Damon Lindelof is a fascinating writer, responsible for the incredible ABC drama series Lost and now for HBO's The Leftovers, but he's also a guy who's full of self-doubt. In a recent conversation with Entertainment Weekly, the showrunner opened up about the darkest and most stressful moment of his career, and it was at the same time as his greatest achievement.
Lindelof explained that ironically, the lowest point in his career was the period of time when he was writing the first season of Lost. While he expected his series to be cancelled after 13 episodes and to become a cult hit, suddenly the entire world was watching it, and although he was relatively inexperienced, he now found himself responsible for this giant cultural phenomenon.
"The ratings were massive and the critical response to the show and the audience response was overwhelmingly positive, and those things made me feel more and more upset and isolated and stressed out," he said. "I felt like everybody was watching."
He also described the incredibly ambitious schedule where he was commuting between Los Angeles and Hawaii and writing a script every eight days. Lindelof also said he constantly felt like any misstep they made would risk the mythology jumping the shark. He didn't have much time to think about things when making the pilot, since he and J.J. Abrams had to put it out so quickly, but when settling in for the full series, that's when it all really got to him.
In terms of the peak of his career, though, he named the summer right after Season 1 when the show was such a phenomenon that he would overhear conversations about what's in the hatch while out to dinner. Then, that summer ended with Lost winning the Emmy for best drama. Not a bad few months for Lindelof.
Lindelof's newest show, The Leftovers, returns to HBO on October 4. For more, check out the full trailer for the upcoming season.
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