Jorge Garcia, who played Hurley in the cult drama Lost, is heading back to another island with a different bunch of people in J.J. Abrams’ new supernatural thriller Alcatraz.
This shot-in-Vancouver series revolves around more than 300 prisoners and guards who vanished from America’s notorious Alcatraz prison in 1963 and start reappearing in the present day, wreaking havoc on the streets of San Francisco.
San Francisco cop Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones), Alcatraz expert and comic book enthusiast Dr. Diego “Doc” Soto (Garcia), federal agent Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) and his sidekick Lucy Banerjee (Parminder Nagra) are forced to join forces to catch and bring to justice the supposed-to-be-dead bad guys.
For Garcia, joining the series was a no-brainer.
“When J.J. calls, with my history with him, I’ll make myself available for sure,” he says.
“I like what he does and the TV that he makes so I knew what I was going to be in. And then you read the script and it’s like, ‘Oh, sweet.’”
Jones (Big Love, Sons of Anarchy) says headlining her first series is a little overwhelming, but she says she tries not to put a lot of pressure on herself.
“I just try to treat it like other jobs I’ve had and do the best I can and hope that people like the character I’m playing as much as they’ve liked other female heroes that J.J. has brilliantly come up with,” she says.
Garcia adds he’s slowly getting used to working in Vancouver after shooting Lost in the lush locations of Hawaii.
But he admits he’s a little bummed his former castaway-mates Daniel Dae Kim and Terry O’Quinn are having fun in the sun, shooting Hawaii Five-0.
“Whenever I watch Five-0 I’m a little bit jealous,” Garcia admits.
“But only a little bit. Vancouver has its own green beauty, just like Hawaii. Of course, you have to pay for that with the rain. And it’s a little bit colder.
“But I’m having fun. It’s a fun show to be a part of. And it’s cool living up here.”
The series debuts with a two-hour premiere Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Citytv and Fox. Alcatraz returns to its regular 9 p.m. ET/PT time-slot on Jan. 23.
