Jorge Garcia Interview with MAXIM.

[Sydney]

Most of the Lost cast was famous for something before the show. So what the heck were you doing?
Commercials. And working at Borders. I had a commercial for Jack in the Box, which got some attention because they ran it all the time on local television. I was the guy with the paper hat that said jack on it who got free curly fries because everyone thought he was Jack. It was cool—that was, like, my first taste of street recognition. But when Lost hit in 2004, everything really exploded.

Any fallout from the explosion?
No, my life in Hawaii is pretty quiet. I can just go off and do my little show. So when I come into town for the Emmy Awards and stuff like that, it makes being a celebrity more of a place that I get to visit. I don’t know how I would handle it if it went beyond that.

How psychotic are Lost fans?
Not too scary. One lady sent me a coupon for Slim Fast along with a bunch of religious pamphlets. On another occasion, the same lady sent me dieters’ tea—but she didn’t send me the box, just a couple of bags in an envelope. Sometimes I’ll send someone a autographed picture, and then they’ll send me back a picture of themselves at their desk, with my picture sitting there, set up.

It sounds like you guys are having a big party out there in Hawaii making the show. C’mon, are you really all friends?
Oh, yeah. A bunch of us got Sony PSPs recently, and Dominic [Monaghan, who plays Charlie] has a huge boner for FIFA Soccer. It’s tricky, but Dom and I try to play while filming. We’ll be doing a scene, and Dom will be like, “OK, they’re moving lights.” And we’d get in a play, then do our scene, or lose the connection. We’re still new to the PSP. I think we should try out Twisted Metal next, because you can do a quicker game. Soccer takes a long-ass time.

So do poker games. How are the games on the Lost set going?
I hosted two poker games last season. I want to try and get that going more. We play tournament style—everyone brings 10 bucks, and at the end someone gets, like, 80 bucks. Josh [Holloway, who plays Sawyer] wants to up the buy-in. I guess some people think that when you play for 10 bucks they won’t play it seriously.

Did you kick ass at your home game?
Yeah. I was up against Harold [Perrineau, who plays Michael] in the last game. I had two aces and he raised me, which totally blew my mind—I thought he had three of a kind! But I held on, because I know that if you have two aces at the beginning of a hand, you have an 80 percent chance to win. So I was like, “All right, all in.” He called with two nines. He thought I was bluffing. That was sweet. It might have been a $10 buy-in, but my hands were still shaking when I was bringing my chips in. Oh, man, it sucks to lose in your home game. I just didn’t want to be the first one out.

Who is the cast ringleader?
When someone’s backstory is coming up on an episode, they know they’re responsible to be like, “OK, everyone’s coming to my house for my show.” Then we all get together and watch the show—without the commercials. And it kind of creates this illusion that this is just a little show that me and my friends do.

Since you know them both so well, who do you think would win in a fight between Dom and his girlfriend, Evangeline Lilly?
That’s a good question. Evie’s pretty tight and fast, but Dom might fight dirty. You know, he’s a Manchester punk kid. Then again, she’s a girl. I don’t think he’d punch her. You know who would win? Whoever’s watching would win.

Have you gone skinny-dipping with the rest of the cast yet?
Yeah, I did. It’s interesting—the water really gets up all in your crannies. I highly recommend skinny-dipping just to feel that sensation. It’s so much more than a bath. But when you get out the bad thing is the sand gets everywhere.

Thanks for the tip, but we were talking about your extremely hot, buck-naked cast members.
People make a bigger deal out of it than it was. I’ve only done it once. We were just at Matthew Fox’s house hanging out, then all of a sudden, you know, “Let’s go swimming.” There was another party where there was definitely some posing and a little more presentation involved. I don’t think there were photographs. I missed out. That would have been fun.

With such a tight cast, you guys must get awful misty when you suddenly discover that someone is getting offed.
Well, the first one was Ian [Somerhalder, who played Boone]. That was rough. I didn’t work that day, but I went and watched them shoot it to make it seem real to me. It was like going to see a body at a wake. We aren’t going to be seeing this person anymore, we’re not going to his house to see the show, because he’s already gone. But that’s the nature of the beast with this show. It’s a dangerous place, and death is going to be part of it.

If that’s how you say goodbye, how do you say hello to the new cast members?
We make them pick up a lot of Ping-Pong balls with their butt cheeks. I mean, a lot. “You’re not going out with us until this room is clean!”

You used to work at a record store, and your character is a music junkie—Do you help pick the music on the show?
No, although they recently asked us about music because of the record player in the hatch. They wanted pre-1980s music, the more obscure, the better. I sent them a couple of songs that I thought would be kind of Hurley-esque. But I feel like sending them another list. Maybe I’ll put a little “Clean Slate” by Tower of Power in there.

Have you found that chicks dig the belly?
I have this thing with my girlfriend, who lives next door to me, where we’re lying in the bed, and I just kind of collapse on her. And I’m like, “Go ahead, see if you can get yourself free. You know, just in case something happens. You’ve got to go to safety. Three, two, one.” She’s like, “Get off me!” I have to make her struggle out. That’s our little drill.

You’ve lost weight recently, though?
I lost 30 pounds. I can afford to not live on rum and burritos and take better care of myself. It’s not like I’m doing a specific regimen. Besides, there were enough people who were waiting for my character to lose weight as a result of being stranded on a desert island.

What would you do if you won the lottery like Hurley?
I could use a new car. I’m perfectly happy driving my 1997 Corolla, which is the same car I drove when I was broke in L.A. If I hit the lottery, then I’d buy a new car, but for some reason I won’t buy a new one now. I want to drive that Corolla into the ground.

Is there a meaning to those lottery numbers anyway?
It’s the answer key to a math test that we all get at the end of season two. You know, like one of those Scantron sheets.

SOURCE: http://www.maximonline.com/