As we get ready for the Sunday night pop culture event that will be the "Lost" finale, let's kick things off with a visit from Charles Widmore (Alan Dale).

I noticed a couple of trends in your career. You have a history of playing very powerful characters from "24," "The O.C." and of course,"Lost." Are you drawn to these roles?
    
They find me really. That's what happens when you get old and bald.
 
The other thing I noticed was that whenever a series seems to need someone to have a heart attack they call you. You've kicked the bucket that way in "Neighbours,""The O.C." and "Ugly Betty."
     
Someone really ought to refer this to the Guinness Book of Records. My first heart attack was in ("Neighbours") in Australia seventeen years ago. In those days I was slimmer than I am now and had more hair but somehow they thought it was a brilliant idea and it seems to have caught on.
 
How did you wind up with the role of "Lost's" Charles Widmore?
     
The usual sort of way in Hollywood. I got a call and asked to go and see them at Disney. I went, did a reading and got a call saying "You're off to Hawaii." I thought it was for one episode and now five season later, I'm still there. I had no idea how important my character would be. The first time it went to air I got a call from my publicist who was all excited and she said "You're the guy behind it all." I said, "That can't be true." I had gone there and done one scene in the back of a Bentley. Quite a nice scene but short, you know? But I still can't tell you whether or not I actually am behind anything.
 
It seems that that is the same story that Michael Emerson gave where the guest spot turned into something much larger.
     
It's actually happened to me several times. The first one was in "24." In fact, when I was working on that series one of the girls came up to me from the casting department and said, "You know if we'd have known how big this role was going to be you never would have gotten the part."
 
One of my favorite Widmore scenes involved you and Michael Emerson in Widmore's loft in season four where Ben threatens Widmore's daughter and first hints to the upcoming war on the island.
     
That was a fascinating thing. Again, I was just a guest star so I never had a contract or anything. I was asked to go do "Spamalot" in London so I took that job. I got a call out of the blue saying they needed me to fly to Hawaii to do a couple of scenes and I said I couldn't because I was tied to this musical. So they came to London. If you look closely you'll see I had a beard in that scene and that's cause I was in the middle of playign King Arthur. The bedroom we did that scene in was in a beautiful old house next to Buckingham Palace. It must have cost them a fortune to rent it, which was completely unnecessary, because it's just a bedroom.
 
As an actor, how hard is it to work on such a secretive series?
     
It certainly effects the work. There was an episode recently that I watched and I didn't like what I did. In my own defense, I had no idea what was going on storywise, so I didn't treat the scene as I would have. I mostly work with director Jack Bender and he does know whats going on. He joked in the press recently that I was the most difficult person to deal with and always asking awkward questions.
 
What do you make of the concept of good and evil on this show? Does it even exist?
     
It's a great question and I don't know what to make of any of it. I know at one point I get very frustrated with the series and lost interest a bit in season three. I'm sitting there looking at the television thinking to myself "I've watched these people perspire a lot and struggle through the bush a thousand times. Why am I watching this show?" Funny story. I was doing a series in London right after this and a reporter asked me what was going on with "Lost." I said, "Well I can't." She said, "Surely you must know something." I told her that story. I said, "I'm sitting in front of my TV thinking 'Why am I watching?' and then a black cloud comes out of the forest and picked up an African-American man, through him against a tree and killed him and I thought 'No, I don't think I want to watch this anymore." I said it sort of joking. Next day the headline in the paper was "¤'Lost' star commits career suicide." But it's hard sometimes. I've said to Jack Bender many times that it's difficult for me to be loyal to a show that I'm not a regular on. I just come here whenever you get the feeling you want me to be and you don't tell em anything about what I'm doing. It's difficult to be invested in the show. But at the same time, I look back and I had a wonderful time going to Hawaii and getting to work with all the people I did. It's one of the highlights of my life.
 
What do you make of the whole idea of alternate timelines?
     
I don't know what to make of it but I listen to what you guys say. I've done a couple of interviews and you guys seem to know a lot more than I do. You've made assumptions I haven't thought of and I think some of them are quite good. But I get the idea that that alternate reality might wind up being the reality. But I don't know how that will be achieved. And I don't know how that will be achieved in a way that satisfies you guys. My greatest fear is that after it's over, I'm going to have fans of the show chasing me down the street with meat cleavers.
 
Michael Emerson told me once that fans often seemed edgy around him sometimes scared. Do you ever get any of that?
     
It's interesting. I became known internationally for the series I did in Australia. One of the reasons I came to America was because I couldn't work in Australia anymore because my character there had become so big that no one could see me as anyone else. To this day, that character is know as Australia's favorite dad. For me it was a refreshing change to be playing these heavy dudes. The difference is when I played Jim in "Neighbours," he was this nice bugger in which case people felt free to call things out across the street or interrupt me while I was eating dinner. I find with the characters I play in the states, people are a bit afraid of these characters so they keep their distance and show respect, which I quite like.
 
Do you think all of our questions will be answered?
     
I read what some of the producers and writers have said about that. I've heard them say, "Oh, don't expect all the questions to be answered, we're running out of time." How can you run out of time when you made the decision to close the show three years ago? I really don't want to hear about that. That's not an excuse. And I also don't want to believe that it's just a soap opera or that they made it up as they went along. But it may well turn out to be, I don't know.