Matthew Fox Gets "Racy"

Hunky Matthew Fox has been "Lost" for so long, we forget that he can play someone in addition to hot doc Jack. He popped up as a football coach in We Are Marshall and in the political thriller Vantage Point. This week, Matthew hits the race track in style as Racer X, a sexy, mysterious fellow with a secret past and a very hot ride who works to help Speed Racer stay alive and become the ultimate king of the speedway. Since he's dressed in tight superhero gear and a mask (not through the whole movie) there is no way we can't appreciate Matthew's tough physical training for the film!

Can't think of anyone who looks quite so hot in plain blue tee and jeans. When we sat down recently at the Long Beach Grand Prix to chat with the actor, we spotted his "Lost" dice and skull tattoos and, since his time on hiatus from the popular series is so limited, wondered why he chose to spend his valuable break time wearing an uncomfortable costume and getting bashed around in a driving simulator...

Matthew: [It was] the Wachowski brothers; meeting them and hearing their thoughts on what they wanted to try to accomplish in the movie. One of the first things that they said was that they wanted to make a movie that their nieces and nephews could see, and they had never really done anything like that. They wanted to make a family movie, and that really hit a chord with me, I have kids and I haven't done anything that I would feel comfortable with them really watching.

TeenHollywood: Were you familiar with the "Speed Racer" animated series on TV?

Matthew: I went and did some research on the original source material, and I had definitely seen those images but I don't think I'd really seen an episode, so I went out and got a bunch of those and watched and got a feel for what made that series in the 1960's so catchy. Larry and Andy wrote a script that I thought was just absolutely amazing, just all those elements. I was looking at a few things last spring, but the minute I met with Larry and Andy and started going down the Racer X route, I didn't want to do anything else. And I pretty much said, 'If I don't get this role, I'm not going to work this hiatus'.

TeenHollywood: Where do you think Racer X draws the line between breaking a few laws for the sake of the greater good versus complete corruption?

Matthew: I think Racer X breaks a few laws. I think he is definitely 'the end justifies the means'. That's part of the reason why he has that reputation. A lot of people think he might actually not be technically a really good guy but, obviously, we find out he is. Yeah, he's walking the shadows.

TeenHollywood: So you're sitting in a gimbaled race car in front of a green screen with the leather mask and goggles. What made you feel like 'hey, this is gonna work great'?

Matthew: Through the entire process I had complete and utter faith in the Wachowskis making me look good [he laughs]. So, yeah, there were moments where you're like, 'wow, this is pretty intense. This is one of the most terrifying experiences I've ever had'. There are so many ways that you, wrapped in a leather suit, can be very bad!

TeenHollywood: Looked good to us though! Did you have to take breaks because it was so hot in the suit?

Matthew: Well, the comfort level is one thing, yes it was incredibly hot, and doing the fight sequences in the suit was incredibly difficult and I was very dehydrated. But, I had a really strong idea immediately after the conversations with them of what I wanted to try to do within that leather suit that would be really cool. I was trying to create this mysterious thing with a voice that was sort of anime.

TeenHollywood: Did you get to keep the mask by any chance?

Matthew: [grins] I dress up in it all the time. [Laughs] No, not really. They've got it.

TeenHollywood: Did you see any sketches of what Racer X would look like up front?

Matthew: They did an amazing job of bringing a lot of artist renderings and even digital imagery. When you're standing on a green screen you can actually walk around and look at these big plasma monitors that would already have the world that you're existing in laid in behind you, and you would be like, 'Whoa, okay, that's what that place looks like.' They did an amazing job of bringing all of that help to you.

TeenHollywood: You are in the mask so much. Nobody can really see your eyes. Does that make you have to adjust the way that you're acting?

Matthew: There's no question. Larry and Andy asked 'are you comfortable playing a role where the audience isn't going see your eyes for a majority of the [film]?', and I was really intrigued and challenged by it. It was an incredible experience. Wardrobe is always a really important way for me to get into [a part]. It informs it in so many ways but never anything like this. I got two weeks into it, and when I would put the suit on and drop that helmet on, man, it was just like bam!, I was right there, it was so cool!

TeenHollywood: What did your young kids think? Did they see you in the costume?

Matthew: Yeah. They were sitting on the set, this huge room, green screens everywhere, and all this technology, computers and stuff, and I'll never forget, I walked in and I had the full gear on and they both turned and did like this double-take and went like, 'Daddy?' And I'm pretty convinced that if I'd done my voice they would have both just like [ran away!] So I just went down to them, and I'm like [whispers], 'Yeah it's me, it's me, don't worry, it's just me.' And I walked on set to do a scene, and my little boy watched me walk off and he turned to my wife, and he goes, 'I want to be Racer X on Halloween next year.'

TeenHollywood: Wow, what a great 'dad' moment for you! Did you enjoy having the chance to use your martial arts training in this film?

