Lost is one of television\u2019s most romantic dramas. Forget smoke monsters, time travel and that infamous ending \u2013 this was a show fuelled by swoony stories. Sun and Jin; Rose and Bernard; Sawyer\/Jack\/Kate\/Juliet; Charlie and Claire; Sayid and Nadia (not Shannon). Love was the reason behind so many of the islanders\u2019 need to survive, or to sacrifice themselves.<\/p>\n
But it was Penny\u2019s and Desmond\u2019s relationship that defined the series.<\/p>\n
Penelope Widmore (Sonya Walger), a billionaire\u2019s daughter, met Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick), an ordinary Scot, when she went to pick up wine from a monastery, where Des had just quit being a monk. It was love at first sight and they drove off together with the booze. But the relationship was doomed due to Penny\u2019s disapproving (and evil) father, Des\u2019s need to prove himself in a sailing competition and his arrival at a freaky island. Like the Odyssey character after whom she was named, Penny spent a lot of time waiting and wondering. However, as she once forewarned: \u201cWith enough money and determination, you can find anyone.\u201d And she did. In fact, without Penny, the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 might never have made it home.<\/p>\n
Of course, it wasn\u2019t easy. There was a breakup, Charlie\u2019s devastating death and the sob-fest episode The Constant \u2013 widely considered the best TV episode of all time<\/a> \u2013 in which, after eight years apart, Penny kept her promise to answer Des\u2019s phone call on Christmas Eve. As Penny put it: \u201cAll you really need to survive is someone who loves you. And you have her.\u201d<\/p>\n How did Walger and Cusick make such a love story for the ages? On the day I put this to them, it is exactly 21 years since the Lost pilot. \u201cIt\u2019s the day the plane went down \u2026 and I\u2019m flying to LA in two hours!\u201d says Cusick from his home in Hawaii, the filming location of Lost, where he moved his family 20 years ago. \u201cAre you really?\u201d gasps Walger from Santa Monica, California. \u201cIt will make the news,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n The friends quickly exchange life updates: Cusick is filming an indie vampire western; Walger is navigating a new normal after losing her family home in the Los Angeles fires<\/a>. Then, it\u2019s time to talk about becoming Penny and Desmond \u2026<\/p>\n Do you remember meeting for the first time?<\/p>\n HC: The writers had an idea for something, but they didn\u2019t know what. When I shot the photo [of Penny and Des, which Des keeps with him on the island], another actor played that \u2013 and she was a local extra. Then we did it again with Sonya.<\/p>\n SW: Let\u2019s be clear: there was no time for a chemistry read. There was no time for anything, ever. I mean, they were writing these scripts and shooting them 15 minutes later. People were being cast and put on a plane that afternoon.<\/p>\n HC: It was night-time! [Their first scene together is at night in a stadium.]<\/p>\n Grandstand event \u2026 Penny and Desmond meet. Photograph: ABC<\/p>\n SW: I\u2019d been there on my own, jumping up and down around the stadium and feeling quite adrift \u2013 I didn\u2019t know anyone. I was really sticky and thought: I need to meet this guy I don\u2019t know anything about. We immediately discovered that Ian is half Scottish and half Peruvian and I\u2019m half English and half Argentine. And those are strangely exotic and yet neighboured identities. That was something very lovely, very rare.<\/p>\n HC: I have a big memory of meeting Sonya and thinking: oh, a proper, proper actress. But then she would pop in and out all the time.<\/p>\n SW: I\u2019d be gone for months. Funnily enough, Ian was my constant. I didn\u2019t know anyone else in the show and I really wasn\u2019t getting the intervening scripts. So we\u2019d sit down and I\u2019d be like: \u201cAll right, what\u2019s happened?\u201d<\/p>\n What do Penny and Des love about each other?<\/p>\n SW: When you\u2019ve got a father as domineering as Charles Widmore [Alan Dale], the quiet, gentle devotion of Desmond is the antithesis of that.<\/p>\n HC: The love was true and pure \u2013 and it was a good love. But it was more about: how will they get back together?<\/p>\n What were your favourite romantic moments?<\/p>\n HC: In the scene with the letter<\/a> [from Penny, which Desmond finds for the first time on the island], I wasn\u2019t a regular character at that point and I think that helped. There was another scene, where they were shouting out all these crazy directions: \u201cDo it sad! Do it angry!\u201d I was trying to show them my whole colour palette. And then Terry Quinn [who played Locke] said to me: \u201cThat was your audition.\u201d<\/p>\n Read it and weep \u2026 Des finds Penny\u2019s letter. Photograph: ABC<\/p>\n The irony of The Constant is that we weren\u2019t even together. I ended up doing it with the assistant director on my side. When Sonya turned up, she did it and I was on the sofa behind. That moment, that phone call \u2013 with not a lot of dialogue \u2013 was one of those things that worked a bit of magic. What was really hard was when we had to meet [in season four, when Penny finds Des] and I was thinking: how are we going to beat that?<\/p>\n Is there anything you wish Penny and Des had done differently?<\/p>\n SW: The greedy actor in me would say I\u2019d love to have done more with us.<\/p>\n HC: Me too! I think there was more life in us.