Unlike a lot of his Speed Racer co-stars Matthew Fox didn’t watch the TV series growing up. “I didn't grow up in a household where television was allowed,” said Fox. “When I met with Larry and Andy the first time, my first attraction to the project was the Wachowskis and sort of them as filmmakers, and knowing that they were going to be doing something really innovative and different. And after that meeting I started punching up the imagery, and when I saw it, I immediately recognized it. It was in my consciousness, but I don't think I'd ever seen an episode in full. So I went and got a bunch and watched a bunch of the original source material, which was really fun. My kids are now watching it and are really fired up. It's really cool. I mean, there's so many very cool things about it, and I can completely understand why in the 1960s that style of anime was so sort of intriguing and grabbed so many people. Like Larry and Andy, they were huge fans of it.”
Asked why he didn’t have a TV set as a kid, Fox laughed. “My father was part of a religious cult,” joked Fox. “No, he wasn't so much anti-television, he was just pro-books. Both my mom and dad were. And that's important to me and my wife and I and how we're trying to - I mean, we allow our kids some television. We certainly allow them cool movies and some television. But it's limited. I think it's really important that they develop their own imaginations and find and use those imaginations.”
Part of the reason Fox did Speed Racer was for his kids. “Absolutely, that's a huge part of it, a movie that my kids can see. They don't watch Lost. When it was an 8:00 show, maybe, but now that it's gone later in the night and we're allowed to do what I think serves the show well, we're allowed to do more intense things… It's just not something that I think - my kids are 11 and 6, and nah. So, yes. I remember in that first meeting Larry and Andy talking about how they wanted to do a film that their nieces and nephews could go see and that really struck a chord with me. I was like, I completely understood that. And the opportunity of playing, being a part of a film like that, but also playing [Racer X]. I just really liked the character and how cool, and the anime sort of is kind of iconic. I don't know. I just knew that it was something that my little boy was going to flip out on. I'm pretty cool for him right now.”
As for Fox's main acting gig, Lost, the writers strike caused a shutdown in production but now that all the issues are settled, the cast and crew are hard at work completing this season. Fox described the atmosphere on the set as chaotic as they try to cram the remaining episodes into a shortened timeframe. “I mean, we're doing many shows. I think we're shooting three episodes simultaneously, essentially,” explained Fox. “So it's like anywhere between two and three units working at the same time, and going back and forth between them and shooting things very out of sequence, which you always do. But like when you're covering three episodes, it's a lot. But it's great. I mean, it's really great. The show is building to its climax of the year and it's a lot of things happening, and it's big and it's going to be good. I think it's been a good year for us. The strike, obviously, was difficult, just because we were really on a roll through eight, then we took this break. But I think everybody was really excited to get back to it.”
Fox promises audiences won’t be disappointed in the final episodes. There will be plot twists and surprises a plenty as Lost completes the 2007-2008 season - including more flash-forwards. Those peeks into Jack’s future off the island aren’t the most enjoyable scenes for Fox to work on. “Jack's a frickin’ mess in the future, so that's been not pleasant to revisit that. It's never fun to put yourself into a place where you're suicidal and really, really messed up and desperate. So yeah, he's really gotten to the rock bottom, but I understand why we're taking him there. And there will be a turn in there where he begins to sort of build towards a redemption and taking him to the very pit of despair is going to make, I think, that more rewarding,” said Fox.
Lost fans may recall Jack wasn’t in horrible shaped when visited Kate (played by Evangeline Lilly), and Fox offered the reasoning behind that. “There was a period, I mean, when he gets back where he's built a construct of denial that he still can maintain,” offered Fox. “But things start to intrude on that bubble of denial and he can no longer maintain the lie that he's telling himself and things start to fall apart.”
