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The Trades, February 24, 2006

Jorge Garcia: By the Numbers
by Scott Juba

All of the cast members of ABC's Lost are reaping the benefits of the show's enormous success, but few have a fan following as devoted as Jorge Garcia's. His portrayal of Hurley, a fast-food worker who won the lotto only to discover the numbers he played are cursed, has established him as one of the television's rising stars.

"The thing that Jorge brought to Hurley is something we could never have written," Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof says. "He's the everyman. He's funny without trying to be funny. On an island full of people with dark secrets, Jorge just brought a sense of fun and lightness that created real balance not just in the cast, but in the show. More importantly, he's such a genuinely sweet guy that it oozes into his performance and has the effect of everyone rooting for him."

When asked about his status as a fan favorite, Garcia replies, "I think there's a cool aspect to the fact that Hurley isn't being a villain or a hero. He's just a regular guy. I think that has an appeal to it."

Garcia says Lost fans eager to learn more about Hurley's backstory will be treated to another Hurley flashback episode this season that depicts his time in a mental institution. "The episode is really interesting," he says. "[What happened to him while he was in the institution] was even a question I had."

One of the recurring themes on Lost is the clash between science and faith. Garcia says both sides of the debate have merit. "I don't think you can exist on science alone or religion alone," he comments.

When he isn't filming the show, he and the other cast members make a habit of spending time together. "Foxy (Matthew Fox) and I went to Tokyo together two summers ago," Garcia tells me. "Dominic (Monaghan) lives around the corner, so if I'm walking down the beach, I pass his house, so it's easy to just knock on his door. Sometimes Josh (Holloway) has come around and we've grabbed some boogie boards and took them to the beach and rode some waves. We do seem to seek each other out a lot during our off time."

Garcia and many of his fellow cast members also play poker together. "The first poker game we ever had, Josh took it all," he recalls. "But that was the only time we played with Josh. Mentally, I'm a little scared of playing against Josh. He's hard to read. Matt only played once so far as well. As far as what I know from Matt, any game that can be played in a bar like darts or pool - even parlor games - he's quite good at. I'm guessing poker would fit in the same category, but I've only played him once."

A huge fan not only of card games but also of video games, Garcia discusses what it would take to turn Lost into a video game. "When you think about the logistics of turning Lost into a video game, it would be really tough," he remarks. "Lost has actually been described in many ways as a video games at times, where you can be searching around on the island for awhile and then finally discover the hatch, the way we did on the show. You'd really have to be able to make it like one of those big sandbox format video games, where you can go off and go to a lot of different areas. I think the best way to do the game, too, would be after you solve it at the end, if they let you restart the game as an Other."

While experiencing the world of Lost in a video game would be a thrill for many of the show's most devoted followers, for Garcia, the reality of being one of the most popular actors on a top-rated TV series is a thrill no game could ever match.