LOS ANGELES — Smoke monsters? Ghosts? Pirates? Renegade researchers experimenting with wormholes and polar bears? All minor headaches compared to the thorniest threat Matthew Fox and his fellow Lost castaways have faced: Namely, fickle fair-weather fans. “Those were all bandwagon jumpers. Those were the people who would not have been Lost fans to begin with,” says Fox of the millions of viewers who bailed during the stormy sophomore season and had many observers wondering if the phenomenally-popular series would ever regain its momentum. “We won the Emmy. We won the Golden Globe — and then we had a whole bunch of people jump on just because they couldn’t stand being left out and they weren’t really Lost fans to begin with. “And they all went away.”
And frankly Fox doesn’t sound terribly interested in wooing them back. Fact is, after a third year in which the show re-constituted much of its creative credibility, ratings are strong (16 million-plus in its new Thursday timeslot). So is the buzz. Now in its fourth — albeit abbreviated — season, the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 have seemingly reverse-jumped the shark. How’d they do it? First, by ingeniously tweaking the show’s non-linear narrative. After three seasons spent flashing back in time, last May’s season finale sprung forward to a post-island Jack who is a bearded, alcoholic shell of his former self. The sudden flash-forward format re-kindled the interest of devotees and casual fans alike — i.e.: What horrible events transpired during the rescue of the castaways? Fox says he knows, but, of course, is not telling. “Oh yeah, I know a lot. I know everything that got (Jack) to that point. That was important to me.” Secondly, but just as crucial to the show’s resurgence, the producers and ABC announced an end date of 2010. “(Co-creator Damon Lindeloff) campaigned for that,” Fox says. “That was what he wanted and I understand why. He would always say to me, ‘If somebody told you you were going to go out and run a marathon tomorrow, but they were like, ‘We’re not sure whether we’re going to make you run 18 miles or you’re going to run 26,’ you wouldn’t have any idea how to pace yourself. He has the story in his head, but until he knew how many chapters he had to write that story, it was very difficult for him. And so now that he has that, the story is going to have a lot of momentum and is going to move quickly.” Thus, moving at least as quickly is the 41-year-old himself in his efforts to establish a film career prior to the show’s conclusion. For Fox, it presents a familiar conundrum: How to carry his small-screen currency to the big screen? After all, even here during a news conference to promote his new film, Vantage Point, questions about Lost dominate the discussion. And there’s no guarantee the people who watch you every week on television will fork over $14 to see you at the multiplex — just ask Eva Longoria Parker. Working in Fox’s favour, though, is a work ethic — he’s shot four movies, including a cameo in Smokin’ Aces, in the past two years — as well as favour among the fanboys that have made Lost a cult commodity and are more likely to follow Fox’s post-TV career than the soccer moms who watch Desperate Housewives. Again, the former college athlete draws upon the life-and-career-as-a-marathon metaphor. “I’ve been doing this business for quite awhile. I’ve taken it very slow. I always felt that it was a marathon and not a sprint for me … The sprinters, they go away kind of quickly and a lot of times they’re not in it for the right reasons anyway.” Opening Friday, Vantage Point casts Fox as a Secret Service agent tasked with protecting U.S. President Ashton (William Hurt). When Ashton’s shot by a sniper, there’s a mad scramble to find the assassin, with the oft-conflicting narrative shifting between differing and contradictory points of view. If much of this — unconventional storytelling, mysterious characters, muddled motivations — sounds a lot like Lost, it’s not a complete coincidence. “I’m very interested in the concept of perspective,” Fox says. “It’s something I think about all the time in my life — the ability for one event to happen and for two people to perceive that event so differently, depending on where they’re standing and who they are and what kind of agenda they had in how they perceive it.” For example, some might perceive Hawaii, where Lost is filmed, to be the ideal place to call home. Yet Fox, who lives there with his wife and two children, misses winter. Yes, you read that correctly. “I’ve never really been a beach paradise guy. I’m more of a mountain person. (Hawaii’s) been amazing and we’re enjoying it and it’s been a welcome change for us to get the kids away from the bigger city — they’re in a really good school and they’re making great friends and it’s been wonderful. But it’s not the place I would want to live the rest of my life. I just need bigger horizons, mountains, and I need four seasons. I really miss four seasons of weather.” — THE FOX FILE AGE: 41 BIRTHPLACE: Abington, Penn. His parents raised cattle and horses. BIG BREAK: Portraying Charlie, the eldest brother of the Salinger clan on the 1990s family drama Party of Five. His on-screen siblings included Neve Campbell and Scott Wolf. Other roles, notably in the short-lived supernatural series Haunted, followed. BEST KNOWN FOR: Playing Jack Shephard, the heroic doctor stranded on a mysterious island after an horrific plane crash, in Lost. MARRIED TO: Margherita Ronchi since 1991. They have two children: An 11-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son. Despite his enduring marriage, Fox says he’s not a romantic. “I’m probably on a scale of one to 10, like a three.” What does his wife think of this? “She’s a 3.7. We’re just not soft and mushy in that way.” DID YOU KNOW: Lost creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof originally wanted to kill the character of Jack off in the two-hour pilot and approached Michael Keaton to cameo in the role. But when ABC executives convinced the producers not to kill off their hero, Keaton didn’t want the long-term commitment so Fox instead landed the star-affirming part. |
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