Chicago Sun Times (2006)

Matthew Fox finds himself on the big screen

Matthew Fox doesn’t like telling people to get lost. “It’s just that people come up to me about every hour with theories,” says the star of ABC’s hit “Lost.”
“I’m very patient with it because it’s really a tribute to the show.”

Yes, he’s in purgatory or a hell of his own making thanks to the popularity of the series.

“I think our show does something few shows on TV do. It’s not just about the 43 minutes of the show,” he says. “It’s about the next few days of talking about it with friends and family.

“The show is so bigger than life and people hypothesize about it to a degree that they’re unhappy with what the actual show is doing,” he says. Fox does get a break from all the theories in the new football drama “We Are Marshall,” about life after a plane crash that kills a small-town football team.

1. Will your “Lost” character live or die? Lots of people die on your show, you know.

I will say that I hope it takes as long as the producers think it needs to take to get to the final conflict … I’d like to keep living. That would make me very happy. It’s funny that the minute I sign for a film, the press starts speculating that I’m bored and disillusioned with the show, I want to be a big movie star and I must be dying on the series. The truth is I love “Lost.”

2. Does size matter? Matthew McConaughey has a much bigger role in “We Are Marshall.”

I never look at things that way. To me the story ist he most important thing. If that means I walk in and deliver a suitcase, so be it. I just really love movies that have a complete and emotional story.

3. How do you like living in Hawaii where you shoot “Lost?”

My family is happy there. I have two young kids. It’s a great place for them to be growing up. They’re 9 and 5. I like it because they get to spend a lot of time outdoors. We live around the beach and there’s a sense of freedom you don’t get in a big city. In Hawaii, there is space. I grew up in Wyoming. There was so much space, and I love that about Hawaii.

4. But does Hawaii have it in for the cast of “Lost?” There have been a few run-ins with the cops.

Well, they could be after us. But Hawaii has been really good to the show. Obviously, they’re happy that the show shoots there.

5. Tell us a little bit about your past.

I studied acting after graduating from Columbia with an economics degree. I was planning on working on Wall Street and then I realized that wasn’t for me. Acting was a default. My Dad is a painter and my older brother is an art professor. My mom is a painter and sculptor. When I was young my parents wouldn’t allow a TV in our house. When I was 15, my grandparents gave us one and my parents were so pissed off. I didn’t have a TV in my house with my kids until we moved to Hawaii and the house already had a TV hooked up. That TV is always an argument between my wife and me. I want it off — even when my show is on.