Dominic Monaghan On Joining FlashForward and His 'Traumatic' End On Lost

If you had any doubts that ABC is positioning FlashForward as the next Lost, the introduction of Dominic Monaghan as a regular cast member in tonight's episode should indicate that the network isn't playing around. Still, as Monaghan told Movieline, his FlashForward character is as different as could be from Lost's Charlie -- and that was completely by design.

Don't worry, though: Over the course of a wide-ranging interview, Monaghan did talk Lost (addressing both his character's death and the rumors he'll be returning this season) and even touched on the impending shoot of The Hobbit, revealing the one big regret he has for accepting the role of Merry in Lord of the Rings.

How did your role on FlashForward come about? Was ABC looking to keep you in the family?

I read the script and called my agent and said that I really liked the script and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do in it. Every [character] felt very American to me, and I wasn't sure at this particular point I wanted to play an American, week-in and week-out. My agent got back to [executive producers David and Jessica Goyer] and said that I responded to the script but I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do, and David and Jessica said, "Can we just meet him and pitch him ideas?"

What happened in that pitch meeting?

Essentially, I sat down with them and they said, "What do you want to do next?" Which is one of the greatest things to hear as an actor, you know. I said, "It's very important for me to play a character different from the character I'm probably most known for in America, which is Charlie on Lost." We broke down the essential things I wanted to do with the character: to play someone more dynamic and grown-up, someone who's more proactive as opposed to reactive, to be more of a man than someone who's becoming a man. And they said, "We can do that" and went away and came up with some ideas, and I met with them a week later, and they'd fleshed out this character that seemed like the perfect tonic to playing Charlie.

And you convinced them to let you keep your natural accent?

I'll still talk like me, yeah.

I'm sure the other British actors on the show, like Joseph Fiennes and Sonia Walger, are kicking themselves for not negotiating that contract point.

You know, at some point in my career, I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to play an American, but I wasn't sure if now was the time. I felt like I wanted to push my Englishness on the American public a little bit more and have them accept it. [Laughs]

At the end of the first episode, we saw a silhouetted character on a security camera who had managed to avoid the worldwide blackout. Does your character have anything to do with him -- or might that even be you?

No, I think that's a bit of a red herring. People keep asking me, "Well, are you this guy, or this guy, or this guy?" I don't actually show up in the show until [tonight's episode], and then a little bit more in Episode 5. You'll have to wait and see who I am.

Do you feel like you have more of a grip on your FlashForward character arc, as opposed to Lost, where you wouldn't know crucial details about Charlie until you got the script?

A little bit. I think I know more where it's going -- I mean, they've told me stuff that I'll be doing in the finale of season one. That's definitely helpful. I have some things I need to know from my character's point of view, but I don't ask about the show, I don't ask about the other characters, I just ask about things that involve my character Simon.

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