How will you and Kate's relationship evolve?
“As characters? It's been fun because neither of us really know where it's going, so we don't know exactly what to fully invest in which actually plays on camera. It's nice kind of not knowing. One minute we're really kind of close and sappy and the next minute like, ‘What the?’ It's that thing. But our friendship is deep. We've been working together constantly and having to discuss these things and how we're going to do them, so it's good. We were really proud of the way that love scene turned out because we wanted it to be different. We wanted it to take some time and have some moments in the middle of it, not just this crazy furious thing because it's been such a long time coming. Stuff like that, we really work together well communicating about what we're trying to do.”
Does your wife mind the love scenes?
“She is incredibly confident because we're very much in love. She knows how I feel about her. Because we have such an open good friendship and dialogue with Evie [Lilly] and Dom [Monaghan] and everything, we talk about these things. However, that last one made me a little uncomfortable. I was just like…just a little. We're trying to live it, right? And I'm sitting with my wife watching it and that's who I look at that way normally. So there's that little twinge, but that just means I did my job.”
Was that love scene fun or awkward?
“No, because Evie and I have such a great friendship now. We so trust each other as actors, and that's so key, to be able to be vulnerable. To be able to really open up with each other, and we have a sold friendship and trust. And great relationship with my wife and her. There's a lot of trust there so we are able to actually live it, as best we can.”
As a visible TV star, is it easier being in Hawaii?
“You know, you get noticed there but unless it's tourists, I just know where not to go. If I'm going to go there, then I'm going to own it and say, ‘All right, let's do pictures.’ But I know how to not do that and then the local people just are very - they give you a nod and [say], 'Love your work.' Especially the men. There the men go, 'Love your work, bro,' and that's about it. I like that. Where tourists, they've already got the camera out, like, ‘Hey!'”
Is it hard wearing the same clothes all the time?
“Yeah, well, when they get the ‘hero’ shirts that you can't wash because it's got all the dried blood and all the stuff just right, then yeah, that's when it's like, 'All right, I gotta put that thing on?' You get that one on. But our wardrobe is wonderful and they know when it gets to that breaking point. They'll wash it and then they'll just dirty it again somehow.”
And your beard?
“They're constantly being vigilant about that on everybody. It's hard to keep it the right length and it's a hard line to walk because, yeah, we as actors always want to go [change it]. Then you've got the fact that it's a TV show and they want you to look decent so we can't really pull the character out. So it's a fine line and they had put scenes, you know, Locke [Terry O’Quinn] shaving with his knife. Foxy [Matthew Fox] with a shell I think he had. I don't know what I had but something. And my hair got too long so they were like, actually I suggested, ‘Why don't we have Evie cut my hair? It'll be a fun scene.’ They were like, 'Of course,' so that trimmed it up.”
What do you think of the plan to end Lost at a certain point?“Already they're talking about that but actually, that has been a suggestion from the beginning. The show, Damon [Lindelof] and J J [Abrams] and Carlton [Cuse] really invested in the integrity of the show, so much so that they were willing to pull three days of production because the storyline was wrong. The beginning of last year, the second episode was my episode but it didn't go. The story wasn't right. It should have been Harold Perrineau's episode because his child had just gotten taken away. Emotionally it didn't make sense. So after three days of production, they said, 'We don't like that. It's Harold's episode.' Boom! They switched it and that ain't cheap. But for the integrity of the show, they really fought for that. So they've really been wanting a beginning, middle, and end to this story. They don't want it to go too long and get watered down and not be good.”
Do you know where it's going? Can you sense it?“No. I sense for me five years it should be done.”
Do you get caught up in it?
“My wife and I, she always grabs the script from me and locks the bathroom door and reads it because we're still that intrigued with it. It still wows us.”
Do you have a theory?“I really don't have one anymore because I had a few and then I got laughed at. I was like, 'Well, okay, forget it then.' But I think it's going to be kind of… Have you ever read The Stand? I can't really pinpoint it but there's something about that. And if it's all in our head or somebody's dream or we're all dead, I'm going to be pissed off.”
When you find things out, do you think you'd go back and redo things differently? “No, actually, it has never stopped being the machine it is. I think they're just happy to actually not be so under the gun. I mean, we've done them two days before airing - that close.”
Were you ever worried you'd get killed early on?“Yeah, that was… oh yeah. I was like, ‘I gotta find some humanity or I'm dead.’ So really, any little inkling of humanity they would give me, I'd [grab] on that. Something.”
Is it a question of who Kate will choose?
No, my answer to that is always whether she chooses me and I'm like, 'Listen honey, why is it her choice?' I'm kidding. We'll see. I like it either way. They've hooked up and knowing his personality he's probably going to mess it up, so they'll be back to on and off. Who knows?”
How did you learn how to get beat up so well?
“Three brothers! That's it. Three brothers and 33 acres of land.”
