Lost fans are used to seeing Josh Holloway looking all sweaty and grimy as his character, castaway con man Sawyer Ford, struggles to survive on ABC's "Lost."
So it's a little surreal to see the tall, lanky actor settling into his chair in the bar of this luxury Southern California hotel. For starters, he has traded in his grotty island togs for a stylish all-black ensemble of slacks, leather jacket and a scarf around his neck -- partly because a freakish cold snap has turned the air outside chilly enough to accommodate that "Lost" polar bear.
The main thing, though, is that Holloway looks so -- well, clean.
The 37-year-old actor bursts into good-natured laughter when an interviewer asks him to start dishing the dirt - specifically, just how filthy he and his castmates have to get for their roles in the Emmy-winning ABC Wednesday drama series.
"We come to the set clean in the morning, I promise, freshly showered, and to be honest, that's the difficult part of the morning routine," Holloway says. "I mean, normally an actor goes to a makeup trailer to get fixed up. We go there to get destroyed. Then they bring out what they call 'the hero shirt,' the one with all the dried blood and the gunk and it stands up by itself. You put it on and it's just kinda nasty, because they can't wash it for reasons of continuity.
"Before we did that scene recently where me and Kate got it on, I did at least get to have a little scene where Sawyer got a sponge bucket, because I wanted the audience to see that he at least had wiped his armpits. It's incredible, though, how messed up we can get in that trailer."
If being "Lost" can be dirty work, it also has given Holloway the big break he had been waiting for. Before executive producers J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof cast the California-born, Georgia-raised actor as Sawyer, Holloway had eked out a living in a series of smallish film and TV roles.
"J.J. and Damon have changed my life, and I love them for giving me that opportunity," he says. "I love acting, and when you're in Hollywood and maybe getting one job a year, you feel like you've got a car that's all perfectly tuned up and just sitting in the garage. To be able to work on such great material -- and there's a lot of crap out there -- has just been an incredible experience. Being Southern, I was raised to be polite, so playing Sawyer really lets me unleash part of me that I kept tied up before."
In fact, his own Southern roots were part of the reason Holloway landed the role in the first place, as he found out on the first day of filming, when Abrams pulled him aside.
"I was speaking without an accent, and he came over and said, 'What you are doing is good ...,' and I was, like, 'Aaaugh, but I'm fired! Already!'" Holloway recalls. "Then he said, 'No, it just sounds like you're trying to speak without an accent. Sawyer's actually from the South. We hired you. Let it ride.' He set me free, which was such a blessing.
"Frankly, I was scared that I wasn't on a level to work with these other people, but it challenged me to really step up to the plate."
Holloway not only stepped up to the plate, but he also knocked the ball out of the park with "Lost" viewers, and Sawyer instantly became a breakout character for fans. That success is a little overwhelming, Holloway says, and it has come with a price.
"My life has changed drastically, but at the same time, not that much," Holloway says. "The most difficult thing, of course, is being in the public eye when you weren't famous before. People recognize me pretty much anywhere I go, and I think that takes an adjustment for anyone. I'm not a guy who likes an entourage. I prefer the 'down low' route. That part has been very difficult. At first, I isolated a bit in my house. I was nervous and self-conscious and didn't want to go out of the house, and I had to get past that."
He also had to give up his passion for dirt bikes and other risky activities, although he admits to squeezing in some snowboarding over his recent holiday break. He still gets quite a physical workout on the show, however, as Sawyer spends most of his time in full-tilt action mode, often accompanied by Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sawyer's on-camera love interest.
"It came as a surprise to me, but Evie is really quite a warrior," he says. "She is so petite and pretty, but she is fearless when it comes to taking the pain. I'll say, 'Oh, I don't want to really slam you into those bars,' and she'll say, 'No, throw me!'
"Remember that scene where she shimmied up to the top of that big cage? She did that without ropes, over and over again, and I'm like: 'Dang, girl!' So that comes into it, too. I can't let a girl outdo me. I have three brothers. They'd never let me live that down!"
Holloway says the mood on the set changes perceptively whenever a member of the close-knit cast learns he or she is about to be eaten, shot or otherwise written out of the show.
"The nature of the show is that people die, and we have to accept that," Holloway says. "But when you make these incredible friendships, it goes against your knowledge that, as an actor, you keep getting hired and fired.
"Harold Perrineau (who played Michael Dawson) is still one of my best friends. I miss him, although we hang out together in L.A. Ian Somerhalder (Boone Carlyle) was a big fishing partner of mine. But with all the flashbacks, Ian has come back for another episode and is coming back again, I believe.
"The funniest reference we always use to that is that Jack's dad started off dead, and I can't even count how many episodes he has been on -- and he is still coming back! Let's face it, death is a relative thing on 'Lost.'"
