'Lost': Matthew Fox Flash Forwards to Season 4

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When the producers were pushing for a definitive end to the show, was that something you wanted too?
MATTHEW FOX: I was happy. Damon said it to me best once: ''It's like running a marathon and you don't know how long it is.'' If he has a story in his mind, how does he tell that story if he doesn't know how long the book is? I'm telling you, the story is going to charge and move rapidly in the next 48 episodes. One of the knocks on the show is that it hasn't moved fast enough. Part of that was because Damon felt like he didn't know when to let it go. Now he knows when to let it go.

You were able to shoot only eight of this season's 16 episodes before the strike. What was that experience like?
It's a difficult thing to go through. Very odd for everybody. The crew has to go home. We're not sure if we're going to come back and do more this [season]. The audience only getting eight would really be a bummer. But I'm optimistic.

Let's talk about your movie career. Next up, you play a secret service agent in Vantage Point. What attracted you to the role?
I was attracted to the project because of [director] Pete Travis. I'm fascinated with the concept of perspective and vantage point. It's amazing to me how 10 people can look at the same events and depending on the point of view that they're looking at it from, they can see it differently. I'm constantly trying to remind myself of perspective and how much control I have over how I perceive things...I can't really talk a lot about the role without giving away parts of the picture, but that was attractive to me as well.

In May, you play Racer X in the Wachowski Brothers' highly anticipated Speed Racer. How did that come about?
I'm a cartoon and comic book fan, and I love anime. [But] I didn't know anything about Speed Racer. I grew up without a television. So when I found out that the Wachowskis were doing Speed Racer and were interested in me for it, I immediately went on the Internet, and as soon as I saw Racer X, 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! I went and read for it, and then waited quite a while.... It was the project last spring that I was dying to do, and I would have been so incredibly disappointed if I didn't.

NEXT PAGE: ''The beautiful thing about Lost is that...I get all these new things to do with [Jack]. It's not like playing Charlie Salinger on Party of Five. It was tough to play that same character for six years because I don't think I got to evolve that character and play new elements of him.''