Matthew: I did, very much. That part of the shooting was really rewarding to me. I did all the stunts in the movie myself which I'm proud of. I worked really hard to do that. Dave and Chad, the guys who did all the stunt work for The Matrix as well, sort of put me through a test thing. They wanted to see how athletic I was and what I could do and what I couldn't and they felt that I could do it all. They said 'trust us, we'll tell you if it doesn't look good'. They told me that if I could do it all, Larry and Andy would be able to shoot it in a much cooler way, which was the case.

TeenHollywood: Did you ever use your martial arts in competition?

Matthew: Yeah. I studied for a couple of years when I got out of college in New York and did some tournament fighting and stuff but I hadn't done any training in a long, long time. So that part of it was fun. It was hard work. For six weeks in Berlin, I was training pretty much every other day with them and learning a lot of the sequences which kept changing. The stuff in the suit was particularly difficult.

TeenHollywood: How so, other than the heat?

Matthew: Having your head covered and the lenses would fog up really quickly which led to a few misjudgments on my part [laughs] which led to a couple of stunt guys knocked on their a**es.

TeenHollywood: Have you seen your action figure and have your kids seen it? What do you think of it?

Matthew: Yes, I think my little boy might have been the first little boy to have a Racer X action figure! I did the Mattel Toy thing in New York and did a little piece while I was there promoting Vantage Point and they gave me one and I took it home. It was the first thing that he got. Then like a week later or 10 days later a whole box of stuff came. He is so excited about this movie opening up, he cannot wait. He's so into it. I'm pretty cool in his eyes right now which is pretty great.

TeenHollywood: We heard you suffered the worst injuries in the cockpit on the gimbal. Can you tell us about working with that and pretending to be racing?

Matthew: The gimbal was really intense. Basically, as an actor, you just got in there and hung on for dear life. You didn't have to do anything other than create the input, but then react to what the gimbal was doing. It made everything a lot easier. On X's part, he has to be like the harbinger of boom! He has to be kicking some hard butt. He's got to be doing big moves so I was getting thrown up against the door really intensely to the point where my shoulder was pretty sore and bruised and that kind of thing, but I really had a good time doing it. It was fun.

TeenHollywood: Some of your castmates in 'Lost' have gotten in trouble for speeding a little bit. Were you ever a speeder?

Matthew: Yeah, I enjoy driving fast. I've been lucky to not have...you know that's the running joke over there; if you get pulled over by the cops, you're pretty much killed off the show. [Laughs]

TeenHollywood: What do you drive?

Matthew: I just have a little Acura that I zip around the island in.

TeenHollywood: What kind of car would you pick if you could have anything? What's your dream car?

Matthew: I build hot rods so I'm taking a 1950 Mercury coupe and turning it into a hot rod. I enjoy the 50's styling which I thought was really cool and then putting all the new, sort of modern technology into it is really fun.

TeenHollywood: Any road rage stories of your own?

Matthew: No. I've always really enjoyed driving. I grew up in Wyoming where the roads are really open. There's not a lot of traffic and there are speed limits but there's not a lot of enforcement of those speed limits. It's always been the sense of freedom in it. I actually recently got the chance to drive some Porsches on the Willow Springs track because I was doing this story for Speed Racer. I got some instruction from the Penske Porsche LMP2 driver, Patrick Long, who is just awesome. It was two days and it was really one of the most fun things I've ever done.

TeenHollywood: What cool gadget that's on Racer X's car would you like to have on your hot rod?

Matthew: I like the [machine] guns that come out of the side of the car and have the thumb pedals on the wheel. That's pretty cool.

TeenHollywood: What about your next hiatus? Is there going to be a movie or would you rather just kick back?

Matthew: This hiatus coming right now I'm going to take off. I haven't taken any break for two years. I've done four films and 'Lost' in that period of time. I'm really pleased with how these movies [have done]. I'm looking at material to do next hiatus but I'm going to take this one off and just spend some time with people that I care about.

TeenHollywood: Now that 'Lost' has an end date, does that change the way that you're approaching your work on the show?

Matthew: Not really. You know we're going to catch up with the flash forwards here in this year and then we'll be back and it's going to be really interesting to see how time is structured in season five. But we will have closed those two points; the finale of last year where you had him on the island feeling like he'd finally accomplished rescue and this future where he's desperate and at the pit of despair and feels like he has to go back and we don't know why and what's transpired in between. We will have closed that thing up and so we will have gotten back into a situation where we'll be in the present.

TeenHollywood: Great to know! How much gets resolved in the finale?

Matthew: Huge, huge stuff. it's really like a three-episode finale that we're shooting simultaneously. It's huge.

TeenHollywood: Are there going to be more questions answered?

Matthew: [smiles] There will be huge things answered. Yes.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.