Titus Welliver did a Random Roles interview with The AV Club and had a lot to say about LOST. Below is an excerpt, but I encourage everyone to read the whole interview because itâs a great read; Welliver seems like a great guy on top of being a great actor.
So I went and did that first episode, and it was literally one scene, and I had no idea what was going on. I really didnât know. I said, âWho is this guy?â On the page, he was just âThe Man In Black,â and then it was Jacob. I said, âThis guy doesnât even have a name? Heâs just referred to as the Man In Black?â And they said, âYup.â And Iâm like, âOkay. These guys have any kind of history?â And they said, âWellâŠâ They tried to explain it to me, and I said, âYou know what? Donât tell me anything. Donât tell me anything, because probably none of it is actable, and letâs just see what happens.â Mark Pellegrino [who played Jacob] and I had known each other from working with each other before, so there was already a pre-existing relationship which included trust, so working with him was very simple. I mean, he didnât know any more than I did. He only had a sense of who his character was; he didnât know who the hell the Man In Black was. I knew that there was the giant pedestal of this Egyptian statue left there, and I was looking at a boat, an older boat, in the distance. Thatâs all that I knew. And I could sort of tell from our clothing that we were in a different time. Thatâs all that I knew, so I do that and off I go.
Then the show airs. I didnât watch it, I didnât track anything, and the next day, I walk into my local Starbucks and literally half the people in the Starbucks look at me like Iâm the mass murderer everybodyâs been looking for in the paper. And thereâs almost an audible gasp; people are coming up to me and saying, âOh my God. I canâtâoh. So, what exactlyâwho are you?â And I really feel like Iâm in the middle of some Bill Burroughs nightmare, like âWhat? What areââ and theyâre like, âLost!â And Iâm like âOh, right. Thatâs right, I forgot I did that show.â And theyâre looking at me like, âHow can you be so calm in the presence of this information?â And Iâm sort of struggling with it. That was one thing that Liz sort of warned me. She said, âEnjoy whatever anonymity you have left.â Those were her exact words. And they said, âSo when are you coming back?â And I said, âI donât know that I am coming back,â because there was no discussion, no contract in the air.Â
So Iâm off and shooting The Good Wife, and Iâm shooting this movie The Town with Ben Affleck. Ben says, âSo whatâs the deal with your character on Lost?â And Iâm like, âOh, come on. You too? Really?â He knows Nestor Carbonell because Nestor is really close friends from Harvard with Matt Damon. I said, âI donât know, Ben. I have no idea!âÂ
So we finish shooting the film after months, and I no sooner finish and my agent says, âYouâre going to Hawaii. That characterâs coming back.â I say, âOkay.â I just get on a plane. There was no script or anything. So I get on a plane, and itâs the Nestor Carbonell episode, with all the flashbacks and his whole backstory. Tucker Gates was directing that. We were rehearsing this one scene, and he says something like, âNo, but the black smokeââ and I have a line where I say, âNo. I am the black smoke.â So I say that line, and Nestor just goes, âThat is such a mindblower,â or something like that. And I go, âWhat?â And he says, âThat line, you know, âI am the black smoke.ââ I say, âYeah, so what?â He says, âDo you realize what youâre saying there?â And I say, âYeah, Iâm saying that Iâm the black smoke thing, the smoke monster.â He goes, âYeah. Thatâs like saying, âNo, Luke, I am your father.ââ And I kind of laughed about it, and I go, âReally? Okay.â
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