The latest Monday Night Movie Series featured James Wong, LMU Alum and currently writer/producer of American Horror Story on FX.
We had the opportunity to watch a new episode of the show and then participate in a Q&A that covered much of his best known feature work. His film credits include Final Destination, Final Destination 3 and The One, while his television credits include The Commish, Wiseguy, The Event, and the wildly successful 21 Jump Street and The X Files.
It’s always incredibly rewarding to meet an LMU alum who has achieved such a high level of success in this industry. James Wong provided us with insight into the dramatic change in censorship that has taken place in recent years. He gave us two examples from The X Files of scenes that were deemed too violent at the time to air on television. One involved someone being doused with gasoline, which was allowed, but they weren’t allowed to show a match being lit. In another situation, a scene was cut that employed a harness pulling an actor backward to show the impact of the bullet after being shot.
There was thunderous laughter when Professor Kevin Wetmore commented that American Horror Story features quite a bit of violent, kinky sex, or as it’s known at LMU – Friday night. If any of you have seen AHS, it’s pretty obvious how much times have changed.
