Caffeinated Clint
Clint Morris talks to the “Lost” star
Having watched his character get up to disobedience in what looks suspiciously like the harbour city, before boarding a condemned plane for a deserted Island (or is it?) a few hops short of LAX, it’s funny to actually hear actor Josh Holloway, who plays the sinister but charming Sawyer on TV’s “Lost”, say that he’s never actually been to Australia.
While on break from filming the second season of the hit show in exquisite Hawaii, the former model turned actor says he would’ve loved it if going to Australia was required for the role, but it wasn’t. But with the intriguing weekly serial garnering quite the fanclub down under, it’s now high on the actors ‘must do’ list. “I’m really looking forward to going”, says Holloway, whose star has skyrocketed since landing the role of the inexplicable small-time felon who has to work with the fellow survivors of a plane crash to endure.
Granted, Holloway, who has captured audiences with his unassuming charm and Southern converse on the series, probably couldn’t afford the airfare to Australia before. He was pretty much just another invisible face among the masses before scoring the role on J.J Abrams’ smash-hit series. In fact, if not for his wife, Holloway says he’d probably still be doing guest-spots on TV shows like “NCIS” and playing two-bit roles in B movies like the curiously titled, “Sabretooth”, just hoping for a bigger paycheque to come along one day.
“It was late and I was working on a small part at another set for a TV show pilot when my then girlfriend, now wife, called because she received the sides for the Lost pilot in our fax machine at home”, he recollects. “The audition was for the very next morning, therefore she faxed over the material so I could study for it. I went in the next day and the rest is history”, he smiles.
Georgia-raised Holloway says the producers must have been able to see that hidden other-side-of-him, because in essence, “Sawyer is basically my alter ego. He can say what he wanted when he wanted. I can’t.”
Part of the requirements in playing the character is growing his hair long and hardly ever shaving. In a recent article, it was stated that Holloway despised having the locks and the scruffy chin. Not so, he says. “I don’t hate the long hair on Sawyer. I dig the hair. It’s just hard to work with in the wind”, he explains.
He also has to keep reasonably trim. His secret? A little bit of exercise and a good diet. “A combination of both. I don’t deprive myself from eating what I love, like fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. I just have to work harder when I do that”, he laughs.
The show is filmed in Hawaii, so for a large part of the year, the actor bases himself on the Island. “Yes, for most of the year [I live here]. I love Hawaii. It’s such a spiritual and beautiful place to be”.
Holloway, having appeared in several unsuccessful series and films, didn’t expect this one to last so long either, but he’s happy it has, it’s success has totally turned his frown upside down, as he explains. “It’s been quite a transition”, he says, “But also, a great ride. Getting to work with this kind of material and all these talented artists have been an honour and a pleasure”.
If Sawyer looks likely to hook up with anyone on the Island it looks like it’d be the rambo-esque beauty Kate, but Holloway says he’d “like to see Sawyer gets together with any lady on the island. It’s about time!”
He continues, “A lot of exciting things have been happening this year. The story lines are taking some intriguing directions that only add new dimensions to the show. All I can say is that things will get better and crazier”.
In 2006, Holloway’s about to turn movie star too, headlining the new thriller “Whisper”. “It’s about a group of people who decided to kidnap a kid for a ransom but found out, the bad way, that the boy is a lot more than they bargained for. Check it out, It should come out around Spring 2006”.
Lost – Complete Season 1 is on DVD November 30
