'Lost' stars are kept in the dark, too

PASADENA, Calif. — "Lost" viewers aren't the only ones who are, well, lost much of the time. The actors don't know much more about what's going on than those of us watching at home do.

("Lost" airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC/Ch. 4.)

For example, Terry O'Quinn didn't know that the character he was playing for much of the fifth season wasn't the character he'd played for the previous four seasons. That John Locke really was dead and the guy who looked like John Locke was really someone else.

We didn't find that out until the end of Season 5. O'Quinn didn't find that out until he got the script for that episode.

"When you saw it on the screen, that's when I knew — when I played it," he said. "So I didn't know it all last season."

As odd as that might sound, it's hardly unprecedented. The show's writers and producers don't share a lot of information with the actors.

"Quite honestly, we just don't speak to them at all unless it's these kind of events," executive producer Damon Lindelof joked to a room full of TV critics.

"It's better that way," added executive producer Carlton Cuse.

More seriously, Lindelof said that he wants the actors to be able to make their own choices, although he insisted, "We are completely available to answer any questions. But I do feel like the fun of the show for us as writers and producers is to send these scripts down to Hawaii and then see what we get back as opposed to trying to micromanage it."

"And for the actors, I think the fact that they don't know where things are going kind of makes them very present in performing those given scripts," Cuse said. "And I think that's actually a good thing. I mean, I think they do a remarkable job reading the next week's episode and basically kind of bringing it to life. And there's that immediacy that's part of that process."

Given that "Lost" isn't exactly a straight-ahead narrative, the producers feel that giving the actors too much information might not be helpful.

"I think if we had called Terry during the shooting of 'The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham' (Season 5, Episode 7) and said, 'Hey, Terry, we do not want to confuse you. But the Locke that you are now playing on the island is not actually John Locke anymore because thousands and thousands of years ago —' he'd say, 'Stop!'