Ian Somerhalder, who starred in the first season of Lost, before finding breakaway success in the hit series Vampire Diaries, struggled with his character’s early demise on the island.Lost has gained a second life recently, thanks to the show being added to Netflix’s streaming library. Audiences are absolutely devouring the 24-episode seasons (remember those?), and social media is filled with shocked reactions to the show’s unpredictable twists and turns. As you might expect from a show following a plane crash on a deserted island, not every character survived the full six seasons, and Somerhalder’s Boone Carlyle was the first to go. For the actor, being the first to depart the island was a tough feeling to handle.
Speaking to People, Ian Somerhalder reflected on his frustration at being killed off on Lost. Somerhalder said he was the first actor to be cast in the hit series, so being the first one to die in the show felt ironically painful. “Losing that, I was the first one cast and the first one killed, that was a sort of tough pill to swallow,” he said. Boone met his end in Season 1. After climbing up a cliff to explore a previously crashed plane, the aircraft was dislodged from the cliff, with the character still inside, and came plummeting down, crashing again among the trees and rocks.
While the pain of being killed off early still stings, Ian Somerhalder said that the relatively short acting gig came with a massive upside. As well as being a TV mainstay during the 00s and early 10s, the actor is heavily involved in a lot of conservation work. Shooting in Hawaii allowed Somerhalder to work on nearby conservations during his time on the show, and after his character’s demise. The actor said:
“I got to work on a lot of reef conservation. I got to work on a lot of soil and water conservation even there. This is 2004, I was already doing this, my voice just wasn’t as big.”
Ian Somerhalder’s Mom Hates Lost’s Ending
As audiences online make their way through the series, expect a second wave of reactions to Lost‘s controversial ending to flood social media in the near future. During the conversation, Ian Somerhalder revealed that he still gets approached by fans about the show’s ending, nearly two decades after he was killed off Lost. After his character’s death, Somerhalder made brief appearances during flashbacks in Season 2 and 3, and appeared in the final episode. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Somerhalder said, “I still have people coming up to me furious about the ending of Lost.”
As well as disgruntled fans, Somerhalder has to deal with his own mother’s opinions about Lost‘s finale. The actor said that his mom had only recently returned his SAG Award, which he won for his performance in the series. He joked:
“It really angered a lot of people. My mom just gave me back my SAG Award that we won. [The SAG Award is] in our kitchen now.”
Lost
is currently streaming on Netflix.