Interview with Lost's Matthew Fox

Lost -Matthew Fox - 'Jack Shephard'

With the fifth season of the TV hit show "Lost" now well under way, fans around the world are hooked, once again, and trying to navigate their way through the maze-like plot.

Matthew Fox, who plays Jack - the doctor, leader, 'Oceanic 6' survivor and love interest of Kate - revealed all about playing his character, his love of travelling and family life in Hawaii.

Casual in jeans, a suit jacket and clutching a bottle of mineral water, the foxy Mr Fox is laid back and friendly. His approach appears in stark contrast to the intensity of his character, Jack Shephard, who - as any Lost fan will attest - has been historically full of angst for one reason or another.

Fox makes it clear from the outset that he was "so happy to get past the corner of Jack." Although he openly admits he's "very attracted to characters that are desperately trying to be better," he expresses his real relief about playing Jack in a new capacity this year: "He's a very, very different guy this year since he got back to the island."

Fox goes on to say that things do change as soon as Jack realises "he really is fated to accomplish something on that island, that he's meant to be there."

However, the challenge of playing this role is not something Fox passes off lightly. It's evident that it has been a long hard graft from the way he sighs out loud and without hesitation when speaking of Jack's despair.

Harking back to the first four years of the show where Jack was taken from a heroic place to a place of sheer and utter desperation, is painful for Fox. He feels that "towards the end there where he was really in that bad place, it was just really tough. The material was really tough and I couldn't wait to get past that. You don't just take that off and come home... Sometimes you carry that stuff around with you."

For Fox, work and family life have become intrinsically linked since his family's move to the Hawaian island of Oahu, (now five years ago) in order to start filming Lost. The knock-on effect meant there were big changes for his family and his career.

Given the shift and his obvious commitment to the show, Fox is keen to convey the importance of his family and extended family surrounding his career. Although personally happy in Hawaii where he can watch his daughter's love of surfing grow, Fox talks of his family's love of travelling, and how they are "looking forward to where we are heading after this and a lot of that because we are going to be closer to family." Fox fondly recalls speaking with his brothers about bringing all of their children closer together to ensure tighter relationships

Happy with home, family life and now with where Jack is, Fox (inbetween intermittently screwing and unscrewing the top of his water bottle) is constantly teasing forthcoming storylines.

When asked whether he knows about the ending of the show, he talks about all the misinformation as "an interesting dynamic." He feels that "what makes the show and what keeps the audience, I hope sort of on edge while they are watching Lost is that any character can die at any time."

So what about Jack? Could Jack die? For Fox it's a firm, "Oh, yeah!"

What's even more surprising is his answer to whether he'd like to see himself (Jack) die: "I think that would be awesome. I think Jack will die. I mean that's my own personal belief. Whether he will die in the last moments of the show or before that will remain to be seen. I think a lot of the characters are going to die, but I can be wrong. I might know that."

In addition to his thoughts on Jack's demise and all told through giggles, Fox also shed light on Locke and Jack together: "I think it is very cool to see how and where those two end up in the final moments of the show."

And with that final episode now less than a year away, there's little doubt that Fox will keep teasing us all, keeping us on tenterhooks for a little while longer.

Source: TV NZ