Thoughts from Man #2 / Man in Black / Impostor Locke

TV Guide's Matt Mitovich finally got to talk to "Man #2" himself, actor Titus Welliver. I believe it's his first real interview about Lost, although feel free to correct me in the comments if you know of another one.

Before rocking the Lost world in the opening sequence of the Season 5 finale, Welliver appeared in a supporting capacity on a ton of movies and TV shows, including Gone Baby Gone and Deadwood.

On what he knows:

Liz Sarnoff, one of the writers on the show, is actually an old colleague from a show that we did with David Milch, Big Apple, and from Deadwood. Her explanation was that Jacob sees man as being a flawed creature, but that there is always hope, whereas my character has a much more cynical but in some ways realistic view of man. She said, "Now extrapolate from that what you will. Are they waxing philosophical? Are they gods?" What occurs to me as I watch Locke mention the loophole and pitch Jacob into the fire is, "Clearly this other man on the beach has inhabited Locke on some level" — and it never suspends your belief simply because of how intricate the mysterious nature of the show is. You never say, "Aw, c'mon." I find it interesting that the audience completely buys into what [the writers] put in front of them. [...]
What [the producers] said to me was, "No hand-wringing" — and I said, "Certainly not," I didn't want to do the Snidely Whiplash thing — "and understand that this is kind of a chess game," hence the fact that one's in black and one's in white. But are they part of the chess game... or are they the players?

On what he theorizes:

The way that I interpreted it, on a biblical level, is that it's a sort of Cain-and-Abel scenario. So by destroying Jacob, what does that prove — that [the man in black] can ultimately have power over the island? Do the castaways become solely his playthings? And why was it so important that he find the loophole to be able to kill Jacob? That moved me in the direction of thinking that if he needs this loophole, there's a greater power than the two of them that they're answering to. [...]
Somebody asked me about that — "Is your character going to just take over?" — and of course I don't have the answer. But as a viewer I think, "It can't be that easy to get rid of Jacob."

And on suddenly having a high profile among Lost fanatics:

It's pretty insane. It's pretty insane. This is a completely different thing for me. At the street level, it has been crazy. People — from all walks of life — come up and say, "Now, you possessed Locke...?" "Are you in fact Locke?" "Has the character of Locke been created from you, and this was a whole setup to crash the plane?" [...] the Esau thing seems to dominate the extrapolating conversations. People on the subway say, "Are you Esau?" The interactions are that random.

Might we see Welliver again? I'd love to. Even though the character is inhabiting Locke now, it's very easy to imagine another flashback in which he shows up, or an appearance in the series finale.

TAGS: Impostor Locke, Interviews, Titus Welliver
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