Harold Perrineau left a popular TV series amid rumours of salary battles. But he's back on the show and tells Shawna Malcom why he returned
KEY POINTS:
"It only goes about five feet deep," Harold Perrineau says, nodding in the direction of the swimming pool in his backyard. "If I stand in it, part of me's still above water."
From the hint of relief in his voice, you'd think a shallow pool was a major
selling point when Perrineau bought the unassuming Los Angeles home more than a year ago. You wouldn't be entirely wrong.
As the T-shirt- and jeans-clad actor, 44, settles onto a sofa in the family room, he admits he's not a big water guy. He doesn't swim and he's prone to seasickness. So it's not hard to imagine Perrineau's anxiety when he found out his hotly anticipated return to Lost would take place on a ship in the vast Pacific. "My first day it was like, jump in a speedboat, drive 20 minutes out in the rain, step on the freighter," Perrineau says with a laugh. "I was sick all day."
Nausea aside, the actor is relieved to once again be part of the Lost crew. His character, Michael, hadn't been seen or heard from since motoring off the island in the Others' boat with son Walt at the end of season two, leaving fans to wonder what the holy smoke monster had happened to them.
"It was time to come back," Perrineau says. "Even if Michael was going to die, I [wanted] him to finish, as opposed to just disappearing."
When the character finally resurfaced, pushing a mop aboard the mystery freighter in a recent episode, he was very much alive. The following episode finds Sayid (Naveen Andrews) demanding to know why his former comrade is posing as deckhand Kevin Johnson, a question answered by a series of darkly revelatory flashbacks.
Lost's executive producer Carlton Cuse teases, "It's safe to say Michael's return to the outside world did not work out in any way he hoped or planned."
Perrineau's off-screen Lost journey has been nearly as dramatic. By the end of season two, Perrineau was open with his displeasure with the evolution of his character.
"Michael's been such a decent guy," he said at the time. "To suddenly be the executioner (of Ana Lucia), I don't know how happy I am about that." Still, when he ultimately left, Perrineau says now, "I was a little bummed out. I'd put my heart and soul into the show."
From the start, Cuse and fellow exec producer Damon Lindelof insisted Michael would eventually return.
"He was always coming back on the freighter," Lindelof says. "It was just a matter of [when] we were gonna reveal the freighter." The initial plan was the third-season finale, but Perrineau chose to sign on to the CBS pilot Demons instead.
Reports at the time blamed the lack of a Lost deal on Perrineau's outrageous salary demands, something the actor, who starred in the horror flick 28 Weeks Later and wrote and recorded a song called Stay Strong in support of the U.S. troops in Iraq last year, denies.
"They were not throwing money at me," he says. Instead, he claims he didn't want to again uproot wife Brittany and daughter Aurora, 13, to Hawaii, where the drama shoots. (Demons shot in LA.) "I was actually making less money on Demons [than Lost]," Perrineau says. "I just needed some stability for my family."
When Demons didn't make it on-screen in America, Perrineau was again available and, this time, the Lost deal came together quickly. Regardless of what came before, "I'm really happy to be back," he says. "It's been like going home to family."
His family will stay in LA while Perrineau returns to Hawaii to shoot the rest of season four. His wife is pregnant and due in less than two months. "We're going to have a little girl," he says, "and I'm looking forward to meeting her."
To make sure he doesn't miss the blessed event, he's got a plan: "When I have downtime from the show, [I'll] get on a plane. Fly back and forth to make sure the baby hasn't come. It's going to be crazy."
But at least there won't be any boats.
LOWDOWN
Who: Harold Perrineau who plays Lost returnee Michael Dawson aka Kevin Johnson aka Deck Hand aka Walt's Dad.
When & where: TV2, Wednesdays 8.30pm
