If you're the kind of fan of bizarre pop culture minutiae who still smirks when you see pictures of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly, you might remember that the original pilot script for Lost featured a Psycho-like twist where the ostensible lead character, Jack Shephard (who was supposed to be played by Michael Keaton), died halfway through. Naturally, that was changed -- everyone realized killing the hero was a bad idea -- but at the time of the initial casting, this was still a very real intention. As such, J.J. Abrams and company instead concentrated on casting Sawyer, who was then the actual male lead, and they brought in several of the actors who'd go on to other Lost roles to read specifically for that one. What would Lost have been like if Matthew Fox wound up playing Sawyer? Or Jorge Garcia? Movieline dusts off the audition tapes to find out.
Actor: Jorge Garcia
What he got right as Sawyer: Um. This is a disaster. What made Garcia think he could believably play Sawyer?
What he got wrong: Everything.
GRADE: D+
Actor: Dominic Monaghan
What he got right as Sawyer: Monaghan excels at the flirtatious humanity that Sawyer often engages in with his lady friends, especially when he compliments his reading partner on her hair.
What he got wrong: There's nothing menacing about him -- basically, he took his Sawyer and turned him into Charlie.
GRADE: C
Actor: Matthew Fox
What he got right as Sawyer: Why is it not surprising that Fox was able to take the more prickly aspects of Sawyer's personality and turn them up to 11? He's completely terrifying here.
What he got wrong: Sawyer is like Han Solo. Fox played him like Anakin Skywalker. From the prequels. Find the levity, bud.
GRADE: B-
Actor: Josh Holloway
What he got right as Sawyer: It's easy to say that Holloway is the clear winner -- after all, he is Sawyer -- but you can see right from the start that he completely "got" the character. This is an audition tape that makes you wonder why it took television so long to find a home for his skills.
What he got wrong: If anything, he's edging too much toward "Southern Gentleman" in this clip. Obviously, he's found some balance since 2004.
GRADE: A-