ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How soon into season 4 do we learn who was in the casket?
MATTHEW FOX: It hasn't been revealed yet. I'm pretty sure I know who it is, but I'm not 100 percent sure. I remember saying to Damon, ''I can play that scene without knowing.'' But I wanted to know. And I got an answer. I'm not sure that the answer that I got will end up being who's in the casket.
This season supposedly deals with time travel and other supernatural elements. Is that accurate, and, if so, are you happy with this direction?
Yes and yes. Really fascinating stuff. Last year, we find out Jack and Kate are off the island. How the f--- did that happen? And why does he want to go back? In answering those questions, you have to start addressing the bigger, epic scope of the show. In doing that, you're going to get into questions about the show that the audience is just dying to start finding out. What is this island? Where is this island? When is this island?
We'll meet some new characters from the freighter, played by Jeremy Davies, Ken Leung, Jeff Fahey, and Rebecca Mader. Obviously Michael Emerson's Ben and Elizabeth Mitchell's Juliet have been great additions to the show, yet Lost's track record with new cast members has been mixed. Why has it been difficult for new characters to join the show?
Any time people come in, they're always so excited to be a part of it. There's always a new energy coming in, like, ''Oh my God, I'm so happy to be here.'' That's always a good thing to have. It could be the other way around.... [But] it's always hard to have a total vibe on the appetite of the audience for a new character. There are moments where the show is too mind-blowing and fragmented and confusing for people to put together, and if that's the moment when they're getting new characters, maybe they get less of a shot. And not all new characters are introduced to become characters that stay. They are going to be a mechanism that is going to push a certain arc forward to its final moments.
For example, Nikki and Paulo?
Those characters didn't work for me from the very beginning. I was part of the camp that was like, ''What? Huh?'' That was one of those experiments where [the producers] were like, ''Can we suddenly introduce characters that were part of the crash victims but we've never seen them before, and have them become characters on the show?'' And the answer to that question is...no.
Many fans and critics were harsh on the show early last season. What was it like being hated a little? And did you feel any vindication with the finale?
I kind of liked that. There's something really frightening about when the bandwagon-jumping starts, when it's all the rage. That's when you're like, I don't believe that everybody that's doing this is a completely truthful Lost fan. So there's something cool about now — I know we've got 15 million people watching the show, and these people are the same 15 million that have been die-hards from Day One. Those are the ones that we're making it for. I do enjoy proving people wrong. I'm kind of contrary that way, I guess.
NEXT PAGE: Fox talks Speed Racer. ''When I found out that the Wachowskis were doing Speed Racer and were interested in me for it...I was like, I think that looks like me. I kinda think I would be a good Racer X. [Laughs] So then I was like, Dammit, I'm going to win this role! ''
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