USA TODAY: Found in the 'Lost' shuffle: Deep friendships

Posted 2/27/2007 10:33 PM ET

"I haven't (worked with) Matt all year," Naveen Andrews (Sayid) says about star Matthew Fox (Jack).

"I haven't, either," says Emilie de Ravin (Claire).

"I haven't seen Foxy all year," Jorge Garcia (Hurley) echoes.

Turning to Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Andrews asks, "Does anyone talk to you about when they're going to see you again?"

"Yeah," Monaghan says.

"People have said they want to see more of our characters," de Ravin says. "We'll hear, 'When are you going to have an episode?' "

But, Andrews says, "What are we going to (expletive) say about it? Do we write the (expletive) thing? No." (Andrews' salty tongue leads his publicist, seated within earshot at a nearby table, to reprimand him with a cautionary "Language!")

Executive producer Damon Lindelof later acknowledges that the actors' limited screen time, particularly last season, was "hard for them." But Lindelof believes his cast has come to understand Lost's unique dynamics. "There hasn't been a single complaint in Season 3," he says. Adds executive producer Carlton Cuse, "Now they understand the reality of it, that that's the way it is. They accept it."

Perhaps. But, as Monaghan puts it, "I personally couldn't sleep at night if I didn't express concerns that I had."

The inequity in screen time seems to have had little impact on the close bond the cast developed early on. In December, Monaghan celebrated his 30th birthday at a U2 concert in Waikiki with girlfriend Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Garcia, Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Fox, Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun) and Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond).

Nor has it driven a wedge into Monaghan and Lilly's two-year relationship. "Evie has been kept very busy this year, and I've kept busy doing my own thing," he says. "As long as everything's being supported and you continue to communicate, then you're all good."

During his free time, Andrews shot films with directors Robert Rodriguez (Grindhouse) and Neil Jordan (The Brave One), both due later this year. But when asked if he has considered exiting Lost to focus on films full time, he brags that few individuals "make more than us."

"Lost has done wonders for all of us. I wouldn't have done those couple of films. I wouldn't have gotten nominated for awards twice. Those things wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for this show."

Nor would the paparazzi have had any interest in capturing Andrews kissing a mystery woman on an L.A. beach last summer. Despite that embarrassing revelation, Andrews, 38, says his relationship with longtime companion, actress Barbara Hershey, 59, is still strong.

"Fantastic and happy," he says, noting they recently reunited after her 10-week location shoot in South Africa for the drama The Bird Can Fly, due in theaters this year.

Andrews has not been the only victim of paparazzi. Once considered a haven from Hollywood shutterbugs, Hawaii has given birth to a small population of amateur paparazzi wielding camera phones.

Says Garcia: "In New York or L.A. or London, the paparazzi are in your face; you see them. In Hawaii, we never see them, pictures just turn up. There's a reason that every time I go swimming at the beach I wear a rash guard (cover-up) now, or shower before I go to the store."

Monaghan and Garcia pride themselves on being the informants who clue in their co-stars to the presence of such annoyances. "I make sure people know their license plates," Monaghan says.

They've long relied on one another during times of personal crisis. "There's a camaraderie in a group of actors where we all realize the pressures we have in trying to protect what is private," Monaghan says. "We all have personal relationships. And in those times when you need someone to talk to, you turn to them."

He endured a crisis in December when Lilly lost her Hawaiian home to fire, leaving her and her roommates homeless.

"I've probably never admired another person more in my life than watching Evie deal with that," Monaghan says. "She mourned over the things that she lost — computers, photos — in the way anyone would. But she wasn't hysterical about it. The next day I said to her that the majority of people I know would be in the psychiatric ward. But Evie said, 'Look, it's just stuff.' The fact that no one lost their life was a blessing."

Garcia also is no stranger to heartbreak. He turned to his co-stars early in the season when he and live-in girlfriend of more than a year, Malia Hansen, ended their relationship. "Malia is no longer," Garcia says sadly. "Relationships end. There's no tragic event. We talk very regularly."

Clearly the most heartbroken of this foursome is de Ravin, still emotionally fragile at the time of this interview, just a week after she announced her split from her husband of 6 months, actor Josh Janowicz. As the others answer personal questions, she abruptly announces, "I'm getting up to leave right now," and does just that.

"We're all at a point in our lives where no one wants to talk about private issues," Monaghan says.

(Through her publicist, Jeff Raymond, de Ravin later offers an apology "for her reaction, and excusing herself abruptly from the table. It was a very sensitive and extremely emotional time. … She is doing much better now.")

The cast is smart enough to realize their overnight mega-fame has turned them all into consumer products, demonstrated by a line of collectible Lost action figures.

Garcia had to disguise himself behind a wrestling mask to mingle with fans at a comic-book convention where his figure was revealed.

"You finally realize that that's what you are. You're a franchise," Andrews says. "A product."

"But," Monaghan quips with a smile, "a fantastic product."

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Flash back with Hurley, Sayid, Claire and Charlie

Posted 2/27/2007 10:37 PM ET

Updated 2/28/2007 7:51 AM ET

Hurley

February 28

"This focuses on the relationship with my dad," Garcia says. Cheech Marin pops up in the papa role, and viewers will get their first glance at a fit, young Hurley.

On the island, Hurley will demonstrate his continuing heartache for his murdered love interest, Libby: "You finally get to see a moment," Garcia says.

Expect Charlie and Jin to play significant roles. "Hurley sees it as his responsibility to try to make Charlie move into a different head space," Monaghan says. "So he takes Charlie on a little mission to shake him up."

Claire

March 14

"It goes back to when Claire is 17," de Ravin says. "There's a big jump from where her life is now to where it was then. I play a completely different character because her life is so dramatically different — a lot of very deep emotional issues there that she's still dealing with on the island."

De Ravin sports a black wig for this flashback to Claire's dark teenage phase. "You meet her parents and see what she's been dealing with," de Ravin says.

A flashback last season led viewers to believe that Claire's father and Jack's father might be one and the same. True? "You'll see," she says with a grin.

Sayid

March 7

"We learn about Sayid's time in Paris and find out what happens to a torturer when he's forced to answer for past sins," says executive producer Damon Lindelof. In present time, executive producer Carlton Cuse adds, "Sayid leads an expedition to the mysterious Dharma station known as 'The Flame.' " A cat from Sayid's past makes an island cameo.

All Andrews will offer up is: "There's loads of heavy emotions … and I'm cooking in it."

Charlie

Date not announced

Producers have chosen to keep secret when Charlie's next flashback will air, which probably has something to do with Desmond's premonition in the Feb. 14 episode that Charlie is destined to die. (Characters' deaths traditionally have occurred at the conclusion of their flashback shows.)

"I have to be careful to not tell you too much," says Monaghan, hinting only that "the Charlie stories are going to be coming toward a bottleneck. The Hurley, Sayid, Claire and Locke stories are all pushing together into a Charlie journey."

And if Charlie does in fact die? "That's fine," he says with a shrug. "This job is going to end for everyone. I've achieved everything that I wanted to do. It's been a fantastic opportunity for me, and it's done exactly what I wanted it to do: distance me from playing a hobbit (in TheLord of the Rings) and have people in America know I can act."

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