I am – Hercules!!
Saturday’s Museum of Radio & Television salute to “Lost” was the first event of the William S. Paley Festival to sell out and surely the most anticipated.
Here’s “Moonshine," who infers from the event that one of the major characters ... [invisotext on!] will die before the two-part season finale, probably in 1.22.
Hiya Herc,
Moonshine, back with a report from the Lost panel at the Paley Festival. I don't have a Hollywood Reporter subscription and I can't read the article you've linked to, so if I repeat some of what was reported in that article, please forgive me.
I hadn't planned on reporting on this event, partly because I thought you'd half a dozen or more other die-hards sending theirs in, and partly because for some reason I feel like I've forgotten way too much of the good stuff. In particular, many of the cast members were downright hilarious, Jorge Garcia and Josh Holloway in particular, but damn if I can remember much of their funny stuff. Josh got a load of smart alecky quips in throughout the Q&A, as did Jorge.
I think the best way for me to remember some of the good stuff is to just recall who was there and what some of their best answers were. Surprisingly, Matthew Fox and Naveen Andrews were damn near silent. Very few, if any, questions were asked directly of them and they both took the opportunity to stay quiet, although Naveen did pipe in that what he liked about Lost was that it didn't insult the intelligence of viewers. I thought he'd also answer when one fan asked if ABC had any problems with Sayid's backstory episode, given the current political climate, but I think it was Jorge or Josh who broke in with, "Yeah, are you really Iraqi?" JJ Abrams answered the question then and said that ABC hasn't had any problems with them at all.
Daniel Dae Kim was pretty silent too, although he got off a good crack when the moderator asked who was most like their character. Daniel immediately raised his hand, which got a big laugh out of the audience, who'd listened earlier as Daniel took a lot of shit for what a dick his character is. In answer to the same question, Jorge Garcia admitted that he was pretty much a lot like Hurley. I don't remember who said it, but one of the cast members also mentioned that Daniel likes to play ADR on the set. Apparently, since no one else speaks Korean, they thought his scenes were fine, but Daniel would yell cut, and say that he goofed up his dialogue.
Yunjin Kim talked about how appreciative she was to find Korean characters on a primetime American television show. One Korean fan asked her if she had any input with the writers on the direction of her character. She said that the show's staff was very open to her input, and that there were little details that she liked to help them on, like the way a Korean table would be set, or how a Korean apartment might look.
Ian Somerhalder talked about a number of things. One story was that he, Jorge and (I think) Dominic were all cast on the same day. As the Hollywood Reporter article pointed out, Jorge was the first cast. When he walked out and said that he'd gotten the job, Ian or Dominic (sorry, can't remember which) apparently said to him, "See you in Hawaii, bitch!" which is now a greeting they use often. When questions arose about the ambiguity of storylines and characters on Lost, and in particular whether Locke is a good guy or a bad guy, Ian was the only cast member who raised his hand when the moderator asked who thought he was a good guy.
Dominic Monaghan made many jokes about the similarities between himself and Charlie, basically playing on the notion that he's a slouchy junkie. More seriously, he talked about how he was happy to be playing Charlie, someone with a little more edge and a little "less hobbity." In casting, he apparently first was considered for the role of Sawyer, which got a snarky, "Yeah right!" style laugh out of Josh Holloway. But JJ Abrams said that once Dominic came in, he seemed better for Charlie, a character they'd initially written as being much older. So they tailored the role to fit Dominic.
In the same vein, Hurley was written very much with Jorge Garcia in mind. JJ said that right when they were first starting to cast the pilot, he was watching Curb Your Enthusiasm and saw Jorge and asked if they could get him. As has already been said, Jorge was freaking hilarious, cracking jokes left and right. When a woman got up and said that on behalf of the female population, she wanted to thank Josh for "that kiss" and when would be seeing another one, Jorge quipped that Sawyer would be kissing Hurley next.
Josh was hilarious too, but mostly for the Sawyer-esque smart-ass laughs he would interject when others were speaking. When asked what storyline each cast member would like to suggest to the writers for their character, Josh was one of the few to speak up. He said that since Sawyer's hoarding so much crap, he thinks that Sawyer should have a big party.
The only other thing I can recall right now that might be of interest were a few comments from producer Carlton Cuse. One fan asked about the possibility/rumor that Lost make have to dig up roots and start filming somewhere other than Hawaii, Carlton said that that issue had been resolved and they would be staying in Hawaii. That seemed to really please the cast, who we were told all live in Hawaii now, while the writing and production staff mostly live in and put together the show in L.A. He also mentioned the season finale. One fan had asked if it would be a two hour finale. Carlton said that it would be a two parter, with episode 23 being one hour, and episode 24 being a 90 minute episode. I'm not sure what the Hollywood Reporter article says, but I got the impression that those two episodes would air on successive Wednesdays, not in one two and half hour block. But I might be mistaken.
Herc here. Re-reading this morning’s Hollywood Reporter piece, I see I sleepily inferred, apparently incorrectly, that 1.23 and 1.24 would air the same night. Here’s what Cynthia Littleton actually wrote: “And they confirmed that the season finale in May will be a two-parter, starting with a one-hour episode and concluding with a 90-minute installment, with the final half-hour airing commercial-free.”
The only other big thing that comes to mind was the cast member who dies. We've all heard this would happen, and one fan asked about it. JJ Abrams admitted that it definitely would be happening this season, and that it had already been filmed and it was very difficult to do. Since he'd said earlier that they were still in pre-production prep mode for the final two episodes, I'm thinking that the death might occur before those two episodes, but that's just a guess. Another guess, which definitely isn't a spoiler but really just my own wild ass speculation, is that it might be Charlie who bites the dust. As JJ talked about the death of the character and how traumatic it was to film, especially on the actor whose character who dies, the entire cast stared at the audience with great poker faces except for Dominic Monaghan, who stared at the floor and didn't look quite as cheerful and "hobbity" as he'd been throughout the rest of the Q&A. But, don't worry! Like I said, that's just a guess on my part. I could have totally read him wrong.
Hopefully that gives you a few highlights worth
reporting about. Next up, I'll report back on the
Veronica Mars panel. And for that one, I'll be sure to
being pencil and paper to write down the good stuff.
