Matthew Fox Reveals Why He Left Acting And The Project That Brought Him Back - Exclusive

Matthew Fox didn't need to come back to television. With a successful stint on the '90s drama "Party of Five" that received both popular and critical acclaim, followed by a lead in the hit mind-twister "Lost," he could rest on his laurels if he wanted to. And after a few movie roles in "World War Z" and "Alex Cross," it looked like he planned to do just that.

He admitted to Men's Journal in 2012 that after fielding a string of personal accusations in the press, he questioned whether or not he wanted to continue acting. He missed the time with his family, and he felt like he had accomplished a lot of what he wanted to in acting. "For me, whether or not I work again is always gonna depend upon the quality of the opportunities that I get. And if I don't get quality opportunities, you probably won't see much of me. I'll probably be doing something else," he said.

But after several years of "something else," Matthew Fox is back on the small screen in a mini-series for Peacock entitled "Last Light." He explained why he stepped back into acting in an exclusive interview with The List. 

Besides taking on what is obviously a "quality" leading role in the apocalyptic adventure series, Matthew Fox is listed as an executive producer for "Last Light." This was part of the reason why he chose to come back to acting. "I had checked out of the business in 2014 because I had accomplished the things that I wanted to accomplish in the business, and I had a short bucket list of things that I did. But the idea of executive producing was something that I was fascinated by, and I wanted to have that experience," he told us.

That experience — plus playing the brilliant scientist and family man Andy Yeats, who saves the world in five episodes — was worth coming back for. Fox said, "It's been amazing, top to bottom. Even the performing part, the acting part, was far more fun and challenging ... It felt good to be doing it again, and I can't say enough about the experience with the entire cast and crew and producing team. Everybody brought their A game with such passion and commitment and hard work and long hours. I'm so proud of the experience."

His favorite part of filming? "It was the collaboration. It was the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. It was the entire team, the massive amount of people that it takes to do something like this and to move it around, between the UAE and Prague and stealing shots out of Paris. It was an incredible collaboration and that really warms my heart. Filmmaking is at its best when you have that sense of everybody working together to make something, hopefully, that's really special."

"Last Light" is now streaming on Peacock.