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

So who is Simon?

Simon is one of the smartest guys in the western world; he graduated university when he was 14, he studied various fields of science, and he won various prizes for science in the adult world when he was 15, 16 years old. He's just one of those, in quotation marks, "brilliant guys," which brings with it all sorts of ramifications. He's kind of obsessive-compulsive, he doesn't like to be touched, he has no way of interacting with humans on a level that makes sense. He lacks tact and diplomacy, he's incredibly impatient, and he likes very fast cars and fast women.

What's it like for you to be shooting in LA after spending so much time on Lost and Lord of the Rings, two projects that filmed in such far-flung places?

It's the first time in my career, since I started about sixteen years ago, that I'm actually working from my home. I can leave in the morning with my housekeys and come back at night to the same house. It's good for me and it's good for my pets that I can sleep in my own bed at night. It's a normal experience and I've never had that before, so I'm trying to enjoy it as best I can. I have this memory after Lord of the Rings of packing my bags and leaving to make my fortune in Hollywood, so it's interesting now that it's come full circle and I am actually earning my wage in this city.

So do you like spending time in Los Angeles?

I like elements of it. I don't like the traffic.

Well, because it sucks.

I don't like the lack of a real sense of community, but I like the quality of the restaurants, and I like my friends out here. I like the different cuisines, I like that you can surf. I'm not kidding myself, though: I'm a young guy who's got his focus set on a particular thing, and LA is the place for me to be right now.

A lot of people have compared FlashForward to Lost, based on that first episode. You've seen more of the series than I have -- are there ways it strives to distinguish itself?

I don't think it's quite as immersed in a new world as Lost was. Lost was set on this island and it felt like maybe the rules of the planet or the laws of physics were not the same on this island. I think FlashForward is much more based in the real world, and it's not quite as fantastical in its rule-changing elements. It almost spills into everything, FlashForward -- hopsital drama, a little police drama, a little human drama, some high-concept, epic stuff. You are going to draw similarities with Lost because it's on ABC and it has the same kind of marketing behind it as Lost had, but I think pretty soon, you'll be able to see some pretty distinct difference between the two.

ABC was being very cagey when you first joined the show -- not only would they not confirm it, but they dropped you into their ABC House promos with no explanation, which drove people wild speculating.

I think it's fun for ABC to have a couple of aces up their sleeve and not necessarily confirm it until the time is right. We wanted to announce it at a point when it would resonate in the best way. I think a lot of people thought that I was coming back to Lost, and that's why I was involved with ABC again. That allowed ABC to garner more and more press, potentially.

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