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Matthew Fox reveals why he came out of jungles of retirement for new series

"It's good to be back."

Matthew Fox
Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

Actor Matthew Fox went quiet for a number of years after Lost and other film projects he had on the docket ended. He wandered into the unknown frontier of retirement from acting, but now he is back with Last Light.

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The 56-year-old is featured in an article from The Hollywood Reporter about the Peacock production premiering Thursday. The work is based on a book which surrounds issues with the world’s oil supply. Fox stars and produces, and it was the behind-the-scenes aspect which coaxed him back into the business.

“One of the things that I had never done was executive produce and that was kind of, you know, haunting me a little bit like, man, I really wonder what it would feel like to be involved in more aspects of the story other than just the character that I’m portraying. So, we took the leap. It was an incredible experience and it has really renewed my passion for the entire experience.”

Fox does not say if he is attached to future seasons of the project. However, other aspects of the project mentioned in the piece include Fox being the first choice for the starring role in the story, him reuniting with figures from his time on Party of Five. Executive producer Dennie Gordon says they got to see Fox be an actual hero on set when he helped a child with a wild horse.

“We were shooting a scene,” Gordon said, “where he was on a horse with [Taylor Fay] the 8-year-old boy playing his child. Matthew, blessedly is an accomplished equestrian, and the horse bucked in this weird way that caused them all to go down. Matthew was able to hold Taylor up the whole time and cushion his fall. It was this slow-motion accident but nobody was hurt. He never ceased to astonish me. He’s a joy to work with and he’s got a fine instrument. I was just lucky to play it a little bit in the orchestra.”

Fox has no other projects scheduled as of filing. His last movie role to date was Bone Tomahawk. On television, other roles apart from Last Light, Lost and Party of Five have included Wings, Freshman Dorm, Haunted and Saturday Night Live as himself, too. Fox almost had a major role in 2013’s World War Z as well, but this was pared down due to production difficulties, so he is only present for brief portions of the film and does not ultimately have any impact on the story of Brad Pitt and some zombies.