'Lost' gives Holloway chance to model new life !

LOS ANGELES -- Whenever a new "Lost" script arrives at Josh Holloway's home, his wife grabs it, runs into the bathroom and locks the door.

"She's got to know what's happening," Holloway says. "We're both fans. The show still wows us."

Like other members of the cast, Holloway doesn't know how the serial will end. At one point, he says, he thought it was like "The Stand," Stephen King's novel about survival and the near-end of civilization.

Then, the story shifted and "now I don't have any clues. I just know if it ends and it's all in somebody's head or it's a dream, I'm going to be really mad."

Cast as Sawyer, the tougher-than-nails survivor of a plane crash held prisoner by a group known as "The Others," Holloway has been able to play a number of emotions, explore countless situations. Sawyer, he says, is "someone we all have inside us just dying to get out. It's nice to go to work and air out the anger...then I'm much nicer at home."

In person, Holloway is about as mellow as an actor gets. Soft-spoken, friendly and self-effacing, he hardly seems like the type who spent 16 years as a leading male model. Yet high fashion was an important part of his life. He did it, he says, because growing up in Georgia gave him three career options -- "mechanic, contractor or chicken farmer."

"I worked construction, so I probably was going to be a contractor. But I wanted to see the world...and that's what modeling allowed me to do."

When other models complained about the work, Holloway just laughed. "We'd have cappucinos and bagels and whatever you want and they thought it was hard labor. They didn't know hard labor. But it wasn't a fulfilling job. I had to move on to something else."

Acting seemed likely, he says, because both require an ability work in front of a camera. "You become comfortable around people and you learn to accept being judged.

"I loved the job -- at the time -- but it's not very fulfilling for men." A potential film? "If they made it, it'd be a very dark movie," he says. "You've got a lot of young men and women trying to break out into the world and you see the mistakes they make. There's constant travel but a lot of nonfulfillment."

Soon after that career ended, Holloway opened a restaurant in Los Angeles, then tried guest parts in television series.

"Lost," the biggie, has upped his profile considerably. When he goes out in Hawaii (where the series is filmed), Holloway knows he could be mobbed. "In Hawaii, everybody has their camera out anyway. You're just a bonus." Attracting attention? "You get noticed if you want to get noticed. The locals just nod and say, 'I love your work, bro.' But the tourists will come at you...and that's to be expected. I just know where not to go. If I'm going to go certain places, I'm going to own it and say, 'Let's do pictures.'"

When he isn't working (Holloway shoots three or four days a week), he'll often be kayaking, fishing or hiking. "It took a minute to get used to life on the island. You feel isolated a bit but then you get used to it and you just love it."

For Christmas, Holloway's wife bought him a traditional bow and arrow (how's that for survival?). Now, he goes to a shooting range to practice.

When they do head to the mainland, the couple love to drink in the lifestyle, the pace, the people.

Still, work occupies so much of his time, it's almost impossible to consider other jobs during the hiatus or after the series ends.

"We're constantly doing something and we work at a fierce pace. Besides, the producers have made it known this is a priority."

An extreme sports fan, Holloway has been grounded as well, forcing him to "play nice."

Evangeline Lily (who has done love scenes with him) and her boyfriend Dominic Monaghan frequently go out with the Holloways. They're good friends -- but those romantic moments can be a little touchy. "Neither of us knows where it's going," he says of the on-screen romance. "And sometimes those scenes are hard to watch. I'll see a look a give her and it's a look I give my wife. I guess, though, that just means I did my job."

Holloway's wife is fine with the TV romance because she knows he's coming home to her. "She is incredibly confident and she knows how I feel about her."

Besides, she's a fan of the show who wants the characters to stay together.

An exit strategy? "Who knows," the 37-year-old actor says. "The producers have real integrity and they know what they're doing, so I trust them. They've pulled episodes out of production because they know they don't serve the story and that ain't cheap. But when it does end, I'm sure it's going to be great. That's just the way the show is."

A downside? "Wearing the same clothes all the time," Holloway says. "You get up at 5 in the morning, go to the set nice and clean and then you get in the makeup trailer to get destroyed. The hero shirt? It's full of dried blood and you've got to put it on again and again. But that's just the price you have to pay."

Consider it one of the hazards of being "Lost."

"I'm enjoying every bit of it," he says. "The time is just flying by."
Source: siouxcityjournal.com