<\/p>\n SW: Spin-off, for fuck\u2019s sake \u2013 where was the spin-off?<\/p>\n HC: Now I would push that. You, me and Charlie on a boat.<\/p>\n SW: I say that partly jokingly. Because what gives this couple its place in the world\u2019s heart is that it wasn\u2019t oversaturated. You only had a handful of episodes to hold. You didn\u2019t get bored of us, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n HC: It left people wanting more.<\/p>\n SW: We did great and left them on a high note.<\/p>\n When did you realise this was a love story for the ages?<\/p>\n SW: In this show that had so many contradictions and loose ends and tears in the space time continuum that bent your mind, here was one really classic trope you could hold on to.<\/p>\n HC: It was a simple story of two people who couldn\u2019t be together \u2013 because of her father, or time, or so many things in their way \u2013 who desperately wanted to be together.<\/p>\n \u2018You didn\u2019t get bored of us, that\u2019s for sure.\u2019 Photograph: ABC<\/p>\n SW: I felt very honoured when I got the call asking me to fly in for the finale \u2013 if nothing else, it was acknowledgment from the creators of the value of our little duo. But it\u2019s only as the years have crept on, appearing on \u201cthe best couple of all time\u201d lists and things. It never ceases to surprise and truly gratify me that we did some work that has endured like this. It\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n HC: I always thought we had a cool storyline. But we didn\u2019t know the legacy it would have. It\u2019s been 20 years and there\u2019s been so much great TV since \u2013 and we\u2019re still talking about that relationship.<\/p>\n How romantic are you in real life?<\/p>\n SW: Romantic is a weird word in your 50s! I\u2019m devoted. I know what devotion is \u2013 to my family, to my husband, to the life we have. And it\u2019s something I felt at the time even without them. I felt a strong sense of devotion to the life I had created for myself in LA, so much so that I wasn\u2019t willing to let it go by moving to Hawaii. [Walger was in the running to play the main character Kate Austen, but pulled out.]<\/p>\n HC: I think as I\u2019m getting older I\u2019m getting more romantic and softer. I get more emotional about the past, like thinking about my kids as babies.<\/p>\n SW: I\u2019m going to push back and say he\u2019s always had that.<\/p>\n HC: Really? I\u2019ve never thought of myself like that. I\u2019m a \u201ctough\u201d guy!<\/p>\n SW: No he\u2019s not! He\u2019s a deeply, deeply feeling man.<\/p>\n What has been the most intense fan reaction to Penny and Des?<\/p>\n SW: A full leg tattoo of our faces! I get \u201cNot Penny\u2019s boat\u201d held up to me at airports a lot. It\u2019s like a fan\u2019s secret way of saying: \u201cI see you, but I will respect you.\u201d I really mean it when I say it\u2019s just really humbling to have done anything at all that leaves such a mark.<\/p>\n HC: People have named their children after us \u2013 that\u2019s odd.<\/p>\n SW: Yes! I have 100% had some Pennys.<\/p>\n What was your relationship like off camera?<\/p>\n SW: It just felt so easy and effortless from day one. It was a pleasure to see Ian. I think he was grateful just to have someone visiting from the mainland who was also from England; there was some sort of familiarity.<\/p>\n HC: When I arrived [on the Lost set], the cast was already very integrated. I worked separately, which I really enjoyed, actually. Even on the days I did work with the whole cast, I didn\u2019t really enjoy them, because there are so many actors and you have to wait for your turn. I liked working with two or three people \u2013 I love it. It was very easy with Sonya and it was always going to be a good scene when we met up.<\/p>\n \u2018All you really need to survive is someone who loves you\u2019 \u2026 Penny in the celebrated season four episode The Constant. Photograph: ABC<\/p>\n SW: Years later, I came to Hawaii with my family and we met up with Ian. For old time sakes, we went to the church where we unloaded boxes of wine and took photos there. We stay in touch.<\/p>\n HC: We did a short film together, too.<\/p>\n SW: That\u2019s right \u2013 I had just had my baby, I think.<\/p>\n HC: No, she was eight months pregnant!<\/p>\n SW: Oh yeah! Ian, if you\u2019ve got a day off when you\u2019re in LA and you want a cup of tea, will you come and find me?<\/p>\n HC: Yes! I\u2019ll try.<\/p>\n Did you keep anything from the set that reminds you of Penny and Des?<\/p>\n SW: I lost everything in the house. I don\u2019t even have my children\u2019s baby photos. It\u2019s really shocking and it makes me very, very intentional about what I put back.<\/p>\n HC: I had the blue shirt \u2013 I stole it and they asked for it back. They were pretty stingy. I auctioned it [for charity] anyway. I\u2019ve seen many reproductions of their photo and I\u2019m asked to sign it.<\/p>\n SW: My first novel<\/a> came out in February this year, three weeks after the fire<\/a>. I had to go to a book festival the other day and people handed me Lost photos to sign, and I was like: dude, just buy the book!<\/p>\n What can Penny and Des teach us about love?<\/p>\n SW: Keep the faith.<\/p>\n HC: \u201cKeep the faith\u201d is great \u2013 I\u2019ll go with that, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lost is one of television\u2019s most romantic dramas. 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