Paulo

Lost co-creator, executive producer and writer Damon Lindelof talked to TVGuide about the deaths of Nikki and Paulo:

“People hated them before they even opened their mouths to say anything significant because it felt like they were crashing the party,” exec producer Damon Lindelof acknowledges of the characters who were abruptly introduced last fall. “The easiest thing would have been to just write them out and forget they ever happened, like the cougar on Season 2 of 24. But that’s not Lost. We should at least own up to it.”

Like most of you, I never really liked Nikki and Paulo. It wasn’t the fault of actors Kiele Sanchez and Rodrigo Santoro who did a pretty good job, but due to a bad introduction (supposedly caused by a cut sex scene between the two that lead to a rewrite of their introduction) they never felt like part of the story.

I can almost guarantee that Nikki and Paulo were not part of the original plan, so hopefully this will be a lesson for the suits at ABC that messing too much with the creative vision and introducing new characters without much thought is never a good idea.

Unlike Locke, I hope that what is buried stays buried. At least until the zombie season. Of course, they were buried alive, so maybe they’re back playing ping-pong next week….

Thanks to DarkUFO for the tip

Many of us were confused when Nikki and Paulo suddenly popped up on the Lost island. Who are they? Where do they come from? Why is Paulo always going to the bathroom?

Tonight’s new Lost episode, “Exposé”, which is centered around the couple, will hopefully show us more about who they are and why ended up on the mysterious island.

The official description of the Lost episode “Exposé” is as follows:

Spoiler Warning

Hurley begins to suspect that Sawyer may be involved in an island mystery surrounding two fellow survivors, and Sun learns the truth about her past kidnapping attempt by “The Others,” on “Lost,” WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

On Lost, Rodrigo Santoro got off to a bad start due to a bad introduction of his character “Paulo”, but on the big screen things are going much better for the Brazilian actor. He can currently be seen portraying Persian ruler Xerxes in the violent epic “300″, based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel with the same name.

The film which is directed by Zach Snyder, has gained much popularity on the Internet and earned over $70 million during its first weekend, breaking a record and becoming the highest earning film opening in March ever.

Rodrigo had this to say about playing Xerxes:

Xerxes has convinced himself he is a God so he puts himself on a pedestal. Like, you know, above the sky. I did a good research of Persian history and of Herodotus. There was a lot of interesting information there that I used to build Xerxes. The soul, the essence of the character is just right there. You know, he existed once. It’s actually a huge responsibility to play this guy! (Laughs)

The costumes and the sets are just incredible. I’m not gonna lie to you; when I first saw the costume I almost said ‘Wow, I’ve never seen so much gold!’. It helped me a lot because it makes you feel, you know, all over it was full of gold, and I had the piercings, and everything just… I miss it now.

Read more about 300 on the official website. Or take a look at the trailer.

Lost’s latest addition, Rodrigo Santoro who plays the never before seen fuselage survivor Paulo, is a star in his native Brazil but may be quite unknown to most Lost fans.

To learn a bit more about the man they call “the Brazilian Tom Cruise” check out the article about Rodrigo in USAToday.

It has been just three days since Brazilian film superstar Rodrigo Santoro arrived in Hawaii from Rio de Janeiro to begin work as new castaway Paulo on ABC’s Lost (9 p.m. ET/PT). The day before, he visited the Lost production office for a wardrobe fitting and met Kiele Sanchez, the woman cast as his love interest, Nikki. He describes her as “sweet,” but adds that “her character is going to surprise a lot of people.”

What is most surprising about these two cast additions is how little they have appeared on-screen.

Santoro and Sanchez made their debut two weeks ago as never-before-seen crash survivors.

Read the article at USAToday