Hi Gregg!

I visited the set recently, as a wish granted from the Make A Wish Foundation, because I was sick. Firstly, were you there on set the day I was there or did you hear about it? I was there Friday 16th February, when they were shooting scenes for Lockdown. I'm 14 years old, from Sydney, Australia.

And secondly, while on set, I managed to get a copy of the script for Lockdown. I couldn't help notice the amount of swear words they put in brackets in the lines, haha! Is this to give the reader a sense of how angry the character is supposed to be?

Thanks,
David.

David,

I'm glad you got a chance to visit the set. It must have been a lot of fun. And what an exciting episode to see being filmed! My office is actually in Los Angeles, so no, I wasn't on set that day.

And you managed to get a copy of the script, huh? Did your parents read it and immediately take it away? Ha, ha. Yes, our scripts have a lot of swear words in them, which makes them more "adult" than typical scripts. If they were rated, they'd be a hard R or even NC-17. The swear words are included primarily to give a sense of attitude for the action or dialogue. The attitude doesn't have to necessarily be anger, it is open to actor/director interpretation, but it gives a feeling to the intensity of the scenes and emotions.

If the swear word is in dialogue, we put it in parentheses to indicate to the actor not to say it but to express the attitude. American broadcast TV is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC for short), and we can't say swear words on TV. (If Lost were pay cable, like HBO or Showtime, the characters would probably be cussing like a sailor.) When the swear words appear in action, there's no need to have them in parentheses.

And for added trivia, when we send scripts out to people who are not part of production, like for charity auctions and such, I do a clean version of the script and remove the swear words.

So did you have fun when you visited the set? Did you get to meet the actors? What did you think about everything?

Thanks for answering, Gregg.

I had a great time on set, truly the most fun I've had in my life! Yes, I did get to meet actors. Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Rodriguez, Dominic Monaghan and Naveen Andrews. :)

It was amazing to see them filming my favourite show. I absolutely obsess over LOST, and to be able to go onto the set, see how things work, just incredible. Whenever I see rain on the show, I start laughing because I know, it's actually just a hose, hahaha! I saw them film the scene where AL, Charlie and Sayid find the balloon. And it was nice to see that things aren't all serious, and there's some fun in making it. Dom was going up to everyone during filming break offering them gum, but it was actually one of those tricks that give you an electric shock, hehe! I fell for it! And it was actually weird seeing Michelle and Naveen communicating off camera, so different to how it is on screen. And...I don't remember the name of the person but he was working with Stephen Williams a lot, he kept joking around telling me to poke Patti Dalzell with a pen, the script supervisor, hehe.

I love the show even more now!