Canada.com (2006)

Role of Marshall’s grieving coach weighs on star

NEW YORK — It was the kind of disaster that leaves a community shattered and traumatized. On the evening of Nov. 14, 1970, a chartered jet crashed in the Appalachian Mountains a scant minute before its scheduled landing at Tri-State Airport. On board was the pride of the West Virginia town of Huntington — Marshall University’s prized football team which was returning from a game in North Carolina. Everyone on board was killed — 37 players, eight coaches and university staff members, the flight crew and 25 townsfolk.

The personal nature of the tragedy left deep scars on the entire community — but especially on the team’s assistant coach, Red Dawson, who had missed the fatal flight and afterwards suffered both a profound sense of loss and an even more agonizing guilt. And it is this character that actor Matthew Fox had to portray in all his emotional complexity in the new film, We Are Marshall.

Fox, one of TV’s most popular stars because of his portrayal of heroic doctor Jack Shepherd on the hit ABC series, Lost, knew that he would have to go the extra mile with this assignment.

“I always feel a responsibility to give everything I can and really pour myself into the work that I do on a fictional character,” he says. “But this does take more. It heightens that responsibility when you care so deeply about the man whose story you are telling.”

In fact, Fox, 40, was on tenterhooks until after the real-life Dawson had seen We Are Marshall.

“Getting that phone call when he had seen the film and was so happy and proud of it — that was the phone call I was waiting for the most. So it was good.”

Soft-spoken and thoughtful about his craft, Fox is an actor who could easily rest on the prestige of Lost. However, he likes working during his hiatus from the series, provided he can find good material, and last summer he was lucky.

“I actually did two films. I worked six days a week all the way through the summer, with less than 24 hours turnaround between the two.”

He remembers finishing We Are Marshall in Atlanta and 18 hours later finding himself in Mexico City on the set of Vantage Point, a political thriller about the kidnapping of the U.S. president.

He’s high on both movies, but knows that We Are Marshall, which opened Dec. 22, will always occupy a special place because it’s based on a true story.

The movie focuses on what happens after the disaster and how a stricken community responds. Initially, the local grief is so intense that citizens can’t even contemplate rebuilding their “thundering herd.” The university president (David Strathairn) is ready to suspend the school football program indefinitely. Fox’s character, Red Dawson, remains so distraught that he can’t imagine returning to coaching and going back on to that field. But then, spurred on by concerned students, the community starts rallying and trying to heal itself. It hires a new coach from outside named Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) and Red Lawson himself reluctantly agrees to return as well — for one final season.

The real Red Dawson, who was recently inducted into the Football Hall Of Fame, has continued to be haunted by this 36-year-old tragedy, but Fox believes that We Are Marshall has brought some closure for him. Fox and Dawson became good friends during the making of this film, but for the actor, this only made him more conscious of his responsibility in portraying him.

“He’s a man and he’s a very complex man. Something happened in 1970 that changed his life. That event is the single most defining thing that’s ever happened to him — and in some respect that’s defined him every day for 35 years.”

In the film, Fox, in the role of Dawson, tries to explain his reluctance in helping recruit a new team. The actor considers those lines pivotal to understanding him: “I went to 20 houses, sat in 20 living rooms and promised 20 mothers that I would look after their sons — 20 kids and not one of them is left. Tell me — how am I to look a mother in the eye and promise her anything again?”

Fox knows that Lost remains his career touchstone. But he’s not talking about upcoming plot surprises and what the rest of the season has in store for these people stranded on an isolated island.

“I could tell you exactly what’s going to happen and how exciting it’s going to be — but I’m not gonna,” he smiles.

But he’s been excited about the season ever since he sat down several months ago with creator J.J. Abrams to discuss its course.

“On a creative level and story level, I think this is going to be the best season we’ve had.”