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Is it difficult to go back and forth between films and Lost or is it a way to stretch your creative muscles?
“They're both completely different mediums. I think you can achieve things in
television that you can't achieve on film, and I think we managed to do a lot
of that in the first season of Lost. So I'm very grateful for that and that
season will always be there. I'm very proud of it and I'm putting it up there
with what I consider work that I'm most proud of. But the schedule of television — I don't say I'm moaning, you do get paid of course — but it's very grueling. And playing the same character over a period of time longer than 6 months is hard, very tough. And you know when they say there might be an ending, it's like manna from heaven. So
hopefully the standards of the writing and the quality will be maintained if
they have an ending to move towards, rather than aimlessly blundering on.”
So the one question everyone wants to know is what’s going to happen next on Lost?
“Look, I would love to bloody know, I really would because it's sort of like
the Stalin Politburo. Disinformation and very little information from the
very beginning. You think, ‘Why do they do this? We're adults.’ I guess Stalin
felt the same way about his minions. ‘No, they're not adults.”
Do you feel like it’s just biding time now that they’ve decided on the end date?
“No. It doesn't feel like limbo now that they have announced that that's their intention. If they have something that they can consciously work towards, I can only assume that the quality of our show will be maintained. I think it'll be easier for them.”
Did you feel Sayid’s last flashback was further evolving the character or just reiterating his haunted nature?
“On the page superficially, I initially thought it was repetitive but then, in the nature of admitting and owning what one has done, it seemed to be a little bit more profound. It was almost like the Alcoholics Anonymous thing of when you make amends to people, there's something very special and almost holy about owning what you've done, truly owning what you've done. Sayid got to do that during that episode.”
How hard was it to be left out of the story for so long this season?
“It was incredibly frustrating because an actor likes to work. But all of us, the original cast, sort of felt that we had to be stoic about this. It is a writer's show. We can't presume to be writers, and they have a very difficult task. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like, the pressure of writing for a show like Lost. It's their show and they will do what they like with it.”
And you don't want to work just to work, it has to be a good episode.
“Absolutely, yeah. When they do write, you hope that it's going to be good and I was very happy with that episode. I thought it was really up to standard. It required a lot of me to try and do it well, and I had great actors to work with once again. When you do get an episode, half the battle is getting great people to work with and I was very fortunate on that count.”
Are you expecting big things from the season’s finale?
“Of course. I hope it'll be good. They usually have something big planned but again, it's like magicians. ‘And now for my next trick...’ But I hope they can justify the anticipation.”
You’ve also got The Brave One hitting theaters this year. Who do you play?
“I'm Jodie Foster's boyfriend. We're about to get married, her fiancé. Without giving it away, I can say that if that relationship doesn't work, if the audiences are not invested in it, if they don't feel for those two people, then the rest of the film won't work.”
Andrews added, “It's giving a nod to another genre of filmmaking, the Death Wish films, the late '70s and early '80s. But because Neil Jordan's directing it, it'll have a kind of eeriness and an emotional resonance that perhaps those films didn't have.”
Any action?
“There's a bit of action in there, yeah.”
Do you like doing action scenes, like on Lost?
“Well, yeah. I've had to get used to it, to doing Lost, running and falling and being hung from trees, scampering through the jungle. I guess you've got to be reasonably physically fit to do it.”
Are you surprised with all the movie offers you’ve received since Lost began airing?
“Both this and the film with Jodie came as a result of Lost, because Quentin is a fan of Lost. Big fan. Of course I was surprised and elated but I guess one has to accept that when you're in people's living rooms, the different level of, I guess, visibility than when you're doing what might be considered an art film like, I don't know, The English Patient or something like that.”
