Josh Holloway

LOSr'S NUMBER ONE BADASS CHANNELS HIS INNER SAWYER, EXPLAINS WHY EVERYONE ON

THE SHOW GETS SPEEDING TICKETS, RELIVES HIS DAYS AS A SKINNY MALE MODEL AND TELLS

WHAT MAY HAPPEN NEXT ON TV'S FAVORITE ISLAND

Q1

PLAYBOY: You're heading into your fifth season on the hit TV show Lost, playing hot-tempered con man james "Sawyer" Ford, who hoards stolen guns and medi­cines and harbors a lot of secrets. When are you most Sawyer-like in real life? HOLLOWAY: If someone cuts me off in traffic. Sawyer pops right out. When I was 17 I fell asleep at the wheel one morning. The car was destroyed going end over end. and all I got was a cut on the back of my neck from hitting the roof multiple times. Since then I've slowed down a lot. so people cut me off because I'm kind of a cruiser. But everybody has a Sawyer inside him.

Q2

PLAYBOY: You film Lost on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, where four cast members have been arrested for car-related incidents and five others have been cited. When the police nabbed you for speeding last year, was your inner Sawyer at the wheel? HOLLOWAY: It's an island, very easily patrolled, and we are the only big celebri­ties who stay there all the time. I was going

around 50 in a 35 zone, and that's embar­rassing. I should have been going faster.

Q3

PLAYBOY: Because you play such a badass on the show, how do actual badasses respond to you?

H0LL0WAY: I get a lot of letters from prisons and the military. I had to film in a prison one day. and all the inmates were going. "Sawyer! Sawyer!" I asked the guards what I should do, and they said. "Be totally normal. Don't be scared, or they'll laugh." That was an eye-opener. I don't ever want to go to prison.

Q4

PLAYBOY: Women dig bad boys. What kind of response do you get from female fans? HOLLOWAY: That's another thing that shocks me. I've been with the same woman for 10 years. We're married, and we've been very public about our relationship. Young, attractive girls wont give you the time of day. but you have to watch the older tourist ladies loose in Hawaii who have had a few cocktails and come over and are suddenly

like. "Aww. give me a hug." Even if you give a respectful hug. you can get in trouble.

Q5

PLAYBOY: Did fame come into play when you and your wife were victims of a home-invasion robbery three years ago in Oahu? HOLLOWAY: It still gets me. The guy was a crackhead who had hit 22 people in two and a half weeks. He took an 80-year-old couple and duct-taped them up. He also attempted to murder another guy. I had a nightmare about it last night.

Q6

PLAYBOY: How did that incident change your life1

HOLLOWAY: Having a gun held to our heads when were naked in our bedroom at four in the morning is never going to happen to my wife and me again. I took the FBI training course. I have home protection. I accept that we live in a gun society, especially in America. Of course, there's also the statistic that owning a gun increases your chances of being shot by 300 percent.

Q7

playboy: What will happen on Lost this season, especially considering the rumors that a major character or two—maybe even yours—won't make it to season six? holloway: 1 don't know shit. In last sea­son's finale some characters are trying to get back to the island. I have a feeling— this is just my projection—we're going to get deeper into the lore of the island and where the people on the island will end up. I love that Sawyer is still on the island and not back in society, where he's such a bastard. He has evolved a bit, but I don't know how he fits into society anymore.

Q8

playboy: What would you miss least about the show if your character were killed off?

holloway: I wouldn't miss wondering if I'll have to take my shirt off each week. Normally, the guy who takes off his shirt is 25, but I'm 39. The producers have already told me this season, "You can't find your shirt in the first episode—at least." I'm trying to become a better actor. If I can get really good, I won't have to be that shirtless guy all the lime.

Q9

playboy: You and Evangeline Lilly throw off serious heat together on the show. What do you find sexiest about her? holloway: Evie's most attractive quality is her willingness to just throw herself into shit. She's a pretty girl who's unafraid to take a big handful of dirt, shove it in her hair and wipe it across her face. She's always saying, "We're not dirty enough."

Q10

playboy: What does winning so much fame for your looks and physique do to your head?

holloway: Honestly? It makes me inse­cure. I get nervous. When people look at me, I'm like, Have I got a booger? We've been living in Hawaii, which is a blessing because the local people are so chill. When they see you, they just give you a nod. I'm superhappy to work, but the fame thing is not cool.

