Josh Holloway has reflected on spending the better part of a decade out of the spotlight following his memorable role in Lost.
The San Jose-born actor, now 55, played James “Sawyer” Ford on the sci-fi mystery show that ended in 2010.
He had few prominent roles until he landed a part on Yellowstone in 2018, and is now reuniting with Lost creator JJ Abrams for the 1970s-set getaway driver drama Duster.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Holloway joked: “I must have thrown the penny over the wrong shoulder and broke a mirror while I did it, because I had a hard seven years. Just hard — nothing was coming through.”
He continued: “I had to focus on my family. I learned piano. I did all sorts of different things. I started telling my agents, ‘Just bring me work, I need to get out of house, it’s ridiculous, I only work for the Holloways now and I need to do something.’
“They started sending me random scripts. A lot of them that were not good projects that I had to pass on, but some came through.”
In Lost, Holloway’s character started out as an unlikeable antihero of sorts before embedding his way into the hearts of viewers, with Holloway’s performance regularly hailed as one of the best in Lost’s six-year history.
On Yellowstone, Holloway played rancher and stockholder for Market Equities Roarke Morris — one of the chief antagonists in the Western drama’s third season.
HBO series Duster, which was first announced in 2020, follows the FBI’s first Black woman agent (Rachel Hilsin) who teams up with Holloway’s getaway driver to take down a crime syndicate.
The show’s journey to the screen has been arduous. The pilot was shot in 2021 and reshot two years later before production was stalled due to the Writers Guild of America strikes in Hollywood.
“It was quite a journey — life does that to you sometimes,” Holloway told Variety recently of the show’s delay. “Our perseverance comes through in the show. Usually with regime changes, they clean the slate a lot. I was proud every time we survived, because it meant they knew they had something good.”
Holloway also said that it was an immediate “yes” when Abrams asked him about starring in the series: “Are you kidding me? He called me up and asked if I had a minute, and the answer is ‘yes’. Always ‘yes’. Whatever he is asking. It was just so exciting to talk to him.”
Duster begins in the US on Max today. A UK release date is yet to be announced.
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