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Of course a break-in from our ABC affiliate knocked out the HD signal right during the shower scene. *grumble*

Promo for LOST episode 4×11: Cabin Fever airing May 7:

Go Speed Racer Go!

Quicktime SD:

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_Small.mov

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_MEDIUM.mov

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_LARGE.mov

Quicktime HD:

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_480p.mov

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_720p.mov

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_1080p.mov

Quicktime Ipod:

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_iPOD.m4v

Quicktime Letterboxed:

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/LargeLetterbox.mov

Windows Media SD:

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_320.asx

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_480.asx

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_640.asx

Windows Media HD:

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_720.wmv.zip

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_1080.wmv.zip

Flash:

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syndicate/speedracer/musicvideo/SR_MusicVid_Flash.swf

Matthew Fox: Panic. [Laughs] No, it’s been chaotic, as it always is this time of year for us. I mean, we’re doing many shows. I think we’re shooting three episodes simultaneously, so it’s anywhere between two and three units working at the same time. Going back and forth between them and shooting things very out of sequence, which you always do, but like when you’re covering three episodes, it’s a lot. But it’s great. It’s really great.

Fred Topel: With only a few episodes left, is there still time to really forward the story?

Matthew Fox: Oh, yeah. You won’t believe what happens in the next five episodes. The show is building to its climax of the year and a lot of things are happening and it’s big and it’s going to be good. I think it’s been a good year for us. The strike, obviously, was difficult, just because we were really on a roll through [episode] eight, then we took this break. But I think everybody was really excited to get back to it.

Fred Topel: Is doing the flash forward stuff very different for you?

Matthew Fox: Well, Jack’s a frickin’ mess in the future so that has not been pleasant to revisit that. It’s never fun to put yourself into a place where you’re suicidal and really, really messed up and desperate. So he’s really gotten to the rock bottom, but I understand why we’re taking him there. There will be a turn in there where he begins to sort of build towards a redemption. Taking him to the very pit of despair is going to make that more rewarding, I think.

Fred Topel: Well, he seemed all right when he visited Kate in court.

Matthew Fox: Well, yeah. There was a period when he gets back where he’s built a construct of denial that he still can maintain. But things start to intrude on that bubble of denial and he can no longer maintain the lie that he’s telling himself and things start to fall apart.

Fred Topel: Do you like playing flawed heroes better than total good guys?

Matthew Fox: Yeah, I do. I don’t really buy into the notion of pure heroes. I think that’s kind of an antiquated idea. For me, it’s more exciting to play somebody who’s actually very human, like we all are, and flawed in many ways, but in very, very difficult circumstances does heroic things and finds some redemption in that. That’s, I think, really interesting and challenging and more relatable, for me anyway.

Fred Topel: You’re in the movie version of Speed Racer this summer. Were you a fan of the cartoon?

Matthew Fox: I wasn’t. I didn’t grow up in a household where television was allowed. My first attraction to the project was the Wachowskis, them as filmmakers and knowing that they were going to be doing something really innovative and different. When I met with Larry and Andy the first time, after that meeting I started punching up the imagery, and when I saw it, I immediately recognized it. It was in my consciousness, but I don’t think I’d ever seen an episode in full. So I went and got a bunch and watched a bunch of the original source material, which was really fun. My kids are now watching it and are really fired up. It’s really cool. I mean, there are so many very cool things about it and I can completely understand why, in the 1960s, that style of anime was so intriguing and grabbed so many people, like Larry and Andy. They were huge fans of it.

Fred Topel: No TV? What’s the deal with that?

Matthew Fox: My father was part of a religious cult. [Laughs] No, he wasn’t so much anti-television, he was just pro-books. Both my mom and dad were and that’s important to me and my wife and I. I mean, we allow our kids some television. We certainly allow them cool movies and some television, but it’s limited. I think it’s really important that they develop their own imaginations and find and use those imaginations. A great thing about being in Hawaii is they spend a lot of time outside. I just watched my daughter catch like five or six waves within a half an hour the other day, and ride them. She’s 11 and really just suddenly discovered surfing. She’s amazing. It’s like she’s been doing it her [whole life]. It’s really amazing to see. That’s a fatherly tangent right there.

Q&A by Fred Topel

Fox’s response: “I’m not worried about it. I’m so fired up for the challenge.”

The actor’s initial interest in the project came from the Wachowskis themselves, but in meeting with them he learned the filmmakers wanted to make “a movie their nephews and nieces could see,” in contrast to their R-rated “The Matrix” trilogy.

