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Maxim Online, September 2006

Q&A with Lost's Hurley
by Larry Dobrow

Is Hurley the most beloved character on TV?
[laughs] I don't know, but that's very nice to hear. I think I'm just the next in a long line of lovable island guys. It goes from Gilligan to Rupert from Survivor to me.

You get to live in Hawaii and work on a show that's considered one of TV's few sensations. Is being on Lost the best job in the universe, or what?
Yeah, it's pretty much the jackpot of jobs, I've gotta say. It's really cool getting to do a show away from everything, too. There's a romantic quality to it: you're the guy in A Midsummer's Night Dream, off in the forest to work on your little show.

There's gotta be some downside...
Well, [Lost] is crazy-intense. I did a movie over the summer - Deck the Halls in Vancouver. You spend the whole day shooting one scene. On Lost, you do everything before lunch. Considering that we're trudging through the jungle and carrying equipment, it's impressive how the crew makes it happen.

Give us a state-of-the-Hurley address as we head into season three of the show. What's he going to be facing this year?
I'm not totally sure. So much tragedy hit at the end of last season, so there's gotta be something. He's probably changed somehow.

That's pretty specific.
[laughs] Yeah. Sorry.

Did you like the direction in which the character of Hurley moved last year: the relationship with Libby, the back-and-forth with Sawyer?
I liked the relationship a lot, the romantic side of it. That's not usually a thing they let the fat guy on the show do.

Any madcap hijinks on the set that you can share?
Dominic [Monaghan, who plays Charlie] and I, we get some fun stuff to do together. There was a scene that didn't make the show: we had target practice on that magnetic wall. We painted a bull's-eye on it and threw silverware. Matt [Fox, who plays Jack] and I have an extra element of trying not to make each other laugh. In season one, we were walking around with torches. I came very close to singeing off his eyebrows.

The cult of Lost fans: What do you and the other cast members make of it?
Oh, I love it. Lost has the best of both worlds. We've got a very big audience numbers-wise but a very strong, hardcore cult-type of audience as well. We're always going online and answering questions at www.TheFuselage.com. It's the fans' support that keeps us going. I met up with some of them in San Diego to do a podcast. We went out for Mexican food and chatted for a while. It was like, "You do an hour-long commercial for my show every week, the least I can do is get you a burrito."

How about interactions with less insider-type fans?
A lot of women I don't know want to hug me. I haven't totally gotten used to that.

What's the looniest fan explanation for Lost that you've heard?
My favorite was one that said the flight made it safely to L.A., but while in flight everybody on the plane was cloned. So they staged a fake crash with clones and we're all monitoring their adventures on the island. Or something crazy like that.

Is every "dude" that comes out of Hurley's mouth scripted, or do you have free reign to throw in a "dude" whenever you think it works?
No, that's scripted. There might have been times I moved it around in the line.

For you, what would be a satisfying resolution for the character of Hurley?
I don't know. I was wondering whether or not certain characters would want to get off the island at the end of Lost. Because of the curse he suffers from, part of Hurley feels that being on the island makes his loved ones safe. Who knows? I approach the show very much the way Hurley approaches his life: let's just take tomorrow as it comes.