Matthew Fox
Spotlight By: Stephen Snart
StephenSnart@TheCinemaSource.com
'I did a movie back in '92 but I don't really count that,' Matthew Fox says with a chuckle in reference to his supporting role in the dismal teen comedy, My Boyfriend's Back. After that feature film blunder, Fox went on to make a fruitful career for himself on television. After six successful seasons of Party of Five, Fox became the veritable poster boy for the hugely successful ABC show, Lost. Now, he's trying his hand at the big screen again with a co-lead role in the football ensemble, We Are Marshall.
The film tells the true tale of the 1971 tragedy in which the lives of nearly the entire Marshall University football program were taken in a plane crash. Fox plays Red Dawson, the assistant coach who just narrowly missed boarding the plane on that fateful day. Initially reluctant, Dawson eventually agreed to help new head coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) try to rebuild the program in time for the next football season.
Dawson served as a technical advisor on We Are Marshall and Fox found it an inestimable blessing to have his real-life counterpart's assistance on the production. 'It was really very important to me that as early as possible in the preparation process that I got the opportunity to spend as much time with Red as possible,' he recounts. Due to his prior commitments to filming Lost, Fox was contractually unable to leave Hawaii ' where the show shoots ' to go to Huntington, West Virginia and meet with Dawson. But Fox wasn't going to let his being bound to the production set get in his way. 'I just called him up and said 'look this is the situation, I can't leave the island, I would love to come meet you in Huntington, but would you remotely consider flying out to Hawaii and hanging out with me and my family here.' He said, 'Well, you know, I've got a business here at Huntington' let me call you back in a few days.' He called me back and said he would like to come and that was the first time we got to spend any time together.'
Fox recalls Dawson being nothing but extremely supportive of all the whole process, even though he could tell that Dawson was still struggling with the tragedy to some extent. 'This has been a cathartic experience for him, I really do feel that way. But he has these moments where he's talking about it and it just sneaks up on him. Something triggers' and he gets caught off-guard by how emotional he gets and he doesn't want to show that. He fights it down and then he continues.'
Dealing with such personal and trying subject matter, Fox was very careful to shape his performance so that it was as respectful and reverent to Dawson as possible. 'Whatever I did for Red in this movie was about empathizing with him and spending as much time with him. I really tried to get his essence.' Fox was determined not to devolve into playing a heightened caricature of the football legend. 'I wasn't going to get into the situation where I was mimicking him' although Red and I standing next to each other look like father and son' but mainly the most important thing for telling this story within the context of the movie was to find the emotional tract in that year of his life and seeing a guy who is clearly carrying something heavy but doesn't ever let it out.'
Approaching the depiction of real-life characters and real-life stories is always a tempered endeavor but the cast and crew of We Are Marshall have sculpted a loving and respectful tribute to the families and players of Huntington, West Virginia. Fox relished the opportunity to be part of bringing this story to the big screen and was relieved that the real-life people involved were all so supportive. 'This is a story that is very close to their heart. This event is truly part of the fabric of that community. There was definitely an added pressure because of that but it was the best kind of pressure.'