In Fox’s view, Racer X is a “satellite orbiting” the Speed Racer family and looks to protect Speed as he enters the world of professional racing. While Racer X speaks with “this sort of anime voice” inspired by the original series, Fox said he did not strive for the over-expressive style associated with anime. “The world is so fantastic that the one thing that the audience has to identify is with the human beings and the characters.” Fox suggested attempting that sort of performance “would alienate the audience.” Instead, he grounded Racer X in the human situation of a man who becomes a masked do-gooder. What affectations are present, he said, exist for Racer X “to protect himself from the memory of who he was.” Fox thinks Racer X’s situation is “almost disturbing.”

The part of Racer X itself also gave Fox an opportunity to play a flawed hero. Like his part of Jack on the hit television series “Lost,” such characters appeal to him. “I really don’t buy into the notion of ‘pure’ heroes. I think that’s kind of an antiquated idea,” Fox said. “For me, it’s more exciting to play someone who’s actually very human.” The actor considers the sort of character “who does heroic things and finds redemption” when a crisis compels him to action “more relatable.”

Despite the physical hardships of the Racer X costume, Fox found it actually benefited his performance. “This suit got to the point for me when I put it on and dropped that helmet on, I was just IN IT,” he explained. “People were different around me.” The mask allowed Fox to be separate from the other actors, as they also lost the benefit of eye contact with him. “You can intimidate.” The mask, however, also presented physical challenges. “The lenses would fog,” he laughed. “[It] led to me hitting a couple of stunt guys accidentally.” Fox said he felt bad about that, but, “you have to bring those moves [in] really tight … or it looks like a miss.”

Matthew Fox performed all of his own stunts in “Speed Racer,” and is very proud of it. “We had some conversations early on about how much better they would be able to shoot it if I did it all,” he said. Tthat kind of put the pressure on, [but] Larry and Andy are incredibly good at doing that sort of thing.” The decision led to six weeks of training for the fight scenes, and not just the type of choreography the Wachowskis are known for, but additional techniques and forms. Fox said his trainers prepared him for “the fact that once we got into those fight sequences, Larry and Andy might just decide to change things. I have to be prepared to move in a lot of different directions.” The work was intense, leading to a ten-day period of dehydration during which Fox said he took lots of electrolyte replacements to keep up the pace. But, he assured, the work is “absolutely fantastic.”

For his part, Fox is a car guy. “Being a race car driver might have been one of the first of a hundred different things I wanted to be when I was five or six,” the actor confessed. “[I enjoy] really cool 1950s designs and turning them into modern hot rods.” Though he does not do the actual work, he says, “[I] conceptualize it and have a lot of input into the detail. It’s a lot of fun.” The actor is currently working on a 1950 Mercury Coup.

Though the racing presented in “Speed Racer” is in his words “so far beyond” real racing, Fox thinks the races are “beautiful” in their own world. T film those races, Fox spent a great deal of time in a computerized hydraulic gimbal, a mock-up of his fictional car’s cockpit. While a full-sized replica of Racer X’s famous Shooting Star vehicle exists, all the work took place on the gimbal, which mimics the actual movements the car would make in each race. “Most of it is happening,” Fox said, saying he found himself jostled and slamming into the cockpit doors and going home with bruised shoulders. However, he said, even that adds to tools needed for an actor to work in a special effects environment. He praises the directors for “giving you everything you could possibly have while sitting in a green screen.”

Fox spoke briefly about “Lost” and the return to set following the Writers Guild Strike. He jokingly said the mood on set was “panic!” Explained Fox, “It’s been chaotic. As it always is this time of year.” At the moment, the “Lost” team is shooting three episodes simultaneously with “anywhere between two and three units working at the same time” with Fox “going back and forth between them and shootings things out of sequence.” Though scenes within episodes are generally shot out of order, jumping between scenes from different episodes adds to the acting challenge. “When you’re covering three episodes, it’s a lot.” But Fox is surprised by the developments on the series as they near the season finale. “It’s big and it’s going to be good.”

Despite the challenges of working on green screens and in leather suits, Fox is looking forward to reprising the Racer X role. “I’m hopeful to put that suit back on,” he confirmed. Fox revealed his final line in the film is “a set up for exploring what might happen down the road.” He also spoke about the character’s use of plastic surgery. He says, “It’s a really handy tool if you’re becoming a masked vigilante.” All of which a sequel would explore if “Speed Racer” is successful.

Courtesy of Comic Book Resources