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Lost Trivia
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Lost Miles Straume Biography
Miles Straume is a fictional character
played by Ken Leung on the ABC television series Lost. Miles is
introduced early in the fourth season as a hotheaded and sarcastic
medium aboard the freighter 130 kilometers offshore of the island.
Miles arrives on the island and is taken captive by John Locke (played
by Terry O'Quinn), who suspects that those on the freighter are there
to harm his fellow crash survivors of
Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 and expose the island to the general
public. Miles is on a mission to obtain Ben Linus
(Michael Emerson); instead, he cuts a deal with Ben to lie to Miles's
employer Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) that Ben is dead.
The writers created the role of Miles specifically for Leung after
seeing him guest star on The Sopranos. Leung was the only actor to read
for the part. They chose his name because it resembles "maelstrom",
another word for a powerful whirlpool. Reaction to the character has
been positive.
Arc
In early December 2004, Miles goes to the house of a grieving woman
named Mrs. Gardner (Azure McCall) to communicate with her dead
grandson. Miles apparently speaks to the grandson's spirit and is
apparently directed to a cache with a large amount of drugs and money.
Miles keeps the money, but gives Gardner a refund for half what she
paid him. Miles's cynicism and genius is also shown in the scene
through the way he blocks Mrs. Gardner from hearing anything in the
room. Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick) later selects Miles, along with
Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies), Charlotte Lewis (Rebecca Mader) and
Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) to retrieve Ben from the island. Miles and
the others journey on the freighter called the Kahana until Frank flies
them on December 21, 2004 via helicopter to the island. Miles is taken
prisoner by Locke and kept in a boathouse near the Barracks. The next
day, Kate breaks him out so that he can speak to fellow prisoner Ben.
Miles tells Ben that he will lie to his employer Widmore that Ben is
dead in exchange for $3.2 million in the next week. When Ben tries to
imply that he may not have access to that kind of money, Miles gets
visibly upset, demanding that Ben not treat him "like one of them"
directed at Kate and then states "I know exactly who you are!". Miles
is caught by Locke and taken back to boathouse,
where an armed grenade is temporarily placed into his mouth.After some
of his fellow freighter crew attack the Barracks, Miles leaves with
James
"Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin)
and Aaron for the beach. While returning to the beach, Miles is able to
see the late Christian Shephard when he appears to Claire and she
leaves with him. He is still on the
beach
when the freighter explodes and the island is "moved" on December 31,
2004.
Characteristics
Miles is hotheaded and initially hostile toward the survivors, after
one of them kills his colleague Naomi Dorrit (Marsha Thomason). But he,
too, is disrespectful of Naomi after she dies, referring to her dead
body as "just meat" and telling Kate "sure I'm affected [by Naomi's
death]. She was hot and I dug her accent." Upon learning that Miles has
been captured by Locke, Frank informs Sayid that "that guy's nothing
but a pain in my ass."
Miles sarcastically nicknames his acquaintances, prompting critics,
fans and characters to compare him to the character Sawyer and give him
a nickname of his own: "mini-Sawyer". Actor Leung has said that "Miles
doesn't know how to be social, which is great, because I don't know how
to be social." He has also stated that Miles "trusts the dead more than
the living" and is intrigued as to whom Miles grieves for.
Development
The day after the April 22, 2007 episode of The Sopranos titled
"Remember When" aired, Lost's co-creator Damon Lindelof met with fellow
executive producer/writer/show runner Carlton Cuse and said that
"there's an actor on the show last night—I'm not going to tell you who
he is—and I wonder if he has the same impression on you that he had on
me". Cuse correctly guessed Ken Leung, who had guest starred as
one-time character Carter Chong. In mid-May, they contacted Leung's
agent and were informed in July that he was available and interested in
working on Lost. To limit the leak of spoilers, Lindelof and Cuse
auditioned Leung with a character and scene created specifically for
the audition that would not be used in the show but was "analogous to
the role that they really wanted."Leung believed that he was
auditioning for the role of Russell, a brilliant mathematician in his
late thirties with immense knowledge across various scientific fields,
limited social skills and broken personal relationships. Leung was the
only actor who tried out for this part, as writers had written the
(originally recurring guest) role of Miles for him and had he not
accepted the job, the character would have been completely
rewritten.The name Miles Straume was simply chosen because the
writer-producers thought that "it would be cool if his name sounded
like 'maelstrom'".Costume designer Roland Sanchez based Miles's
wardrobe choice after that of The Rolling Stones member Keith Richards;
specifically a picture in which he wore a sleeveless vest. Sanchez
believed that Miles fit the haggard look and bought an Armani Exchange
jacket, cropped the sleeves and added a hood and this outfit assisted
Leung's understanding of Miles. The writers planned for an episode in
the late fourth season to focus on Miles's backstory; however, this
will be moved to the fifth season as a result of the Writers Guild of
America strike.
