Jack vs. Sawyer: Rating the Post-Series Plans for Lost's Two Heroes
Forget which one will end up with Kate. The real mystery of Lost that needs an answer is what happens to Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway after the series saunters off into television history two weeks from today. Will they find future fame and fortune as leading men or quietly wait around until ABC calls them for the Lost reunion special in 2020? The main feature from this week's special -- and not online -- Lost edition of Entertainment Weekly (collect all 10 covers!) offers some hints to what the long-term goals are for the two heroes. Hint: It's movies. But are they being realistic?
Josh Holloway
Post-Series Plans: "Movies, my friend. I'm going to give it two years. If it doesn't work out, I'd love to make another TV show. I just want to give movies a shot. It's now or never. If I do another show, it's another seven-year contract, standard. That's a big commitment at this point in my life. I'd like to hop around a bit."
Translation: "Before Lost, I was a day player; now, I'm f'n Sawyer. Let's do this!"
Chances of Success: High. Holloway is a wonderful actor and given the right movie role -- perhaps in something from J.J. Abrams -- he could be a geek icon with major crossover appeal. Read: Girls like it when he takes off his shirt.
Matthew Fox
Post-Series Plans: "All told, I've done about 275 hours of television. I won't be doing any more television. If I can't find a way to work with really great filmmakers that I respect and admire and be part of movies I want to see in a movie theater, then I'll probably be doing something else. It's not about some bullsh*t snobbery about TV. It's about flexibility. I think that's what's best for me as I enter the next portion of my career."
Translation: "Do you know who I am?"
Chances of Success: Low. Matthew Fox, the Television Actor is a tremendous presence and his work as Jack on Lost has been nuanced and surprising -- rarely has a leading man allowed himself to look like such a pompous jerk time and time again. But Matthew Fox, the Movie Star is a non-starter. Keep in mind, his two biggest roles during Lost have been in Vantage Point (bad) and Speed Racer (worse). If those are the types of movies he likes to see in the theater, then he's plagued by bad taste. Worse, his acting style seems ill-suited for big screen work. Would the patented Fox half-cry actually translate on a 60 foot screen? No, probably not.
And for those of you wondering if Entertainment Weekly offers any series finale tidbits, there's this quote from Fox: "If we all did our jobs right, I really feel [the ending] is going to be terribly sad, but at the same time be really cathartic and full of hope. It has the potential to be really profound. I will say this: It's not going to be what anybody thinks it is. I know a lot of people have written a lot of theories about how this will all end -- and I'm pretty sure nobody guessed it." Begin speculation... now.
· The Last of 'Lost' [Entertainment Weekly, magazine only]
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Comments
A shame. Holloway would have made the perfect Jim Rockford in "The Rockford Files" reboot.
If I was to compare you as a writer to a character on lost you would be a combination of Frogurt, Zoe, and Nikki & Paulo.
Wow, thanks Jacob! I appreciate the kindness. I would compare your comment to Bai Ling's guest appearance.
Snap!
A) Holloway needs to keep his hair as is and start lobbying for Snake Plissken in the Escape from New York remake STAT!
B) How can you forget that Matthew Fox was (and is, alongside fellow MAtthew McConaughey) Marshall?
Josh Holloway's star is shining bright and his future is red hot. I hope we don't see Matthew Fox's forlorn face staring back at us from romantic comedy posters in years to come, though.
would love to see JH on movies, i also think he could have a great movie career. matthew fox always comes across as an arrogant prick, i wouldnt mind if he disappeared into obscurity.
Giiiiirl, you totally just Ben'd the hell out of Jacob.
So, let me get this right. Holloway has a great chance in a movie career, with his crappy acting, but Fox, who's a great actor, has a low chance? LOL Yeah, right. And this is not biased at all.
And neither is your comment. Totally bias free here on this post!
FWIW, I never said Fox was a terrible actor: I think he's a great television actor with neither the presence nor taste to carry out a successful movie career. Holloway might not have those skills either, but he's got a legitimate shot right now to prove that he does. The mystery of the unknown as it were.
And, no, he's not "crappy," he's actually nuanced, funny and tragic -- the work he's done since Sawyer jumped off the helicopter has been nothing short of brilliant. And bear in mind, of all the actor's -- the amazing Michael Emerson included -- the only one who really successfully stood toe-to-toe with Terry O'Quinn's towering work this season was Holloway during the early episodes.
I flove it when fangirls flood comment sections. Especially comment sections of fangirl bait such as this nonarticle.
I never ceases to amaze me that these people (because I'm sure fanboys are every bit as laughable) actually know even less squat about how Hollywood works.
Hint: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Oh and connections.
It's a very rough business.
Brains and business sense matter. Sometimes it's combined with talent (see Downey, Robert Jr.), sometimes it's not. What your agent does with your bankability is a big part of what happens to you as an actor, provided you're not an out of control crackwhore with daddy issues.
In six years of Lost, Josh Holloway has been recognized for one thing only: appealing to the soap opera crowd by opening his shirt and growling like Fabio in his best Harlequin cover days. NOBODY in his team has tried to nuance his appeal at all. The man seems fun and charismatic. Hilarious when he attempts any type of drama for which he only has a scowl and a really intense scowl and ends up coming across as laughable. But man, that housewife fantasy appeal should be a GOLD MINE. It ain't going to work forever. Five years tops. So why not work it the hell out in some high profile comedies/romance, preferably not as shitty as anything starring Gerald Butler lately. Butler already has money in the bank, Holloway is a no-name outside of tv. Fck pride, son as Marcellus Wallace would wisely say.
At this point, I don't even know if he has a team. It's one thing to play "the best thing about..." a movie that bombs commercially and happens to be directed by the Wachowski brothers and produced by one of Hollywood's top players for whom that's pocket money. It's quite another thing to play the fifteenth wheel in a lame Chevy Chase comedy that stars Hillary freakin Duff. So if you want to start evaluating chances of success and actually know what you're talking about, start there. Or find out who Fox's new(ish) agent is, what kind of connections these actors have formed, etc. Nobody can guarantee that the comic book assassin project Warner Bros bought and is developing specifically for Fox will even get off the ground soon, or that it won't suck. But the fact that a major studio is developing a project for him should tell you something.
Fox has options. He can make shitty action movies, or one of them might turn out to be good, he can do indie drama if he so wants to because where it matters, in the BUSINESS not on the internet, he is trusted with drama and recognized as consistently good at intense brooding. He can quit acting and that's an option too. Because he makes about five times more money than Holloway does in every episode of Lost. Josh Holloway on the other will still have to audition when Lost ends. I don't know wtf his agent's been doing these past six years, but it's not working. I wish him nothing but the best, it's a bitch of a business.
Spoken like a true fanboy.
"Girls like it when he takes off his shirt" brings out the worst in them.
"Housewife fantasy" and "Fabio" and "bitch" gave you away.
It was a well-reasoned article.
I LOVE SAWYER! He is sooo much better than Jack.