{"id":1203,"date":"2012-11-13T13:17:27","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T13:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/up\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/13\/matthew-fox-is-lost-to-the-dark-side-in-alex-cross\/"},"modified":"2022-10-29T15:06:40","modified_gmt":"2022-10-29T14:06:40","slug":"matthew-fox-is-lost-to-the-dark-side-in-alex-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/matthew-fox-is-lost-to-the-dark-side-in-alex-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Fox is lost to the dark side in \u2018Alex Cross\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It will take a moment for even the most die-hard fan of ABC\u2019s \u201cLost\u201d to recognize the scary-thin, massively ripped and totally insane serial killer in \u201cAlex Cross.\u201d But when it kicks in, the realization hits harder than the mixed martial arts blow that the crazed hit man called Picasso delivers in a brutal early scene of the thriller, opening Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The baddie is Matthew Fox, who played noble Dr. Jack Shephard on \u201cLost\u201d for six seasons. \u201cThere are people that are going to be horrified by this,\u201d Fox, 46, says with a chuckle. \u201cThey are so attached to the idea of that (\u201cLost\u201d) character and his ultimate goodness that to show up and see me doing this, well, they might not be happy.\u201d Neither is Tyler Perry, who plays homicide detective\/ psychologist Alex Cross in his first dramatic role-a film reboot of the best-selling novels by James Patterson. Perry finds a formidable on-screen opponent in Fox, who dug deep to find darkness. Fox guesses he lost close to 40 pounds from his 200-pound frame during a fivemonth physical regimen before filming, incorporating weight loss as well as body sculpting. \u201cThere were no French fries, man,\u201d Fox says, moments after placing two fries in his mouth during a recent lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel. He\u2019s not as thin today as he appears on-screen, and he enjoys the odd fry again, but he still focuses on his salad and healthy club sandwich. \u201cSome of the meals were very, very leafy,\u201d he says. \u201cI was craving all the things I love-pasta, steak, my mother\u2019s pie.\u201d Fox worked on mixed martial arts training along with the intense workouts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI played college football (at Columbia). I thought I knew my way around exercise,\u201d Fox says with a sigh. \u201cEither I was wrong, or things have changed drastically. Maybe it\u2019s both. This was full-bore. Many times I felt like throwing up.\u201d For the final step in his transformation, Fox shaved his hair \u201cpretty much to the bone\u201d to present himself to director Rob Cohen. As for the spooky and extensive tattoos seen on-screen? Those were already inked in. \u201cI\u2019ve been getting tattoos for a lot of years, and like a lot of people into it, it keeps building on itself,\u201d says Fox. \u201cI\u2019m probably really pushing the limit of an actor with tattoos.\u201d Cohen says Fox wouldn\u2019t allow pictures to preview his initial visit. \u201cHe wanted to surprise me. When I saw him and how ripped he had gotten, I thought, \u2018This is no Dr Jack.\u2019 We were going where he hadn\u2019t gone before.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That included a mental readjustment as well. Fox and Perry even kept their relationship chilly to ensure their tense performances. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really interact much,\u201d says Fox. \u201cThose two guys essentially want to kill each other (on-screen). We didn\u2019t have moments where he was like, \u2018Dude, you look like a freak.\u2019\u201d \u201cThere was no joking around, no relaxing between them,\u201d says Cohen, adding that Fox \u201cstayed by himself on set. He was very intensely internal.\u201d Fox admits that his Picasso character stayed with him even after he stopped shooting each day. \u201cIt was kind of incessant. I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about him. I would get back to the hotel room after a scene and do everything possible to take a break, to check out of it.\u201d However, Fox says his mental state had nothing to do with a reallife altercation with a Cleveland bus driver who said Fox assaulted her in August 2011. (Prosecutors did not charge Fox, and a civil lawsuit was later withdrawn.) He concedes that the incident might have been caused by his strange physical appearance. \u201cI know I looked scary, and that was something I underestimated at the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You sort of lose track. After five months of progression of changing my appearance, I never said, \u2018You have to be careful because you look like a Nazi skinhead.\u2019 \u201cI can tell you this,\u201d Fox adds. \u201cI have never hit a woman in my life. Never have and never will. That\u2019s not who I am.\u201d Though former \u201cLost\u201d co-star Dominic Monaghan kept the controversy alive with a tweet disputing that assertion, Fox says he\u2019s moving on personally. He will, however, continue to explore the dark side onscreen, playing a Navy SEAL during a zombie apocalypse alongside Brad Pitt in \u201cWorld War Z,\u201d out next summer. \u201cWhat has happened in the world has sort of fractured him. He doesn\u2019t know where he fits anymore,\u201d says Fox of his \u201cZ\u201d character. \u201cHe\u2019s a definitely a little unhinged.\u201d Cohen believes this dark side will truly highlight Fox\u2019s acting potential. \u201c\u2018Lost\u2019 shows a Matthew Fox he can easily access. But going to these other places, this is where he can really shine over time.\u201d As for Fox, he just wants the great parts that are coming his way. \u201cIf there are \u2018Lost\u2019 fans out there expecting to see any version of Jack Shephard ever again _ that was that. My choices going forward are going to be different. Whatever is next might be a good guy or a bad guy. Or something in between.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It will take a moment for even the most die-hard fan of ABC\u2019s \u201cLost\u201d to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,56],"tags":[1380,1309,1379,1377,68,306,1378,1376,828,105,66],"class_list":["post-1203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity","category-news","tag-alex","tag-cross","tag-dark","tag-fox","tag-in","tag-is","tag-lost","tag-matthew","tag-side","tag-the","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3079,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions\/3079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egeve.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}