Interview

There’s no shortage of media coverage surrounding tonight’s premiere. You would have to being living under the Black Rock to not know that Lost Season 4 debuts tonight. To tide us over for the rest of the day, since we are obviously too excited to focus on anything else, here’s a list of links to keep us busy while we wait. We thank all of our fellow Lost fans who sent some of these in.

Potential Spoiler Warning

• USA TODAY gives tonight’s episode 4 out of 4 stars in their review: ‘Lost’ rescues a TV season that’s adrift.
  

  Returning with a heart-stopping, perfectly pitched episode that fulfills all the promise of last season’s stunner of a finale, Lost is an oasis in a strike-parched TV desert.

• AOL Television did a “‘Lost’ A to Z Guide” - 26 reasons why season 4 will be pretty interesting. Thanks Andie
• ToeKnee found a few preview articles that are worth repeating here: ‘Lost’ finds new ways to intrigue from the Boston Globe and one from nj.com here: Sepinwall on TV: ‘Lost’ season four review
• Here’s a video interview with Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) on redlasso.com from this morning on the CW 11 New York Morning Show
• This interview with Michael Emerson (Ben) is a good one. He describes the character of Ben here:
  

  He’s certainly an antagonist. He certainly makes things happen. He provokes behavior in the part of others and his methods are mysterious and frightening. We fear Ben because we fear the unknown. If his agenda were more clear, we might feel differently about him. I think a day will come, and maybe I flatter myself here, when we see more clearly what his sight is, who his enemies are, and we may decide he’s a more heroic character than we thought previously

• Finally, you can listen to a podcast interview Matthew Fox from Australian radio station Triple M. It’s broken into 3 parts. Thanks Jason

Enjoy, see you all in the comments tonight!

As a follow-up to the previous cast interviews on the Lost set in Hawaii, E!Online’s Kristin Veitch interviews Elizabeth Mitchell who plays Juliet and Michael Emerson who plays Ben.

While the interviews don’t really reveal any secrets, they are well timed as tonight’s new Lost episode “One of us” is centered around Juliet’s past and her arrival at the beach camp with Jack, Kate and Sayid.

The video can be seen at E!Online

The members of the Lost stunt team take great risks to help make Lost the action packed show that we all love, but unlike the actors and actresses they double, we rarely get to read much about them or their work.

To give you a bit more insight into the process of creating Lost, I’ve interviewed Lost stuntwoman Heather Arthur who does the stunts for, among others, Evangeline Lilly who plays Kate.

How and why did you become a stunt woman?

Heather: My dad is a stuntman and has been for over 30 years. When I was little I always knew I wanted to be a stuntwoman. My dad would have me jump off the refrigerator when I was only two years old into homemade airbags. It was fun. My dad became the stunt coordinator for Lost and said I would be a great double for a girl named Evie. I had never seen the show but quit my job and moved to Hawaii two weeks later.

How do you prepare for a stunt? Do you rehearse and choreograph it a lot?

Heather: It depends on what the stunt is. If it is a fight we may have a few days of rehearsals and record the fight and show it to the director. If it is a high fall, then we may practice high falls before we actually work. It just depends on the stunt. I have never done the same stunt twice so every stunt I prepare for differently. I live by the motto from my dad “Never do a stunt once that you wouldn’t do twice”. He said it has kept him alive.

Could you take us through the process of creating a stunt and pulling it off?

Heather: Each stunt is just so different. The stunt coordinator (that is who hires me) reads the script and talks to the director to understand what he wants to see. Depending on what the stunt is we will have rehearsals or prepare depending on what it is. If it is a fight, which is what most of the stunts on Lost are, then we will rehearse either on the day of the fight or a few days before, record the fight and show the directors, producers and sometimes the actors. If they like it then it is a go and we will perform our fight. Most the time they like it and if they change anything it is usually something small.

Right before I do the stunt I talk to the actress and ask for their feedback. I ask how they they think their character would do the stunt. It is important to me that the actress is happy with my work. Sometimes they say ‘just do what you think feels right’ and other times they offer me great insight.

If there is such a thing as a “normal day” on set, could you tell us a bit about it?

Heather: When I first get to set and I find my dressing room to put down my stunt bag (my bag of pads I think I may need for that day of work). I check in with one of the PA’s (production assistants) to let them know that I am there. Then I put on my wardrobe and I am sent by the PA to go through hair and makeup. In hair and makeup they will try and match me with the actress. Sometimes the actor is sitting in hair and makeup also so they can just look over and see exactly what her hair is. If the actor is not there they will have pictures of her hair and makeup. Next I head to set and wait for my time to work. The saying on set is hurry up and wait. It is kinda crazy before I get up to set but once I get to set it is a lot of waiting. When I am sitting waiting I am usually mentally preparing for my stunt. Then the cameras roll and I do my job. I usually stay on set until the whole scene I work in is done then the Director will release me when they know they won’t need me anymore. Then I take off my wardrobe and get cleaned up by hair and makeup.

Is there any stunt you’ve done on Lost that was particularly challenging or that you are particularly proud of?

