Staying alive

[Sydney]

RECENTLY Lost kicked off its second season on AXN with some new faces and juicy revelations. If anyone had a doubt whether the second season could hold one’s attention, by Episode Two viewers are bound to be hooked all over again. Now despite the additional characters in the programme, it is the existing characters who truly enthral.

At the top of that list is Dr Jack Shephard (played by the rugged-looking Matthew Fox). While in the first season, the audience may have put Jack high up on a pedestal, in the second you may lose a little love for him when he takes his role as leader of this lost pack a little too seriously. Foxy Fox takes a break while on location in Oahu, Hawaii, to talk about the series, in an interview with the AXN channel.



What can audiences expect in the second season?

I think the second season is a lot more plot-driven than the first year. In the first year it made sense because viewers were getting to know these survivors and the show was a little bit more character driven.

The second year, people were really desperate to find out more information about where they were, what the thing is out there, what “the others” are and so the first three to four episodes of the second year delivered a lot of plot information about the island. Then I think we dropped into a middle area of the second year where we get a little more character driven again, and I think we’re working towards a final thrust that will bring all that together.


What are some highlights from Season One that viewers should remember going into Season Two?

Obviously when you get to end of the first year you want to know what’s in the hatch. The season starts with that very question and that mystery starting to be explored and so the first couple of episodes are very much about that. I was really blown away by just how much information was given. We had a lot of people by the end of the first year that were getting frustrated with not enough information being given and I think that’s the fine line that we always have to walk on this show. We have to offer doors being opened up and then we have to walk this fine line of not offering too much.


What’s been the most challenging scene you’ve had to perform?

I have to say that the episode where Boone dies, that whole episode was a really very difficult episode for me to do. It took just an enormous amount of focus and emotional energy ? the scene where he’s about to take Boone’s leg off with this crude thing that he’s rigged up. It was just a really difficult emotional place to get to: the guy knows that he’s going to lose him; that he’s not going to be successful. But that’s a very defining part of who Jack Shephard is.

Even when he knows the battle’s lost, something inside of him makes him forge on and so that moment is pretty intense. It’s only Boone sort of coming to and letting him off the hook that finally breaks Jack back into some sort of sense of awareness of where he is. It was very, very, intense stuff to do.

What do you think the secret behind the worldwide success of Lost is?

I do think, on a world-wide level, it’s a pretty international cast. I think that it doesn’t feel like it’s necessarily just an American show. It feels like it’s a show about human beings and it doesn’t matter where you’re from in the world, I think people can completely relate to this premise of a very diverse group of people being stranded on an island somewhere in the South Pacific.

How has the success of the series changed your everyday life?

It really hasn’t that much. We kinda exist in our own little bubble over here and so it really hasn’t changed my life a whole lot at all.

I mean I live over here with my wife and my two kids, and come to work up on this kind of location every day, and work on great material, and work with great actors and directors, and a great crew, I mean I couldn’t be happier.

As a viewer, what is your favourite episode so far?

That’s tough to say, there’s too many good ones to pin point one episode out I think. No, there’s a lot of them that stand out, I just couldn’t pick one.

If you liken yourself to a colour, which colour would it be?

Probably red, or blood red, I don’t know. I’m a pretty hot person; I mean my emotions sit with me pretty intensely. I feel like I have been accused of being overly passionate at times in my life, so I think red would probably be the colour.

What do you do to relax on your off days?

I just spend a lot of time with my kids, take a nap with my four-year-old boy, that’s about as relaxing as it gets for me. I love taking afternoon naps when I have an opportunity to do that. My boy’s four, my daughter’s eight, so she’s not taking naps anymore, but to lay down and crash out with my little guy for about two hours, there’s something amazing about those moments when a four-year-old child is finally gearin’ down enough to fall asleep and then when they’re gearin’ back up after they wake up. There’s really eminent moments in there that are very special and make me feel very connected to my family.


Lost is aired every Monday on AXN at 10pm. is aired every Monday on AXN at 10pm.


Courtesy of The Star Online