ABC/RANDY HOLMES, MARIO PEREZ/ABC"ABC. The dead-people network. It starts here!"
This is what Jorge Garcia playfully envisions as the ad campaign if his Lost character, Hurley, were to pull an Izzie from Grey's Anatomy and start a new romance with his dead ex-lover Libby (Cynthia Watros).
Thankfully, Jorge is completely joking (and good-heartedly so) and there are no such plans for any ghost boinking on Lost. Still, given that Hurley is the show's only (according to what boss Damon Lindelof told me yesterday) ghost seer, Jorge admits he would love to reconnect with Libby this season.
"I'm crossing my fingers that it will happen," he tells me. "It would be nice for Hurley to have something good."
And how. After all, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes is Lost's most loveable character and resident moral compass, but as we saw in last night's season-five premiere, Hurley just can't catch a break. Why? What's with the ghost visions? Is he really insane? And why did Jorge nail a costar with a rubber Hot Pocket?
Jorge spills it all...
You fire a mean Hot Pocket, my friend.
Oh, thank you! That was fun to do. Actually, Michael [Emerson] had a line, "Now that's a terrible waste of a Hot Pocket." I don't know why they cut it, but it was funny. What was awesome was that they made a bunch of rubber Hot Pockets for the scene. I actually hit Michael once with it! Then we used a real Hot Pocket to get a nice, good splat.
Damon said that Hurley's the only person who can see the dead. Do you know why?
They haven't told me anything like that. So I guess Christian Shephard doesn't count, because Jack keeps seeing him everywhere? I guess I see everybody else. We should do something then with Miles where Hurley can see the dead people and Miles can hear them, and they can have these weird discussions with the dead. I thought that Hurley being the one seeing the cabin was a pretty cool thing, and kind of reinforced the connection Hurley had to the Island that we wondered about the first time that we saw the lottery numbers appear on the hatch door.
Do you think Hurley is special in a way we don't know about yet?
I do. There were little things, like when Hurley played backgammon with Walt; Walt kicked his butt, 'cause he seemed to be special and could call any dice roll that he required. And then some time later, Hurley seemed to be particularly good at basketball, when he's playing with Jack, and horseshoes when he's playing with Sawyer. Maybe even ping pong. I wonder if Hurley might somehow be becoming more into his own as far as how the Island responds to his energy and how he responds to the Island's energy. I think that could be a possibility if I was reading into things without having new information.
Do you think Hurley is crazy? Do you play him that way?
No. I definitely buy everything that Hurley says and believes. I take what he says as the truth. If he's crazy in the end, that's their thing. But a crazy person doesn't think they're crazy. I definitely don't play him as crazy.
Hurley seems more terrified than anyone else of Ben. Why?
Well, he killed all those people, and Hurley knows that. I think he also heeds Sayid's warning. Beyond that, I think it was probably just so hard getting off the Island he doesn't want to go back. I still don't quite know yet what is the moment that causes him to decide to go back. That still hasn't been revealed to me.
We have to talk about that monologue where Hurley explains the entire history of Lost to his mother. You did a great job delivering that, so kudos. Was it tough to film?
Thank you. It was tricky the night before, trying to memorize it, for sure. Because Hurley's mind is kind of choppy and it doesn't have necessarily an exact flow to it. He keeps interrupting himself and pausing and stops when he says things. When I read that in the script, I was like, "Holy crap. I have to download all four seasons into one speech!" But I got kudos from the writers 'cause they were like, "How is he even going to do this without boring people or having to cut away to see clips to keep it interesting?" And they said I did good.
You fans agree? Check out the video clip and comment below with your thoughts on special Hurley…