The relationship between Mulder and Scully is what made the show as compelling as it was (until Duchovny’s early departure): Mulder’s passionate faith in the supernatural inspired his tireless and dangerous work, while Doctor Scully was there to root him in reality. The almost Taoist relationship between them was on display when Jason Madara photographed the duo in celebration of the X-Files’ return to television this month.
When Variety needed someone to step into the shoot the first person they thought about was Jason Madara to whom they offered full creative freedom. “I knew what they wanted was the color. I knew they wanted the green,” says Jason. “When you punch in ‘XFiles’ on Google, that color comes up. So I knew that was the one thing I had to give them. That’s what I loved about this, that I was able to do what I wanted.” With that freedom, and a little bit of understood expectation, Jason was set loose to make the images about what he wanted to make them about: the relationship between these two characters.
“Gillian was great because she was kind of flirty with him and that’s what I wanted,” says Jason. She really knew how to handle him. She helped me a lot just by her being there and knowing how to take care of it. She was great. Beautiful. Friendly. And she gave me the look I wanted.” The time they had together was short, but Jason got what he needed effectively and efficiently.
