Q: In season five we find you right where we left you, over Locke's body standing next to Jack. Do you think Locke is truly dead?
Well, he's dead there. There are many places in the space/time continuum. In one place we are one thing. In others we are something else.
Q: Headed to the new season will we get any new clues as to who Ben is and what he wants?
What is his uber-purpose? I think in a year we are gonna have this same convo. The answer to who and what Ben is are part of the answer to the whole thing. It will continue to be reconceptualized. Ben's past, his future. I think this is a question that will be answered in the last three episodes.
Q: This season, the show has seemed to ditch the straight flash format and has moved on to something else.
I think everything is flash now. Flash forward flash back flash present flash other present. Other time zone other geographical zone. They've done what they do every year which is crank it one more notch in terms of narrative device. Every year they invent a device to tell the story they want to tell. It's chaotic but stimulating.
Q: I read that Sterling Beaumon, who plays Young Ben, is back this year? Is that true?
I've seen him on the set. We should get a little more back story.
Q: In the first episode of the new season Ben tells Jack to pack anything he wants because he's never coming back. What do you get from that?
That's one of those things Ben says that I think we should take at face value. Based on his knowledge, they passed through some kind of window and wont be able to go back through it.
Q: You've said before that you believe Ben is free floating through time and space. What did you mean?
When these wormholes are passed through, I don't think they are purely temporal. They are temporal and geographical. When Ben pushed the donkey wheel and moved the island, he moved in time and space. His next waking moment he's in his parka in the middle of the Sahara. And that's not only a great distance but he calculated it was like a year and a half later. But I don't think he has any control of that.
Q: With your wife getting a "Lost" role, any chance we'll see you on her new HBO show, "True Blood"?
It's a great show. I hope they show her off a bit more. I don't know. I would love to make an appearance on "True Blood." I would want to be something else though. Maybe a vampire, I dunno. I don't know what there is left to be done.
Q: Any Ben-patented cryptic hints you might be able to throw us about what we can look forward to this season?
It would be safe to say that Ben has not yet lost his capacity to take a licking.
There's more but I don't want to be spoiling anything. I'll give it to you after the premiere.