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.
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.
There are pretty solid rumors out there that you're returning to Lost for three episodes this season. Can you tell me anything about that?
Not really. [Laughs] You know, I'm good friends with Damon [Lindelof, Lost's executive producer], and he and I spend time with each other just in our down time, you know? That inspires a lot of rumors, just when we have breakfast or lunch together. At this particular point, there's not a lot I can tell you about it.
But would you be so cruel to cameo at the Lost Comic-Con panel and fan the flames of speculation without a pretty strong hint that you'd be coming back?
Mm-hmm. I would probably be on the Lost panel because I'm family and I know they want me to be back. Whether or not that fully transpires or not is going to be a different story.
When you're killed off of a show like Lost and you see that public reaction to your death, what is it like? I always imagined it would be a bit like that scene in Tom Sawyer where he spies on his own funeral.
It was traumatic, you know? I had to go to a darker place to try to bring some of that darkness into the passing of Charlie. My personality was kind of affected by where my character went -- it changed me, in a way. I think if you've held onto a character for several years and then you're getting rid of that character, it's going to be traumatic. It's like graduating school or leaving university, it's change. There's a great quote by Leonard Cohen where he says "Everything cracks, it's what lets the light in." I think that kind of makes sense for me -- in those times of change, we grow the most.
Guillermo del Toro is preparing to resurrect Middle Earth to shoot The Hobbit. That's got to evoke a wealth of feelings in you. Is that something that practically demands a set visit?
Probably, yeah. It's been over ten years now since Lord of the Rings started, the first one. I'm still friends with Viggo [Mortensen] and Billy [Boyd] and Orlando [Bloom] and Elijah [Wood] and Ian [McKellen] and Sean [Bean]. Because of that, you're in the family, you know? I saw Peter Jackson in San Diego [during Comic-Con] when he was there for District 9 and I was there for FlashForward. Because of that, you are immersed in the world whether you like it or not, and I think it would be fun for us all to go down there and celebrate the reopening of Middle Earth again.
And go haze whoever gets cast as Bilbo, right?
You know, I'm not sure if they have any concrete ideas who that guy is gonna be yet. To a certain extent, I kind of wish that I had never played Merry so I could throw my name into the hat and see if they went for it. I've kind of ruined it now! I actually played Gollum one time when Andy Serkis was away. I filled in for him and did a scene with Ian Holm, and I remember thinking at the time, "Man, this would be so much fun to do."
Get yourself in there for some motion capture, Dominic!
I'll try, man! I'll definitely try.