
Davis saw his character as a romantic hero. Carter and Spotnitz, however, did not want "Scully trusting this man she's spent seven years hating" so easily. Eventually, the producers tweaked the script, adding "the reality of The X-Files's existing mythos and past character development" to ease the transition. Davis later noted, "I was basically happy with the way [the episode] turned out, despite the fact that there were many other ideas that I had that I did not get to see. My original conception of the story was that Cigarette-Smoking Man was a much better actor at winning Scully's affections and that Scully was less resistant to this attention to her." Because The Smoking Man was able to manipulate Scully, Carter later referred to "En Ami" as "the creepiest episode of the year."
Part of the inspiration for the episode came from the Shakespeare play Richard III, most notably, the interaction between Richard and Lady Anne. The biggest inspiration for the episode, however, came from the fact that Davis wished to have an episode wherein he would interact solely with Gillian Anderson. He later noted, "if they're not going to give me a scene with Gillian, I'll just have to write one myself."
Production and filming for the episode were rushed. The scene featuring The Smoking Man and Scully eating dinner at a restaurant was filmed on two different days: Anderson's side of the scene was shot on one day and Davis' side was shot on another. The short schedule resulted in some quick scene construction, most notably for the dock sequence near the end of the episode.
A majority of the lake scenes were filmed at Lake Sherwood in California. A stunt actor, Danny Weselis, filled in for Anderson during the scenes that called for her to drive the motor boat.
"En Ami" was directed by Rob Bowman and marked his last contribution to the show: "Artistically I felt like I couldn't help any more," he explained.
Originally, "En Ami" was supposed to air early in the seventh season, but the producers realized that placing the episode so close to the Mulder-centric "The Sixth Extinction"/"Amor Fati" made character development problematic. Thus, the producers decided to move the episode near the middle of the season.
Trivia
The script went through many revisions; several scenes were cut, including one that featured The Smoking Man teaching Scully how to water-ski.
Originally, Alex Krycek was in the script and an alliance between him and The Smoking Man was "integral to the storyline." As the script was written, however, this element was eliminated.
The first draft of the script was finished in four weeks.
The episode's title, "En Ami," translates from French into English as "as a friend." The title also functions as a pun, reading phonetically as "enemy" in English.
Parts of "En Ami" were filmed at Lake Sherwood, California.
Errors
On the correspondence that Mulder receives, his email address is shown as 'fmulder@fbi.gov.net'. On the emails that Scully receives, her email is shown as 'dscully@fgi.gov'
Allusions
Mulder: I just wanna know if it's Roma Downey or Della Reese.
This is in reference to the inspirational tv show, Touched by an Angel. Mulder is saying he'd like to know which of the characters, Della Reese or Roma Downey (whose character worked for Della Reese's character) healed the young boy of cancer.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_Ami
http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/En_Ami
http://www.tv.com/shows/the-xfiles/en-ami-644/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751113/
The Complete X Files Behind the series, the myths and the movies
All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6