Nestor Carbonell Talks LOST and Cane!
Thing’s are not looking so hot as far as the Richard Alpert mystery is concerned. At the Cane panel this morning, which was part of CBS’s press tour, Carbonell was asked if he would be returning to LOST. Carbonell’s answer was that he did not know if he would be returning.
Another reporter took a long shot and asked Carbonell if he knew why Alpert hadn’t aged. Carbonell said he didn’t, but for sure if he did and had said why, Nestor definitely wouldn’t have been returning to LOST. So who knows.
One possibility is that, hey, it just wouldn’t be right to talk up an ABC show you guest on while you are promoting a CBS show you are a costar on. Carbonell’s lack of confirmation could possibly have been just a courtesy to the CBS peeps. On the other hand, it could be completely 100% true. Perhaps Carbonell has not been offered the chance to return. Perhaps the fact that he does not know speaks volumes about where the bulk of season four’s action will take place.
On the upside, we all have something to speculate about again! Woo Hoo!
I really hope this is not another LIBBY. LOST is so epic in scope and you just don’t know which character is going to emerge as one the fans really glom onto. Like Libby in the psyche ward, Richards appearance in Ben’s flashback, was held with equal weight. What I don’t understand is why they don’t keep these actors around via contract or something. I know it’s a bit far fetched to keep an actor on roster when they are not a part of the regualr cast, but you’d think that either TPTB are figuring this in or simply would not have revealed something about a character that would never get answered. Really we don’t NEED to know why Libby was in the hospital, nor do we NEED to know why Richard hasn’t aged and who he is really, but I think these are more compelling than some of the other mysteries.
Comment by downthehatch — July 18, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Good for him! Imagine the utter chaos he would have created if he had answered either way!!!!
Comment by Jen — July 18, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
Doc,
Good to hear from you brother. This is all moot because that terrible show will be canceled after a few episodes. Seriously, a show about sugarcane? Do they do battle with Corn Syrup manufacturers? They should have done one about a few guys from Vermont with an emerging maple syrup conglomerate, instead. And for a guy with latin in his blood, Nestor sure does a terrible Cuban accent. I sure hope this isn’t his idea of a contract negotiation.
Comment by Higdon — July 18, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
Have TPTB ever explicitly stated that Richard is not aging?
To make Locke look younger, they used a lot of makeup and gave him hair. To make Ben look younger, for the scenes during the Pirge, they again used a lot of makeup.
During the flashback with young Ben in the forest, I think there is certainly a clear, concerted effort to make Richard look younger: the long carefree hair, the manly chest hair, the dark 5′oclock shadow.
Is there a chance that the character does, in fact, age - but the producers have not done the best job represinting this to us visually?
Comment by Big Tom — July 18, 2007 @ 2:07 pm
I’m really hoping that Carbonell will be able to do both! If there’s any silver lining, the way the finale put the two Other series regular characters (Juliet and Ben) with the Beach Campers made me think that we wouldn’t see most of the other Others until later in the season. I don’t know though, how long does it usually take for guest actors to be snagged by PTB so that they can appear later in the season?
Comment by S. A. Bonasi — July 18, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
“You do remember birthdays, don’t you Richard?”
Right now I’m convinced he ages differently.
But if he never returns to the show that would just be awful in my opinion.
Richard appearing to a young Ben was one of THE highlights of LOST.
Comment by NoPIX — July 18, 2007 @ 3:25 pm
Perhaps with the LOST spoiler crackdown, he may not be ALLOWED to confirm that he will be reprising his roll. Just a theory.
Comment by Lost Pilgrim — July 18, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
Noooooo. This is just the worst season-hasn’t-started-yet news I could have heard.
I had so many hopes and dreams of Richard Alpert… Who is he, what is he, where is he from, what is he doing, why does he wear mascara…. So many questions…
In fact, I could think of a small handful of lead characters that could disappear into the ether and be easily replaced by Richard Alpert’s story.
Oh, hell.
Comment by buffy — July 19, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
TOM: TPTB have not stated anything regarding the age of Richard, however his scene where he looks like he hasn’t aged was meant to be questioned by fans. Could you imagine if they actually said for sure if he was. That’s not how LOST rolls. If they wanted him to look younger they would have. It was done on purpose to create a WTF amongst the fans. I’ll bet a dollar on this.
They obviously don’t have to go there to explain him. They can simply smack on “time is messed up on the island” theory (which already almost exists) and be done with it.
Comment by RazzleDazzle — July 19, 2007 @ 8:13 pm
If I was a LOST producer, I would’ve signed this guy up. Exactly what downthehatch said, don’t get how they let these actors go.
Comment by The Slasher — July 19, 2007 @ 11:38 pm
Re: Libby. They’ve stated many times that she’ll back, she’s crucial to a couple of the plot strands (mainly, meeting Des and giving him the boat: set up or Fate?).
They simply can’t bind these actors to 2 scenes every 9 episodes or whatever; the actors would have to turn down work and TPTB aren’t going to make them do that. It’s simply the price they pay for hiring the very best character actors; they could get lesser people, but they don’t want to.
They’ve had it happen with L. Scott Caldwell (Rose) and the awesome April Grace (Miss Klugh); they loved them, but they had better gigs and TPTB didn’t want to stop them from grabbing those chances. They wrote around them.
As for Nestor, he’s obviously crucial in one aspect: he’s taking the rest of The Others to The Temple. I sense they can delay that subplot. I, for one, hope Cane is a huge hit because Nestor’s a terrific actor who deserves the same kind of break (and the $$$ that comes with it!) that Michael Emerson got with playing Ben.
Comment by Henry Holland — July 20, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
Wait, he said he doesn
Comment by anton — July 24, 2007 @ 11:55 am