Matthew Fox

BY BRET LOVE.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BEN WATTS.

LOST

MATTHEW FOX HAS GARNERED QUITE A FOLLOWING AS DR. JACK SHEPHARD ON “LOST,” BUT NOW THAT THE HIT SHOW IS OFFICIALLY ENDING IN 2010, HE’S FOUND HIS CALLING AS A BIG-SCREEN ACTOR AND FATHER.

Though he stars in TV’s most buzzed-about show (“Lost”) and one of the summer’s most anticipated family films (Speed Racer), Matthew Fox could have just as easily ended up on Wall Street if fate— in the form of his girlfriend’s mother—hadn’t intervened.

Fox, who grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, where his family raised cattle and harvested barley for Coors beer, was on the finance track, earning an economics degree from Columbia University. Hollywood glitz and glamour were never in the picture until his girlfriend’s mother suggested he give modeling a try. He quickly found himself cast in TV commercials—and a star was born.

His acting career began with a breakthrough role on “Party Of Five.” Fox played Charlie Salinger, the oldest of five kids left orphaned when their parents were killed in a car accident. Four years later, he hit it big with “Lost,” for which his portrayal of Dr. Jack Shephard has earned him multiple awards. And the 41-year-old continues to prove himself a compelling performer with impressive turns in films like Vantage Point and We Are Marshall.

Here, he discusses everything from “Lost” detractors and morality’s grey areas to working with the Wachowski brothers on Speed Racer.

How does your life now compare to what you envisioned for yourself when you first started out as an actor?
“I never ever thought I’d be doing what I’m doing right now. Getting here has just been a series of opportunities, one leading to another. I never set out when I was 22 years old and said, ‘I want to be acting in big movies.’”

Were you very surprised when “Lost” became such a cultural phenomenon?
“I’ve always believed in it being something very special from the moment I read the first script and met with [producers] J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof and the other people that were involved. I felt positive that it was going to be a very good show. You can never count on that translating into finding a massive audience, and what the show has done globally has just been astounding. I’m very surprised by it, but on the other hand I think the show deserves it.”

Some critics say the show lost its way last season. Do you agree? “No, I didn’t feel that at all. The people who [criticized it] were all bandwagon jumpers. We won the Emmy and the Golden Globe—we were like this cultural [phenomenon]—then we had a whole bunch of people jump on just because they couldn’t stand being left out. They weren’t really ‘Lost’ fans to begin with, and they all went away.”

How did ABC’s announcement of a series finale date for “Lost” affect the way the show’s story is being told?
“Damon campaigned for that, and I understand why. He’d always say to me, ‘If somebody told you that you were going to run a marathon tomorrow, but they weren’t sure whether they were going to make you run 18 miles or 26, you wouldn’t have any idea how to pace yourself through that.’ He has the story in his head, but until he knew how many chapters he had to write that story in, it was very difficult. Now that he has that, the story is going to have a lot of momentum and move quickly. Every episode is going to feel like it’s charging forward to the final conclusion of this story.”

One thing I like about both “Lost” and Vantage Point is that you’re never sure where people stand on the line dividing good from evil. What is it about these morality issues that attract you as an actor? “I guess I’m really interested in the gray areas. I’m not necessarily sure about any concept of good and evil, or black and white. I’m very interested in the concept of perspective. It’s something I think about all the time in my life, the ability for one event to happen and for two people to perceive that event so differently, depending on where they’re standing and who they are, and what kind of agenda they have. It’s astounding to me, and I find myself running into it in my own life, in my relationships with family and friends. Then you extrapolate that out into conflicts between nation states. It’s just unbelievable to me how many people walk around in this world thinking their version of reality is the only one that exists.”

How difficult is it for you to find film roles that are different from Dr. Jack Shephard?
“I’m really having a great time right now. I’m getting a lot of opportunities to work with really great directors. I think that television is more of a writer’s medium and filmmaking is more of a director’s medium, and getting an opportunity to work with these types of directors is really rewarding. I’ve been doing this business for quite a while. I’ve taken it very slow, because I always felt that it was a marathon and not a sprint for me. I think the people that really go quickly in this business—the sprinters—a lot of times are not in it for the right reasons. For me it’s been sort of a slow, steady climb, finding the right projects and never doing a project as a means to an end.”

How do you find time to do films when you’re a lead character on a hit TV show?
“Touchstone has been very accommodating. I spent three and a half months in Berlin last summer making Speed Racer, and there was almost three weeks of overlap between my schedule on Speed Racer and ‘Lost.’ Damon literally shot episodes out of order to accommodate my schedule, which is incredible. They’ve been very, very supportive of these projects I’ve been doing outside of the show, and I appreciate it because I’m really enjoying the process.”

How did you get involved with the Speed Racer project? Were you a fan of the cartoon growing up?
“I didn’t know Speed Racer at all. 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. But I went into the meeting never knowing anything about Speed Racer: I just wanted to work with the Wachowskis. That meeting went great, so I took the script home and I got the source material and watched a lot of Speed Racer. Then I went back to LA and really went after that role. Working with the Wachowskis and the cast on this particular film—it’s a game-changer, in my opinion—was an extraordinary experience.”

Having seen The Matrix trilogy, did you have any expectations about working with the Wachowskis?
“None at all, no. They were very private, so you don’t really know much about them until you get to meet them and fall into their world. 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 to spend all of your time trying to figure out what that world that they’re creating in their two heads is. You’re trying to crawl into that and find that image of X within the backdrop of what they’re doing. It was really, really amazing.”

When you are starring in blockbuster films and a hit TV show, how do you keep your children grounded?
“Well, they don’t have any contact with the business part of it, and they don’t get to see any of the things I’m in. One of the things that I was excited about [with Speed Racer] is that it’s a PG-rated family movie. My kids came on set in Berlin and saw me in the full Racer X costume, and I didn’t want to scare them so I was like, ‘Hey!’ They were like, ‘Daddy?!’ I walked on set and my little boy turned to my wife and goes, ‘I want to be Racer X next Halloween!’”

What’s next, after “Lost” goes off the air?
“For me, it’s just sort of project by project, but I don’t think I’ll do television again. I think some of the best writing is going on in television, and in my opinion ‘Lost’ is an example of that. The reason I want to do films from here on out is just because it gives me more control over my year. I love the idea that I can pour myself into something 110% for three months, and then it’s done. Then I’m unemployed again, and I use that period to hang out with people I love and nurture those relationships and do things that I love to do and reenergize myself until that next thing comes along that feels inevitable for me. When you’re working on a television series, that’s anywhere between six and nine months of your year locked into one character and one project. I would just like to have a little bit more flexibility than that.”