LOST Magazine #29
Available now!

LOST Magazine

An excerpt with Emilie de Ravin (Claire Littleton) as featured in issue #29 of The Official LOST Magazine.

After six seasons of watching the impossible and the bizarre occur all the time on LOST, you'd think nothing would be a surprise anymore, right? Take for instance Claire Littleton. The last time she appeared in the series she was haunting Kate's dreams in There's No Place Like Home, warning her adamantly not to bring Aaron back to the island. As for appearances in the flesh, the character just up and disappeared in the jungle a few episodes earlier in Something Nice Back Home. Since then, Claire has been MIA.

So color us surprised when on an evening in Hawaii last November, as the skies opened up and dumped barrels of rain on the LOST production crew setting up for a scene, out came Claire looking very... un-Claire like. Yes, we all knew the character would be back, but not looking like this. Gone was the sweet little gal, with the wide eyes and infectious smile. In her place was a wild-haired, grungy-looking feral creature. Dirty, glassy-eyed and not even a little bit sweet, this is a brand new Claire Littleton and that's a-okay by actress Emilie de Ravin.

When the producers put Claire's story on the backburner for all of season five, did you continue to watch the show to keep up with the mythology or did you decide to remain in the dark like Claire essentially was?

Emile de Ravin: Well, it was a conscious decision to actually not watch last season because of my character not knowing what was going on around her. That's actually made it interesting.

Was it odd, having a year off from the show?

Creatively, it's been great for me because I knew I was coming back and at the same time I got to work on a bunch of other stuff, which broke it up.

Since it was such a long break, when it was time for you to return, did the producers brief you any differently so you could get back into the culture of the show easily?

Yeah. There were conversations that we had as the scripts came through informing me basically on what had been going on with Claire for the last three years.

What was your reaction to finding out that you'd be playing two different versions of Claire?

It was a really great surprise. I was excited about coming back for the last season, but actually being able to play a completely different character just topped it off for me. Four years playing the same role… even though I love playing Claire and they've always written her in a special way, being able to mix it up and have Claire as her old self that we all know in the flash-sideways, but also playing her in this different way because of what she's gone through, is great.

Is it your greatest wish that she reunites with Aaron?

It is. As far as my character, it's the most important thing for her so it would be nice to see them reunited. It would be nice for the most important thing in the world for her to happen.

Are you hoping for any other outstanding issues involving Claire to be resolved – like Claire and Jack realizing they are siblings?

I'm really interested in that. Who knows – it may never be revealed to us on the island. It could be revealed in a flash-sideways and never on the island – that would be really interesting.

With the show winding down now, what has this show meant to you and what will you take away from it?

You know, I think I will always look back at this as just a really cool, creative group of people. There was never any animosity. It's been hard. There were a lot of really difficult shooting locations, and the weather issues [de Ravin tightens her rain slicker hoodie and smiles]!

We all supported each other and I will come away from this with really fond memories.