The dramatic panel of actors considered for an Emmy included Matthew Fox (Lost), Matther Bomer (White Collar), Ray Romano (Men of a Certain Age), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood) and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad). The effect of these men talking together means these Emmy Roundtables put together by The Hollywood Reporter deliver more honesty than a year’s worth of celebrity interviews in any given magazine. Perhaps it has to do with the element of trying to be their best in front of their peers? Read on for this worthwhile group interview.

My impression of the actors here: Alexander Skarsgard is surprisingly funny, Matthew Fox seems somewhat pissed off at everyone in charge (grateful much?) and is subtly pushing his movie career, Ray Romano is on his game, Jon Hamm is slightly boring, Bryan Cranston is well-spoken enough to make me want to start watching his show, and Matthew Bomer is respectful and maybe a little shy – but also willing to prove himself with some zingers.

THR: Do you approach a dramatic role differently than a comedic one?

Bryan Cranston: You have to know the tone of your show. This show (“Breaking Bad”), for instance, is very dark, so the things I look for are the subtle opportunities to lighten it up a little bit. Every good drama has a nice sprinkling of levity to it, and every good comedy has its sincere moments to surprise the audience. What I don’t like is whenever the lay person in Nebraska can sense it — set-up, set-up, here comes the punchline. If the audience can sense it and is way ahead of you, you’ve lost them.

THR: Do reviews hurt?

Hamm: Yeah, if they suck. If someone says you stink at your job, that doesn’t feel great. I can viscerally remember Tom Shales’ review of the first season of “Mad Men,” which said this would have been a good show if someone good had been the lead. And I was like, “Hmm!” (Laughs.)

Skarsgard: Who’s laughing now?

Bomer: Suck it, Tom Shales!

Part 2:

Part 3:

Quote highlight: “Well, comedians. I mean no offense, but we’re really the most screwed up people around. In a good way. We’re narcissistic, but we also hate ourselves.” – Ray Romano

Previously:

Lost / ABC

What’s the “next Lost”? What’s your next obsession?
I think that if Heroes had gone in a different direction, it could have been another show of Lost‘s caliber. None of the pilots I’ve read about that will air this Summer or Fall seem poised to take over Lost. Right now, I think we just have to wait. We need shows that make us think, and have mysteries. A show that more people should check out is Damages.

Will you ever re-watch the series now that you know what happened?
You know – I don’t think so. I think it’d just upset me. Maybe I’d rewatch the first three seasons, but nothing past that.

What is Lost about? SNL and Matthew Fox explain

Would you recommend Lost to those who haven’t seen it?
Sure, I think there’s a reason we loved the show. And if you watch it on DVD you can go through it in order fairly quickly. Of course, people likely already know half of the spoiler secrets of the show – so that might take some fun out of the viewing experience. I’d say that it’s worth watching a few episodes at the very least.

Lost / ABC

Do you think the writers knew where they were going the whole time?
Oh, Lord no. How could they? When a show starts off, they don’t even know if they’ll get renewed for a season two. I think that by season four they realized they had to kind of wind things down, because they had so many questions up in the air, and no real way to answer them until they sat down and thought about it. Once they had the creative ability to think broader, they still didn’t satisfactorily keep the show organized. I’m disappointed about this.

Final image of Lost was not a clue to what Lost was about

Did the finale improve or hurt your impression of the series overall?
I think I simply wasn’t impressed. I guess if I had to pick, it hurt my impression of the series.

Do you think it ended at the right time? Did you want the show to go on longer?
It could have gone on longer if they planned on writing the show in a way that seemed like they knew what they were doing. This doesn’t mean they’d have to answer all the questions we wanted, though. Otherwise, I think they should have plotted every year out in advance, and have the show planned to go on just four years. If ABC believed in them, and the TV industry worked like this – the show could have been even better.

Your turn!

Previously: Matthew Fox and Terry O’Quinn get lighsabers

The funniest part is that while I don’t care much about Star Wars, I loved this video anyway. It’s especially fitting, because Lost made many a Star Wars reference while on the air.

Previously: Final image of Lost was not a clue to what Lost was about

In this SNL skit, Matthew Fox shares an elevator ride with some Lost fans who all have theories. This also has Amy Poehler, Andy Samburg and Maya Rudolph. They have some interesting commentary on people and spoiler alerts. Remember how we were all so smug, so certain of our theories!? I can tell you what lost wasn’t about – it wasn’t about living in purgatory or being in Walt’s dreamworld!

SNL Lost Elevator: Finally some answers about the show “Lost” – What is Lost about?

Previously: What was the man in black’s name on Lost? I know!

Jimmy Kimmel Live had a very special Lost episode tonight called “Aloha to Lost“. In attendance were Matthew Fox, Terry O’Quinn, Michael Emerson, Josh Holloway (via satellite), Emilie de Ravin, Evangeline Lilly (via a skit), Daniel Dae Kim, Naveen Andrews, Nestor Carbonell, Jorge Garcia (via a skit), Harold Perrineau, Jeremy Davis and Alan Dale.

While Kimmel took some serious time to talk about his theories (all plausible!), the show quickly became fun. “Is it good Terry or bad Terry we have here tonight?” asked Kimmel. The reply? “It’s out of work Terry!” Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson were then pitched to be on The Amazing Race or on a Las Vegas show about forensics/magic called “Cadaver Cadabra.” And just as in the actual show, the music gave great effects. I love that they had a band there for the entire live show. I wish someone would score my entire day. When the bad music started playing I’d have a cue to get out of wherever I was!

Matthew Fox is scary intense (Lost casting tapes! 17!)

