It has been 30 years since Laurie Holden first appeared on The X-Files as Marita Covarrubias, a role she never thought she’d land.
“I’m not right for this,” she recalls thinking at the time. Marita was a mid-30s government employee with knowledge of conspiracies, and Holden was a young UCLA graduate in the middle of a ski vacation. She decided to audition (after some encouragement from her mother), and by the time she got to the parking lot, she’d been offered the part. The actress made her debut on Oct. 4, 1996, in the Season 4 premiere, “Herrenvolk.”
Fans immediately revolted. Many saw Marita as the “sultry” new girl who was trying to get between FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), and they had no problems sharing their feelings. “Don’t you mess with my Scully,” Holden recalls hearing from passionate fans. Nowadays, she has a simple refrain: “It’s Mulder and Scully forever!”
Marita remains one of the show’s most mysterious recurring characters, and that was by design. Showrunner Chris Carter instructed Holden to remove all shades of vulnerability from her performance, and instead play her “very enigmatic and very cool.”
In an interview with Gold Derby, Holden looks back on the 30th anniversary of her joining The X-Files, Marita’s complicated relationships with Mulder and Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea), and whether she’d return to the franchise in Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Hulu reboot.
Gold Derby: What comes to your mind when you hear that it’s been 30 years since you first appeared on The X-Files as Marita Covarrubias?
Laurie Holden: I just don’t know where the time went. There’s been this resurgence, maybe because it’s the next generation discovering the show. There have also been these reunions where we’ve all come together — David, Gillian, the whole gang. We had a wonderful one in Philadelphia recently, and it was as if the show were still airing on Friday night. Thousands and thousands of people came out, and we were gobsmacked.
We said to each other, “Can you believe we’re here? Can you believe 30 years have passed?” If we’d spoken to our younger selves and said, “30 years from now, you’re going to be having reunions and people are still going to love the show,” we never would have believed it. It’s been such a wonderful journey. It’s a bit of a “pinch me” because it’s very rare and rather extraordinary.
How did you originally get cast in the role?
I had just graduated from university. I went to UCLA, and I was on a Whistler ski vacation. I was heading up the mountain when I got this audition. I hadn’t seen the show. I hadn’t seen any show because I was in study mode. I was just trying to get my degree and finish my exams. The breakdown said “Marita Covarrubias” — which sounded very exotic and sexy — “a mid-30s Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations.” I thought, “OK, I’m not right for this. This is never going to happen.”
But my mom talked me into it. She said, “It’s a big show on TV. Just meet them. Maybe they’ll think of you for something else.” I genuinely thought my chances of getting it were a big zero for a multitude of reasons. I didn’t think I had the gravitas. I mean, I was a baby. It’s funny how life is. Because I hadn’t seen the show and didn’t think there was any chance I would get it, I was so calm.
I went in and met Chris Carter, and there was no chitchat because I didn’t really have much to say. It wasn’t like when an actor is passionate about a show and waxes poetic about how much they love it. I hadn’t even seen it, and I didn’t think I was right for it. He gave me some direction that wasn’t really about the character. It was more about movement and going from point A to point B. By the time I got to my car in the parking lot, my agent called and said, “I don’t know what you did in there, but you got this role.”
When your first episode aired in 1996, did you have a watch party? How did you celebrate?
I don’t even remember seeing the first episode. I definitely didn’t have a watch party. I’m one of those actors who doesn’t usually watch myself. I wait until time has passed, especially when I’m in the thick of a project. If I watch it in real time while I’m still doing the project, I don’t want to get into the, “Oh, I look like that. I sound like that. I did this. I did that” mode. I wanted to live it and be it, then catch up after the fact, which is pretty much what I did — and what I continue to do.
You still don’t like watching yourself?
I do after the fact because I’m able to separate myself from it. I know a lot of other actors who are like that. With The Walking Dead, I think I’ve seen two episodes. That was for all of you guys. [Laughs.]
When you signed on originally, how much did they tell you about Marita, and how much did you learn later?
I wasn’t told anything before my first day. After I shot “Herrenvolk,” Chris called me up and we had a meeting. He said, “You said this one line, and there was a hint of vulnerability and an emotion. I never want to see it again.” I was shocked. He told me he had modeled the character after Mata Hari, the infamous World War I spy and a bit of a femme fatale. Greta Garbo played her in a movie, so that gives you a bit of a tell as to the mystery surrounding this woman.
He wanted her to be very enigmatic and very cool. But what I loved was that, as the show went on in subsequent seasons, the Syndicate discovered she was double-dealing and she became their lab rat. You were able to see how broken she became. There was a vulnerability to her, which I thought was wonderful because it added a lot more dimension to the character.
I loved the scenes where she had the black oil inside her and was being held by the Syndicate. What do you remember about the makeup process?
I loved those episodes, just as an actor. I loved exploring where the needles went and where the pain was being held in my body. It was very difficult to talk. This was a woman who was so put together and composed, and then, in some ways, she became a monster. She was just broken. I thought they did it beautifully because they didn’t overdo it. They gave me contact lenses and makeup, and it showed just enough. She had clearly been infected with something highly toxic, and it was eating away at her from the inside.
I always thought there was sexual tension between Marita and Mulder.
Sacrilegious! No, you can’t say that. It’s Mulder and Scully forever. Don’t make the world hate me again! [Laughs.]
Did you get a lot of hate mail?
I think at the time people were very protective of them as a unit. All of a sudden, this cool blonde comes along and acts a bit sultry, and everyone is thinking, “Don’t you mess with my Scully.” Obviously, there was an attraction. He’s a handsome man. But I think there was real camaraderie and respect for one another. They were allies. You see that even as you watch her journey — she was with the Syndicate, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, and Krycek, and she was playing all those clowns.
In the end, at the military tribunal, you see how, over this many-year journey, these two people genuinely cared for one another as people and had each other’s backs. To me, that was the perfect ending for Marita’s role in the mythology and the story because it wasn’t romantic. There wasn’t anything more than the fact that we were on the right side of things and on the same team. There was a love and respect that was very much on the level.
Was there love between Marita and Krycek, or was that strictly physical?
Strictly physical. I mean, come on — he was a rat!
You mentioned the Season 9 finale, which was the last time we saw Marita. Were you ever invited back for the X-Files revivals in 2016 or 2018?
No. I think her story pretty much played out. They had to follow what was really leading the story, and I feel like it came full circle. She had the right ending for that time. That’s not to say she couldn’t make an appearance down the line. You never know. I like to think she’s still in this world, possibly in Europe, working with the same passion and drive to help humanity. She may not be in the United States at the current time, but I feel like her work never stopped. She’s more in the shadows, but ever-present.
Ryan Coogler is rebooting The X-Files for Hulu.
It’ll be interesting!
If he called and said, “Come on for an episode,” what would you say?
Yeah, I would be game. Of course! It’s Ryan Coogler.
What’s the strongest memory you have when you think back on your time on The X-Files?
I can’t really pinpoint one thing because, when I look back at that time in my life, I just have so much gratitude. I was very young, and it was my first job out of university. Chris Carter somehow managed to pull together so many incredible artists: the directors, writers, composers, actors and crew in all departments.
Not only was everyone who worked on the show a fan of the show, but everyone really understood Chris Carter’s vision and shared his passion for the material. It’s very rare and a gift when you’re part of a team that’s collaborating in such an inspired, harmonious way. The fact that, 30 years later, the show is being celebrated and new generations are discovering it makes me feel like we touched on magic. It’s very rare, and it’s a gift.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