Heather: Back on Lost season two on the episode “The Other 48 Days” when I was super new to doing stunts I had to throw myself down a very steep hill/cliff with another person. The hill was covered in thorn bushes and I was doubling Ana Lucia so I was sleeveless. The other guy that was falling down the hill with me had pads on everything but because of my wardrobe I only had knee pads on. I was standing on the top of the hill/cliff and I said this is going to hurt. I did it twice and my dad was so proud (not because it was such a hard stunt but because he was so proud of seeing his daughter follow in his footsteps and up to this point it was my most difficult stunt) that he got tears in his eyes. I was banged up and my arms were covered in thorns but when I saw my dad crying for happiness I didn’t feel a thing. I will always remember that day when my dad now looked at me as a stunt girl.

Have you ever been injured during a stunt?

Heather: Most the time I work I will almost always leave with a few bruises and scraps. But I got injured pretty good working on One Tree Hill. I got hit by a car at about 18 miles per hour and got thrown off the top of the car and landed on my head on the concrete. I was taken to the hospital because I was so dizzy I couldn’t stand up. I now know what boxers must feel like when they get knocked out and can’t get up. I ended up having a level 2 concussion and took about a month off work to recover.

You’ve doubled Evangeline Lilly and Michelle Rodriguez among others. How has it been to work with them?

Heather: Every actress is so different just like every co-worker you work with is so different. Some actresses are super friendly and others are more standoffish. It just depends.

Do you try to adapt to their style of movement and so on during the stunts or do you just do your own thing?

Heather: I almost always talk to the actress to ask how they think their character would do it. It is important that they are happy with my work. I also talk to them after the first take to ask their feedback.

Any tips for the guys and girls out there who would like to become a stuntman/woman?

Heather: It is a very hard industry to break into. I am still super new and still trying to get known and my dad was a stuntman. I believe in following your dreams so if that is what you want to do give yourselfa couple of years to struggle and work as a waitress/waiter while you try and make it. Most jobs in this business are super hard to get into but I think someone has to do it.

Are you a fan of the show, and if so, do you have any theories on what’s going on?

Heather: I never saw the show until I was hired to work on it and I had to google who played Kate. I watched Season two every week but I haven’t seen that much of season 3. I mostly just watch it when I work to see how the stunt turned out and to see how I can improve next time.

Where can we see you next?

Heather: I will be on Lost this week a few times. I worked on Transformers that comes out this summer, and the movie Next that comes out this month.

Is there anything else you would like to say to our readers?

Heather: I am still new to stunts and there are a ton of very talented people in this business. Just like any job there is always the down side, but for me this is the best job in the whole world!

If you want to read more about Heather, she writes about her adventures over at her blog.

Kiele Sanches who plays/played Nikki on Lost recently stopped by the Jimmy Kimmel studio to talk about her character’s sudden demise, her career and breastfeeding old men.

Have to say, strangest cast interview yet!

There is a little interview with Evangeline Lilly over at Esquire. Besides talking about the possibility of playing Wonder Woman, Evie talks a bit about her life and answers a few questions about Lost:

ESQ: The show isn’t afraid to kill off major characters. Worried you might be next?

Evangeline: I feel like where they’ve taken the story, I don’t think they’re finished with Kate yet.

ESQ: You realize you just painted a target on your forehead.

Evangeline: I know! No one’s above it. Got that? Nobody. [Laughs.]

ESQ: So I’m told that the series will end with a scientist informing the survivors that they’re part of a government experiment.

Evangeline: I don’t think so.

ESQ: Wait, you’re saying the Internet is wrong?

Evangeline: I think that would be so unfair to our viewers. They’ve invested in this idea, and to cop out and make it something as stupid and simple as we’re all dead in purgatory or something, I think I’d get up and kick a hole through my television I’d be so pissed off.

ESQ: Admit it, the writers have no idea where this thing is going.

Evangeline: They do! I remember when we were filming the pilot, [cocreator] J.J. Abrams was talking about the idea of a hatch. They told us they had roughly mapped out the first six seasons.

Read the interview at Esquire

I got a mail from the guys at Wizard Entertainment earlier today. They’ve published a great interview with Lost executive producer and director Jack Bender.

Although Jack’s answers are quite long, it’s very interesting to read about the process of creating the Lost episodes. The interview also contains a lot of cool Lost trivia while staying away from spoilers, so I highly recommend taking a look at it.

Here is a short excerpt from the interview:

How difficult is it for you and your crew to film all of a particular set or scene in one chunk? I have to imagine that with the flashbacks and such, shooting in sequence can pose a problem.

Jack Bender: Well, you always try to do as much in continuity as you can when you’re filmmaking, but sometimes we can do that, and sometimes we don’t get to do that.

