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Director McG?s known more for his action films than for serious dramatic projects. What was he like to work with?
?McG?I cannot say enough good things about him. I mean, I would work with him again in a heartbeat. It was my first big movie. It couldn?t have been a more amazing experience and McG was an enormous part of that and making it that special. He was so passionate about the story and just did a phenomenal job of creating an environment that had a great energy.

The entire project had a great energy. I think that, obviously, it being based on a true story and being us shooting in Huntington, West Virginia to start, there was just something about it that had a great energy going into it and the entire process just continued that way.?

Speaking of filming in West Virginia and talking to the locals, how much extra pressure did you feel as an actor to get the story right because it?s based on real people and it has affected so many people?
?I felt more pressured than I?ve ever felt doing anything. I mean, when you?re doing a purely fictional story and you?re inventing a character in a story just in your imagination, you know, you want to make something beautiful. You always set out to do that. But when you?re doing that in conjunction with it being based on a true story and you?re playing a man that you?ve become great friends with? All I really care about is that Red feels like I?ve done him right, you know? That was a huge part of what drove me everyday.

There was a lot of pressure, but that?s a good thing. I always approach it that way. And I think everybody involved in the making of the movie felt that. I hope that we did it [justice].?

Can you describe your character?s relationship with Jack Lengyel (played by Matthew McConaughey)?
?Well, it was sort of slightly fictional. In the real world, I think there was some tension between those two guys. You know, Red was really the coach that was left over after the crash. He felt an enormous responsibility to honor those kids and people that were lost in the crash and had this coach coming in from the outside that wasn?t from that community. And Lengyel?s philosophy was more about sort of pushing past it.

I think there was sort of a fundamental wrestling with this concept of, ?Do we hold on to what?s happened and honor it or do we move past that?? Obviously, that is the fundamental struggle within all of the individuals, you know, and associated with everybody in Huntington. I think that [is] internally a big question. It?s a question about how to deal with grief.

I think those two coaches were sort of two sides of the same coin, and ultimately what they both wanted was the same. But the way that they wanted to go about it was slightly different.

Fox continued, ?At the same time sort of honoring that relationship between the real coaches, Matthew and I had to find a way to have that. And also sort of created a kind of a slightly buddy dynamic in some way, you know? Sort of two guys that we know are fundamentally different people are coming at the same problems from fundamentally different angles, but still find a way to be partners in it.

Working with Matthew is amazing. He was really dedicated to the project and worked really hard. The two of us had a good time doing it.?

How was the experience of filming in West Virginia?
?It was an amazing experience. This event, it feels to me and obviously, we were a bunch of people coming into that community to make a movie about that story. The story is a big part of that area. It?s a very defining part of that community. I think that anytime you have something like that and a bunch of Hollywood people are going to come in and make a movie about it, there is going to be initially some suspicion. I think that it?s so important to the people that are affected by the story [to be] tied to it in some way.

Almost everybody there is, you know, they could be slightly suspicious of a big Hollywood film being made about it. I think that went away very quickly, and I just felt completely welcomed into the community. Shortly after getting there, [it] felt like everybody was routing for us to make the very best, the most honest, most beautiful movie and depiction of that time for them as we possibly could.

Marshall, the school itself, and everybody that I met there was just hugely [supportive of] us. I think that that?s what created this almost special energy for all of us, that we?re involved in trying to do this thing, because we felt this huge sort of net of people behind us routing for us to do it, to do it justice, and that was good.?

Did you play football and were you up on the rules or did you need to research the coaching part of the role?
?I did. I played football for a huge portion of my life, all the way through college actually, and so I know the game well. It was the first time that I?ve ever approached the game from the coaching perspective. (Laughing) [It] made me feel a little old?."

Page 3:Matthew Fox on Vantage Point and Lost