The X-Files: Lauren Ambrose introduces her new character as a 'ball-breaker'

Count Lauren Ambrose among the impressive number of fans drawn in by The X-Files’ return.

“It wasn’t quite on my radar when I was younger,” Ambrose tells EW of the sci-fi series. “But I have watched since they’ve been on TV, and,” she adds with a laugh, “it’s really great!”

The Six Feet Under veteran guest-stars in the last two episodes of the X-Files’ event series as Agent Einstein, who — along with Robbie Amell’s Agent Miller — is pulled into an investigation with Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) after the bombing of an art gallery.

“Mulder and Scully need some help,” Ambrose says, “so Agent Miller and I come in and do our best to help them and kind of get embroiled in this whole case with them.” For Ambrose and Amell, part of the job required crafting a sense of their characters’ dynamic from scratch — while working alongside actors with 23 years of history behind them.

“I think it’s one of those classic television things where it’s like, ‘Hi, nice to meet you. Okay, so we’ve been working together for years,’ ” Ambrose says of her onscreen partnership with Amell. “In between first takes, which were at 5 in the morning at some giant airport set, we tried to hash out some ideas of who we were together, and we talked very briefly with Chris [Carter, series creator] about all of it. But you know, as I keep working in this medium, I always find that the truth of the whole thing is in the scene. If you play the scene, all of those things will come forward. You get a sense of who they are and who they are to each other.

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“It did evolve a little bit, and we were able to find things within scenes that had a feeling of time logged together. So it was fun to create.”

Ambrose had nothing but praise for her X-Files experience. “It was a really fun place to work,” she says, “and it was really humbling to be on the set of this big cultural, iconic show. They were all very welcoming and lovely people to work with, and I have a lot of respect for what Chris and they have created over the years. I think it’s really special.”

Carter wrote and directed not only Monday’s episode, “Babylon,” but the season finale as well, and Ambrose says that she “had fun playing within the parameters he gave for the character.”

“He wanted [Einstein’s] voice to be very powerful,” she explains. “I think it’s my instinct to just be softer, sort of, in life, and he very much wanted her to be foot forward, powerful voice — kind of a ball-breaker with all of them, indiscriminately, and just very forward about her views and beliefs.”

Might Agent Scully see something of herself in the younger redhead? “I guess we’re both FBI ladies in blue suits, so there’s some similarities there,” Ambrose teases.

As for what fans can expect from the season finale, Ambrose promises “global panic.”

“They need to figure out how to solve a giant problem, and once again, I’m there to help. I’m there to help Mulder and Scully.”