For instance, we’re shooting an episode right now, and it’s pilot season. So one of our recurring characters who’s not a series regular is doing a pilot because we don’t have him contracted for every episode. We don’t own him, and so we have to shoot part of his flashback story around his schedule. I did an episode that was on recently that was about Desmond and his whole flash-forward experience. It was in England, and Penny was in it. We played with time and answered the question of Desmond in and out of time and all of that. Well, our actress, Sonya Walger, who plays Penny, was doing a series for HBO, and she was completely unavailable when we were doing that episode. So I had to do the whole episode and shoot all of Desmond’s flashbacks, like in the bar and everything else, during the course of those 10 days of shooting that episode and then three weeks later, or maybe it was even a month later, we had to come back and shoot the scenes in two days with Penny. So sometimes that’s actor-driven and schedule-driven. Certainly we attempt to shoot all the flashbacks together if we can.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, actor Terry O’Quinn who plays John Locke on Lost got the opportunity to discuss Locke as a character and his actions in the latest Lost episodes:

When Locke boarded Oceanic Flight 815, he was in a wheelchair. But when the plane crashed, he could mysteriously walk, and that seemed to bond him to the island forever. Wednesday’s episode finally revealed to viewers how he became paralyzed: His con artist of a father, who years ago manipulated Locke into giving him a kidney, pushed him out a high-rise window, hoping to kill him. Then it did what “Lost” does. It delivered another whopper: Locke’s father is tied up and gagged on “Other” territory.

“That was a big ‘What?!’ ” O’Quinn said, describing how he felt when he first read the script. “It leaves you with a big question mark, but there was plenty revealed in this episode too.”

Terry also says that he understands the audience’s frustration with schedule changes and “unanswered questions”:

“If I take Locke’s story individually and just follow it from its beginning point to now, to me it’s cohesive and it’s understandable and it’s interesting,” O’Quinn said. “But because there are so many people, it’s very patchy. It comes in fits and starts, and that’s tough for the fans of the show to have to work to tie everything together.”

Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse also talked a bit about Locke:

Fans have surmised that Locke was named after 17th century philosopher John Locke, who theorized that the mind is a tabula rasa (the title of the third episode of the series) — that is, individuals are born with a clean slate, without innate mental content, and build knowledge from their experiences.

Dead right, Lindelof said. The fictional Locke had lived a life marked by pain and disappointment until he regained his ability to walk on the island, which he interprets as a sign that destiny brought him there to give him a second chance. In this way, Cuse said, the character is a springboard to explore the issue of faith versus empiricism.

“The very original idea for Locke was that we needed a character who was going to have some sort of mystical quotient going on with him,” Lindelof said. “He was going to be very mysterious and quiet. This plane crash is the best thing that’s ever happened to this guy.”

Damon also clarified what ’secret’ Locke told Walt in the Lost pilot episode:

Locke and Walt are about to play backgammon and Locke explains the game: “Two players, two sides. One is light, one is dark.” The scene ends with Locke asking, “Walt, do you want to know a secret?”

“That hook coming out of the pilot wasn’t just that secret that he told Walt — that he used to be in a wheelchair and now he’s mysteriously healed,” Lindelof said. “That’s everything the show is. Do you want to know a secret? And cutting away before you actually answer that question.”

So does Terry O’Quinn know if Locke is the key to solving Lost’s secrets?

“I don’t know how central he is, but … it usually means something when he’s around. I think it’s because of the deeper quality in him. Of this group of characters, he’s the one that’s actively looking for an explanation, not just a way home.”

The entire Lost interview which contains some minor spoilers from Damon and Carlton, but is a highly recommended read, can be found at the LA Times.

Jewreview.net has a nice little interview with Naveen Andrews who plays Sayid on Lost.

J.J. is promising a bigger ending this year than last year. Have you seen anything?

Naveen Andrews: It’s like magicians, isn’t it? ‘For my next trick…’ I hope so, bigger and better; that would be nice.

Are you happier now with the balance of the season?

Naveen Andrews: It’s nice to be featured, yeah.

Was it frustrating then before?

Naveen Andrews: Well, for the original cast, I think that we have to be relatively stoic about the experience; there will always be that first season that we did. That will always be there and I’m very proud of it and I have it out there with the work that I’m the most proud of and they can never take that away. They’re the writers and we’re not; I couldn’t presume to write this show. And it’s tough to be a writer and whatever direction they chose to take the show in they will.

Read the entire interview

Don’t forget that Naveen is starring in Robert Rodriguez’s and Quentin Tarantino’s new movie project “Grindhouse” which opens April 6 in the states.

Michael Emerson, Lost’s Ben, seems to be on a little publicity tour as new interviews with him pop up as fast as Charlie finds new t-shirts. Not that I’m complaining, I’m constantly intrigued by Michael, but considering how well he plays Ben, who wouldn’t be?

In an interview with The Trades, he talks about what we can expect from Lost in the near future and shares his view of Ben’s personality:

“I think he has possibly a romantic nature that is at odds with the work that he has to do or the mission he has to fulfill.”

“I think probably sometimes at night when he’s lying awake he thinks, ‘Why couldn’t I just have a happy marriage and children and live like other men?’ Of course, backstory will contextualize this in a good way.”

The entire Lost interview can be read at The Trades, but be aware that it contains some mild spoilers.

This is an interview with Josh Holloway, Lost’s Sawyer, from Access Hollywood. The interview is a bit old since Josh discusses Lost Season 2 DVD features and the time when Jack, Kate and Sawyer were captured by The Others, but according to our sources it wasn’t published until today so hopefully you haven’t seen it before.