Source: Zap2It
So it's a little surreal to see the tall, lanky actor settling into his chair in the bar of this luxury Southern California hotel. For starters, he has traded in his grotty island togs for a stylish all-black ensemble of slacks, leather jacket and a scarf around his neck -- partly because a freakish cold snap has turned the air outside chilly enough to accommodate that "Lost" polar bear.
The main thing, though, is that Holloway looks so -- well, clean.
The 37-year-old actor bursts into good-natured laughter when an interviewer asks him to start dishing the dirt - specifically, just how filthy he and his castmates have to get for their roles in the Emmy-winning ABC Wednesday drama series.
"We come to the set clean in the morning, I promise, freshly showered, and to be honest, that's the difficult part of the morning routine," Holloway says. "I mean, normally an actor goes to a makeup trailer to get fixed up. We go there to get destroyed. Then they bring out what they call 'the hero shirt,' the one with all the dried blood and the gunk and it stands up by itself. You put it on and it's just kinda nasty, because they can't wash it for reasons of continuity.
"Before we did that scene recently where me and Kate got it on, I did at least get to have a little scene where Sawyer got a sponge bucket, because I wanted the audience to see that he at least had wiped his armpits. It's incredible, though, how messed up we can get in that trailer."
If being "Lost" can be dirty work, it also has given Holloway the big break he had been waiting for. Before executive producers J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof cast the California-born, Georgia-raised actor as Sawyer, Holloway had eked out a living in a series of smallish film and TV roles.
"J.J. and Damon have changed my life, and I love them for giving me that opportunity," he says. "I love acting, and when you're in Hollywood and maybe getting one job a year, you feel like you've got a car that's all perfectly tuned up and just sitting in the garage. To be able to work on such great material -- and there's a lot of crap out there -- has just been an incredible experience. Being Southern, I was raised to be polite, so playing Sawyer really lets me unleash part of me that I kept tied up before."
In fact, his own Southern roots were part of the reason Holloway landed the role in the first place, as he found out on the first day of filming, when Abrams pulled him aside.
"I was speaking without an accent, and he came over and said, 'What you are doing is good ...,' and I was, like, 'Aaaugh, but I'm fired! Already!'" Holloway recalls. "Then he said, 'No, it just sounds like you're trying to speak without an accent. Sawyer's actually from the South. We hired you. Let it ride.' He set me free, which was such a blessing.
"Frankly, I was scared that I wasn't on a level to work with these other people, but it challenged me to really step up to the plate."
Holloway not only stepped up to the plate, but he also knocked the ball out of the park with "Lost" viewers, and Sawyer instantly became a breakout character for fans. That success is a little overwhelming, Holloway says, and it has come with a price.
"My life has changed drastically, but at the same time, not that much," Holloway says. "The most difficult thing, of course, is being in the public eye when you weren't famous before. People recognize me pretty much anywhere I go, and I think that takes an adjustment for anyone. I'm not a guy who likes an entourage. I prefer the 'down low' route. That part has been very difficult. At first, I isolated a bit in my house. I was nervous and self-conscious and didn't want to go out of the house, and I had to get past that."
He also had to give up his passion for dirt bikes and other risky activities, although he admits to squeezing in some snowboarding over his recent holiday break. He still gets quite a physical workout on the show, however, as Sawyer spends most of his time in full-tilt action mode, often accompanied by Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sawyer's on-camera love interest.
"It came as a surprise to me, but Evie is really quite a warrior," he says. "She is so petite and pretty, but she is fearless when it comes to taking the pain. I'll say, 'Oh, I don't want to really slam you into those bars,' and she'll say, 'No, throw me!'
"Remember that scene where she shimmied up to the top of that big cage? She did that without ropes, over and over again, and I'm like: 'Dang, girl!' So that comes into it, too. I can't let a girl outdo me. I have three brothers. They'd never let me live that down!"
Holloway says the mood on the set changes perceptively whenever a member of the close-knit cast learns he or she is about to be eaten, shot or otherwise written out of the show.
"The nature of the show is that people die, and we have to accept that," Holloway says. "But when you make these incredible friendships, it goes against your knowledge that, as an actor, you keep getting hired and fired.
"Harold Perrineau (who played Michael Dawson) is still one of my best friends. I miss him, although we hang out together in L.A. Ian Somerhalder (Boone Carlyle) was a big fishing partner of mine. But with all the flashbacks, Ian has come back for another episode and is coming back again, I believe.
"The funniest reference we always use to that is that Jack's dad started off dead, and I can't even count how many episodes he has been on -- and he is still coming back! Let's face it, death is a relative thing on 'Lost.'"
Source: Zap2It