LOS ANGELES—“I have been very careful with the choices that I make,” said Matthew Fox, the good-looking and well-built star of the television hit and Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Best Drama Series, “Lost.”

When we interviewed him in a hotel on Santa Monica beach for the action-packed thriller “Vantage Point,” Fox was not clad in an unbuttoned shirt, as he usually appears in the TV series where he portrays the heroic and conflicted doctor, Jack Shephard. He was fully clothed in a blue long-sleeved shirt and black jacket.

In “Vantage Point,” he and Dennis Quaid play Secret Service agents assigned to protect the US president. When the president is shot, the assassination is told from different viewpoints, in the fashion of the Japanese film classic “Rashomon.”

“I consider this business as a marathon instead of a sprint,” said Fox, a Golden Globe nominee this year for Best Actor in a TV Drama Series. “I believe that those who do a sprint in this business are doing it for the wrong reasons. They are in it more for just the fame, not to buckle down to work. Secondly, I always believe that the faster you rise, the faster you fall.”

Film snub?

Fox said he cannot be on the road a lot, especially since he has two young children.

“What ‘Lost’ affords me is being able to experience making some cool movies with great directors and doing at least two films a year with some control of it,” he said. “It is important for me to be able to control my schedule. There is actually a lot of good writing on television. Not that I am being a film snub; I just want to control my time. That is important to me.”

Affected by the recent Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, “Lost,” according to Fox, was shut down at the end of November last year.

“We did only eight episodes for this season,” he said. “Hopefully, the strike will be resolved this weekend or in the next 10 days. Everything is uncertain right now.” (The WGA and the studios have forged a deal at press time.)

Asked whether he was deliberately choosing vehicles that called for ensemble acting, like “Lost” and “Vantage Point,” Fox replied in the negative, saying it just so happened that the scripts he liked did not call for solo roles.

No need to fret

“I actually received several opportunities to be the lead star in movies but I think they are not the right vehicles for me,” Fox pointed out. “I like being part of an ensemble acting because I do not need to fret. It’s like falling off a cliff and just accepting it, being part of it.”

“Vantage Point,” set in Salamanca, Spain, also stars award-winning actors Forest Whitaker as American tourist Howard Lewis, William Hurt as the US president and Sigourney Weaver as TV news producer Rex Brooks.

Did he feel intimidated working with these acclaimed actors?

“No, it was wonderful working with them because these are stars I have been watching since I was a kid,” Fox said. “There were moments during the filming when I would whisper to myself, ‘I can’t believe I am working with these people... ’ I got to know them as real people, not just as celebrities. And it was great.”

Fox, who has a degree in Economics from Columbia University, said none of his colleagues gave him advice on acting, but that he learned by observing.

Highlights

“Filmmaking can be a tedious process,” he pointed out. “There is a lot of waiting and a lot of repetition. Since this movie tells the stories of eight people, there is more repetition here than any regular movie.”

One of the highlights of the film, he said, was when William Hurt shot the the scene where his character, President Ashton, is assassinated in a square called Plaza Mayor.

“William had to do that scene so many times—and every freaking time, he did it with utmost professionalism and commitment,” Fox said. “He was truly [into it], and I respect and appreciate that kind of dedication and passion.”

Fox said he loved doing “Vantage Point” because “it deals with terrorism and how the US is perceived outside of America. Right now, America is being perceived as a bully and the foreign policy of the current administration is to not make friends. This film is using that as a backdrop and I am glad because that makes it very timely.”

With his very hectic schedule, Fox, unfortunately, could not see more of Mexico (which substituted for Spain) than he actually did. “I was also doing ‘We Are Marshall’ and ‘Lost,’ he explained. “It was a grueling summer for me, working six days a week. There was just no time for anything else.”
Racer X

Fox will next be seen as Racer X in the film “Speed Racer,” a movie based on the classic 1960s Japanese animated series detailing the aspirations of a young race car driver.

“When the Wachowski brothers (writer-directors Andy and Larry) contacted me for the role, I did not know anything about Racer X,” Fox confessed. “I just accepted the movie role because I wanted to work with them. So after that meeting, I raced home and immediately read up on Racer X and watched the original ‘Speed Racer’!”

Fox said his “Vantage Point” character readily appealed to him because he likes portraying a person who appears to be one thing but turns out to be another.