Q11

playboy How does your wife deal with all the rumors about you in the press? holloway: My wife is really good with it all because she knows me and knows I have a part to play. Sometimes quotes are taken out of context, like when I was asked about high school crushes and I said Olivia Newton-John. Suddenly it was made to look as if 1 had a crush on her now. I'm still madly in love with my wife. She knows how to handle that stuff.

Q12

playboy: You grew up in Georgia and have called vourself a tvoical Blue Ridtre

Mountain boy. What does that mean? hollowaV: We're pretty hardworking, tough, straight-shootin' country peo­ple. We were not quite hillbilly but hill­billy adjacent. I grew up on 33 acres with a dirt road. My parents were col­lege educated. My father majored in chemistry and worked as a surveyor for the state. My mother was a teacher. The rural people around us were always like, "Y'all are city boys," and I was like, "Have you seen my trailer? It's next to yours."

Q13

plavboy: What kinds of jobs did you have before you started acting? hollowaY: My first job, at the age of 11, was picking up dead chickens in a chicken house. After that I worked in a restaurant. At the age of 13 1 went into construction, which is what most rural people do—either that or become a mechanic or chicken farmer. When I was 17 I got a haircut in Atlanta, and the lady said, "Do you want to do a hair show? I'll give you a free haircut." I said no, but when she said, "It's you and 12 girls," I said, "I'm in." The guy who organized the show worked at a modeling agency, and I started doing ads for Macy's. Then I got an offer to model in New York, so at 18 I took a Greyhound bus and off I went.

Q14

PlAVBOY: Did you go (o New York hav­ing had much sexual experience? hollowaY: My first time was when I was, I think, 14. My older friends on the construction crew were like, "You been laid, boy?" I was trying to avoid the question, so they said, "We're going to take care of that." Sure enough, they did, with a girl they knew. She was 16. and it was wonderful, educational and kind of innocent.

Q15

playboy: How were things as an 18-year-old model on the loose in New York? hollowaY I wasn't getting much mod­eling work because back in the 1980s they were using men who were beef­cakes, not boys, and I was kind of skinny and young. The agency shipped me to Europe, saying, "Go put on some miles—party or something," and for three years I lived in Milan, Paris and Bologna. -All sorts of drugs were going around, but the men never got into the chemical thing. They'd go to the park and maybe smoke some doobs. We had some fun—crazy, wild parties—but that's as far as the wildness went.

Q16

pi.WBOY: You didn't have many acting credits when you were cast on Lost. hollowaY There aren't many to know

about. I took acting classes and eventu­ally got an agent; then it was nine frig-gin' years of this town kicking my ass. At the time, I told my girlfriend, now my wife, "I'm going to quit and do real estate. You cool with that?" She was. I got my real estate license in the mail four days before I booked Lost. Try nine years of getting your ass kicked in L.A. and you'll have a lot of anger saved up to play Sawyer.

Q17

playboy: Have you had to curb any fun, potentially self-destructive pursuits because of your importance to Lost} hollowaY: I had to give up my dirt bike, which hurt because that's the most fun I've ever had on a toy. I go fishing probably 30 miles out on my boat, and I've gotten into some hairy situations Lost would not approve of. I surfed until someone on the Lost crew got injured surfing and needed 40 stitches. An injury means death on the show, so I dropped that right away.

Q18

playboy: Your arms are tattooed these days, and your hair's all funky. What's that about?

hollowaY The tattoos are just transfers. I play a tattoo artist in the movie Stay Cool with Winona Ryder, Sean Astin and Hilary Duff. It's about a writer who goes home to deliver the commencement address at his high school. I play a guy who is no stranger to weed. It has been liberating as hell because it's a comedic role, and I hope it opens up the percep­tion that I'm not just Sawyer.

Q19

playboy: Does coming home with tats spice things up with your wife? hollowaY It seems as if all women want a bad boy until they hook up with one, and then they want to make him a good boy. I got these tattoos for the movie, went home and said, "Hey, baby." My wife said. "Ooh, that's hot." but then she went, "You're not that cool." I mean, damn it, I had her for a minute.

Q20

pi.ayboy: People often say no one truly knows himself until he hits it big. With everything that has happened to you. have you ever been caught being a jerk? hoi.i.owaY: If you're a celebrity, people allow you too much leeway. I don't want to be that person. I want to be respect­ful and considerate of other people. My wife and I keep each other real. The people we hang out with aren't the type who go around treating waiters badly.

Read the 21st question at playboy.com/21q.

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