Josh Holloway loved working on new series ‘Duster.’ Here’s why
“Lost” star Josh Holloway reveals why he wanted to reunite with creator J.J. Abrams on new series “Duster.”
LOS ANGELES – Josh Holloway nearly crashed his role in “Duster” before the series even got going after missing three days of calls from his friend and “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams.
“J.J. was like, ‘Where have you been? You’re impossible to get a hold of,’ And I am,” Holloway says, waving towards his iPhone on the restaurant table. “I leave that at home mostly and don’t check it. My wife hates that.”
Thankfully, once Abrams connected with the actor who put the flowing hair and swagger into Sawyer during six star-making seasons of ABC’s “Lost,” he steered right into his awesome reunion idea.
“J.J. was like, ‘You’re a Mafia wheelman in 1972,’” Holloway recalls. “He started to blow my mind. I fell immediately in love with this character in this era that’s so rich – the ’70s. Everything J.J. said fueled this fire.”
The talk helped ignite the 1970s-tastic Max series “Duster,” created by Abrams and LaToya Morgan. The action crime thriller (premiering May 15, Thursdays at 9 ET/6 PT) stars Rachel Hilson as Nina Hayes, the FBI’s first Black female agent, who recruits criminal getaway driver Jim Ellis (Holloway) to bring down a powerful Arizona crime lord.
Intrepid agent Hayes brings the drama, maneuvering around her bigoted, sexist FBI boss (“Lost” alum Greg Grunberg, sporting mutton chops) while targeting Jim’s mafia boss Ezra Saxton (Keith David). However, as the title makes clear, the engine propelling “Duster” is the souped-up 1970s budget-friendly Plymouth muscle car with Holloway, 55, hitting the pedal.
To play Jim on the open highway, Holloway relied on the camera hair-flip training he received in “Lost” Hawaii wind conditions, which famously included helicopters.
“I learned how to work with the wind as Sawyer, just so you can get the damn take,” he says. “You have to do your dialogue into the wind to avoid your best takes being ruined because you’re chawing on a chomp of hair.”
Holloway never ‘Lost’ his desire to drive fast
Abrams learned during “Lost” that Holloway had the need for speed. Stories abounded about the actor cruising on the tranquil two-lane Oahu highways in his Mercedes SLK 350.
“That car was little, but way overpowered. And the Hawaiian drivers are so slow,” says Holloway, instantly exasperated. “J.J. might have heard about that time when I slammed on the gas to pass nine cars in a row on a double yellow line. Either way, he knows I drive too fast.”
For the new series, Abrams made Holloway promise to quit his beloved dirt-biking to avoid injury. The criminally underused Holloway’s post “Lost” characters tend to live hard and die faster, including IMF agent Trevor Hanaway in 2011’s “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” Hanaway was murdered in the first 10 minutes of the Tom Cruise-led caper during the crackerjack opening scene.
In 2021, Holloway died the most “Yellowstone” death of all time after two seasons of playing Dutton-family rival Roarke Morris in the modern cowboy series created by longtime friend Taylor Sheridan. Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) opened a cooler with an agitated rattlesnake onto the unsuspecting fly-fishing Roarke, who quickly perished from the bite.
Holloway gave up dirt-bike riding but stepped up the stunt training during the extended wait for the series, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and Hollywood labor strikes. To make the TV Duster-driving seamless (four like cars were used for filming), Holloway enrolled in legendary stuntman Rick Seaman’s driving school (now called the Motion Picture Driving Clinic) and supplemented his crash course with extensive private sessions.
“Jim’s comfort zone is when he’s driving super fast,” says Holloway. “I wanted to get used to being in the car like that. At the stunt school, they’re like, ‘If you don’t bust a tire here, you’re not doing your job.’”
Holloway, who insists he doesn’t use hairstyling products in his everyday life, credits some “movie magic” to make his mane more ’70s-magnificent in the series. Besides volumizing, that assistance included having Emmy-winning hair designer Michael Ward instruct him over the car radio during the money shots — the Duster closeups while highway cruising.
“The wind and hair are going everywhere,” says Holloway. “And Michael is like, ‘Shake it. The hair is across your eyes, so do the flick!’ That’s how they fix it.”
Even driving the car for the moving camera for these enhanced shots requires skills. But the trained Holloway pursued more advanced stunts as well, including slinging a successful full Duster skid-out turn right up next to a “pristine” vintage police car.
Holloway has been married for 20 years with two children
The master class for 1970s driving will be a thrill for his family, including his wife, Yessica Kumala. Holloway proposed to Kumala on the “Lost” set, and the duo celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary last October. “That’s like a century of marriage in Hollywood,” he jokes.
Daughter Java Kumala, 16, just started driving (“And she has that little lead foot”) while son Hunter Lee, 11, is “my dirtbike mini-me.” Holloway still rolls in his black Toyota Tundra. “Just today, my 11-year-old told me, ‘Dad, you’re aggressive. You call your truck ‘The Stallion’ and you whistle at it before you take off somewhere.”
Seeing their father in the showcase role will bring some serious family cred, especially from the kids, who came after “Lost” ended its run in 2010.
“Basically, I work for the Holloway family. I’m their Uber driver, dishwasher, and cook,” says Holloway. “But now they are going to see that Dad does something else as well. I can’t wait.”
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