Matthew Fox Interview

Thanks to Katie for finding this.

Earlier today I attended the press junket for the new Sony thriller “Vantage Point.” With the huge cast of actors in the film, I managed to get a lot of great quotes about a ton of upcoming movies. Even though it’s a Friday night as I type this, I’m going to be working non-stop to pull the best quotes and get them online asap. Up first, Matthew Fox talking about “Lost” and “Speed Racer.”

As most of you might have heard, the writers are voting on a possible contract tomorrow night and if it’s ratified, everyone will be back at work on Monday. The word on the street is that it’s going to pass, and I couldn’t be more excited. Not only will it bring economic stability back to Los Angeles, but it’ll allow the creators of my favorite show on television to start writing again. What show is that… of course it’s “Lost.”

If you didn’t know, the plan was for 16 new episodes to air this season. Due to the writer’s strike, only 8 of those planned 16 got written and completed. So the big question for all the fans of “Lost” has been if the writer’s strike got settled, how many episodes could they complete of the planned 16.

So when I got a chance to ask Matthew Fox a question during the press conference today, that was the first thing I wanted to know about.

He said they are currently in negotiations right now to figure out how many they might be able to do. As you can read below, he thinks they’ll be able to do at least 4 of the 8, and maybe even up to 6 of them. If you’re a fan of “Lost,” this is great news.

Of course, we also talked about his big upcoming summer movie “Speed Racer.”

In the next week I’ll be posting a complete transcript, but until then enjoy the selected quotes. And if you’d like to listen to the complete interview as an MP3, you can click here to download it. Look for more quotes later tonight.


Question: Is there a cutoff date when they’re going to decide this season is done?

Matthew Fox: I think there is a drop dead date, but…there are some conversations going on right now, there are conversations about us starting back up.


Q: There are a lot of rumors that the strike is going to be voted on tonight, and possibly resolved by Monday, for fans of Lost, assuming that the strike is over on Monday, how long are you contractually obligated to the show – how many episodes do you think you could make prior to the original hiatus?

Matthew Fox: I think they’re in negotiations about that right now, the studio and Damon, and I think it’s possible that we do 4 or 6 of the 8 that we were supposed to be doing right now. I think we would pick back up and maybe shoot another four this spring, which would give this season a grand total of 12.


Q: Can you talk about your experience working with the Wachowski brothers – did you have any expectations when you went into it? Did you love Speed Racer when you were a kid?

Matthew Fox: I didn’t know Speed Racer at all. Again, getting back to that thing about how directors are very important, when the Wachowskis asked to meet with me, I guess they’re fans of Lost and they had an idea that I might be Racer X, and I went into the meeting never knowing anything about Speed Racer. I wanted to work with the Wachowskis. That meeting went great and I went home with a script, and I got the source material and watched a lot of Speed Racer, and the script blew me away and then I went after that role. I went back to L.A. and I really went after that role, I wanted it, and it took like six weeks. Working with the Wachowskis and the cast on this particular film, and what this film is going to be like, how much it’s a game-changer in my opinion, was an extraordinary experience, it was amazing.


Q: Can you talk about working with those new cameras?

Matthew Fox: They’re pretty unforgiving.


Q: You mean every line shows?

Matthew Fox: Every pore. But they’re amazing and the information that they’re capturing and then what can be done with that information in post is extraordinary. I ADR’d the movie yesterday with Larry and Andy and, I mean, it’s just unbelievable what it looks like, it’s just unbelievable.


Q: Does the film have a running time yet?

Matthew Fox: I think it does but I wouldn’t feel safe saying that.


Q: You mentioned with Lost you were going to try to do maybe 4, maybe 6 episodes, does Damon plan to take the 8 episode storyline and push it into 4-6 episodes?

Matthew Fox: I couldn’t tell you. That would be a question for Damon.


Q: Regarding Lost, having moved ahead as well as going back in the story, and now that there’s a time when it’s going to be over, do you know more about the story and what’s going to happen because your character is kind of a mess in the future, do you know why?

Matthew Fox: Oh yeah, I know a lot, I know everything that got him to that point, I know why he’s at that point, that was important to me.


Q: How do you keep your kids grounded when you’re a star.

Matthew Fox: Well they don’t have any contact with the business part of it. They really don’t get to see any of the things I’m in. Speed Racer that’s one of the things that I was just so excited about as well was that I knew that my kids – it’s a PG film and a family movie, and they came to Berlin and they came on set and saw me in the full Racer X thing, and I didn’t want to scare them so I was like, ‘Hey,’ and they were like, ‘Daddy?’ ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s me,’ and I walked on set and my little boy turned to my wife and he goes, ‘I want to be Race X next Halloween.’


Q: You mentioned PG, but there’s a lot of talk that the movie might be rated G.

Matthew Fox: They might be going for G as well. I’m not sure where that’s going to fall, but it’s certainly going to be in one of those two categories.


Q: Could you talk a little about working for the Wachowskis and if you had any preconceived ideas about them going in and what were they like on set?

Matthew Fox: None, no. They were very private and so you don’t really know much about them until you get to meet them and fall into their world, and they really are artists, they create a world and a big part of your job, particularly on a cartoon being turned into this whole world, is that you spend all of your time trying to figure out what that world that they’re creating in their two head is, and you’re trying to crawl in that and you’re trying to bring that image of X, and that’s what I was doing, X, and this guy and this voice and this presence and this silhouette and find that guy within the backdrop of what they’re doing, which was just amazing. It was a really, really great experience.

Source: Collider