While Matthew Fox was a little choked up and maybe kind of a fuddy duddy (it was agreed that he was one of the most professional of the bunch), Emerson and O’Quinn were especially hilarious. “Who’s the least professional on the show?” asked Kimmel. O’Quinn said, “Josh Holloway… is he here tonight?” Sadly, he wasn’t – but he was there via satellite at least! He pretended to be on the set of a new movie called Snakes on a Plane 2. “Remember, keep snakin’!” We will, Josh. We will.

What kind of scenes did they like playing? “I’ve had a lot of great scenes that involved food,” Emerson noted.

Ten ‘Lost’ parodies you must watch

Then it was time for the foreigners to join the interview! Emilie de Ravin, Naveen Andrews and Daniel Dae Kim appeared to join the interview. Kimmel mentioned that Jin was always on exploding boats, and he left his baby! That didn’t sit well with many people – and I was one of them if you remember.

Next up, another group of Losties came out to talk. It was noted by Jimmy thatMichael wasn’t in the church at the end of Lost - and Harold Perrineau says that’s because Michael is stuck on the island. Sucks for him!

‘Lost’ mystery of Adam and Eve bone age solved: they drank lots of milk

A touching montage of kissing couples on Lost was followed up by a montage of slapping, punching and general violence! That’s what we want! Kimmel knows.This, of course, included plenty of beatings of Michael Emerson as Ben.

Some alternate endings to Lost were presented to viewers. But they were all funny, fake ones. One included the host of Survivor. Another was the ending to The Soprano’s. Another included Bob Newhart!

Ian Somerhalder Has Curious Choice of Words about the ‘Lost’ Finale

Remember…

“You never know when you’re the smoke monster, it just kinda sneaks up on you.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“It could be you!” – Terry O’Quinn

Lost The Complete Collection and Lost the Final season is available on August 24th, 2010.

Previously: Remember when Lost was maybe about Dinosaurs?

There are some who want a quick recap, they say “Hey, what is Lost about?” There’s mythology and magic and religion and … there’s a lot. The people running the show say that it’s a character study. Long gone our the theories that there are dinosaurs on the island, or that they’re all dead or in purgatory. We’ve gone through those easier explanations (yes, those were the easy ones!) and delved deeper into questions of science, faith, and right and wrong.

The thing I’ve finally realized now, is that the series was not about having patience to figure out the end game (a phrase popular in the J.J. Abrams show Alias, for sure). It was about living (vicariously) through the journey. The destination wasn’t the island, and the destination we’ve sought hasn’t been just to get back to the island, or to leave it. The destination doesn’t matter at all. Whether every single person on the show ends up dead tomorrow, or they all end up alive – what matter’s is what brought them to that point. You could say that every season of Lost changed drastically. It did. At least I think so.

But that’s what was great, and that’s what kept us interested. You don’t have to go back and re-watch seasons, just because you know more now. The purest and simplest way of enjoying those early seasons was just as they were unfolding – how everyone had theories, how everyone was talking and thinking about all of these things that they otherwise wouldn’t. TV doesn’t make people think very often. Cheers to a series that did.

Previously: Matthew Fox is scary intense (Lost casting tapes! 17!)

There are a total of 14 main Lost casting tapes that we have available to watch courtesy of Youtube. (I’ve found 17! Nyah!)These are from several different actors, and some we see auditioning for roles other than the ones they got. It’s interesting to see so many people trying to be Sawyer – especially Matthew Fox as his neck vein BULDGES out. It seems that J.J. Abrams was very invested in Evangeline Lilly, and Ian Somerhalder was so hot in his audition it’s kinda crazy. How was this man ever out of work?

A few notes I took as I watched these:

• The only person who seems they could have pulled off Sawyer, aside from Josh Holloway, is Jorge Garcia (Hurley).
• Before the show was on ABC, it seems it was written with much stronger language. But I read somewhere they did that all through the years, just to show the actors what kind of intensity a scene warranted. I bet the blooper reels are priceless.
• They talk about how Jack is killed, what do you think the show would be like without him? Obviously the plan all along couldn’t have been to pair up Kate/Jack or to have Jack the next Jacob.
• Did Maggie Grace audition in the outfit she’d later wear on screen?

Josh Holloway Auditioning For Sawyer

Matthew Fox Auditioning For Sawyer

Dominic Monaghan Auditioning For Sawyer

Jorge Garcia Auditioning For Sawyer

Evangeline Lilly Auditioning For Kate (J.J. Abrams is also there.)

Ten ‘Lost’ parodies you must watch

Naveen Andrews Auditioning For Sayid

Daniel Dae Kim Auditioning For Jin Kwon

Yunjin Kim Kim Auditioning For Kate

Emile de Ravin Auditioning For Claire

‘Lost’ Friends with Purpose: Claire Littleton and Kate Austen

Harold Perrineau Auditioning For Michael

Malcolm David Kelley Auditioning For Walt

Maggie Grace Auditioning For Shannon

Ian Somerhalder Auditioning For Boone

Michael Emerson Auditioning For Hurley

Emilie de Ravin Roswell Audition

Emilie de Ravin Roswell Audition

Monologue from Lost Actress using it for an Audition
Clip from my acting class with Richard Kline.This is a monologue Terry O’Quinn did in Season 1 of Lost and is one of my favorite audition pieces.

Previously: Jimmy Fallon has figured out ‘Lost’

Okay, APPARENTLY this dude is Greg Vaughan of General Hospital fame. But when I look at the picture all I see is someone who would be a perfect “younger Jack” to stand in for Matthew Fox flashbacks on LOST.