“Lost”’s Henry Ian Cusick Reveals Penny and Desmond ‘Weren’t Even Together’ for Iconic Scene in ‘The Constant’

Victoria EdelWed, August 5, 2026 at 8:34 PM UTC

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Henry Ian Cusick and Sonya Walger in ‘Lost’Credit: ABC/MARIO PEREZ -

Lost stars Henry Ian Cusick and Sonya Walger opened up about the relationship between their characters, Desmond and Penny

Cusick remembered that during one of the show’s most iconic scenes, he and Walger faked a phone call

The couple also reflected on why their characters’ relationship still resonates with fans today

Henry Ian Cusick is spilling some major Lost behind-the-scenes secrets.

Cusick, 59, and Sonya Walger — better known as Lost‘s Desmond and Penny — opened up in a July 28 interview with The Guardian about their on-screen bond. Lost follows a plane of passengers whose plane crashed on an island, only to discover that others are there too. One person who’s already there is Desmond, who became shipwrecked during a sailing race around the world.

Thankfully, Penny, the love of Desmond’s life, never gives up hope that she’ll find him again.

In the season 4 episode “The Constant” — often cited as not just the greatest episode of Lost, but also one of the greatest TV episodes of all time — Desmond is ping-ponging back and forth in time when he learns the only way it will stop is if he can make contact with Penny again. He promises to call her on Christmas Eve — eight years in the future.

At the end of the episode, Desmond does call her from the boat on the island, fulfilling his promise. They both declare their love for each other just before they lose the connection.

But, Cusick told The Guardian, fans never knew what was really going on during filming. “The irony of ‘The Constant’ is that we weren’t even together,” Desmond said. “I ended up doing it with the assistant director on my side,” he said about the phone call. “When Sonya turned up, she did it and I was on the sofa behind.”

Sonya Walger and Henry Ian Cusick in ‘Lost’Credit: ABC

Cusick explained, “That moment, that phone call — with not a lot of dialogue — was one of those things that worked a bit of magic.”  Cusick said that it made him stressed when the actors did finally interact in the present timeline later in the series.

“What was really hard was when we had to meet [in season four, when Penny finds Desmond] and I was thinking: How are we going to beat that?” he said.

The pair also reflected on how there was “no time” for a chemistry read between them.

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“There was no time for anything, ever. I mean, they were writing these scripts and shooting them 15 minutes later,” Walger, 52, said. “People were being cast and put on a plane that afternoon.” She admitted that in their first scene, filmed at night in a stadium, she felt “quite adrift.”

But Cusick said that when he met her, he felt she was “a proper, proper actress,” and he loved when she would come back for more scenes.

“I have a big memory of meeting Sonya and thinking: Oh, a proper, proper actress. But then she would pop in and out all the time,” he shared.

“I’d be gone for months,” Walger added. “Funnily enough, Ian was my constant. I didn’t know anyone else in the show, and I really wasn’t getting the intervening scripts. So we’d sit down and I’d be like: ‘All right, what’s happened?’ ”

From left: Jorge Garcia, Matthew Fox, Jeff Fahey, Henry Ian Cusick, Sonya Walger, Yunkin Kim and Evangelina Lilly in ‘Lost’Credit: ABC

Lost ran for six seasons, from 2004 to 2010. While the show’s plot took some left turns (and wrapped up with a controversial finale), fan sentiment about Desmond and Penny’s romance has remained very positive.

Walger explained some of the appeal: “In this show that had so many contradictions and loose ends and tears in the space time continuum that bent your mind, here was one really classic trope you could hold on to,” she said.

Cusick said neither of them knew “the legacy” the pairing would have. “It’s been 20 years and there’s been so much great TV since — and we’re still talking about that relationship,” he said.

The pair noted that in the years since, fans have shown their love for them in lots of ways, including by getting a “full leg tattoo” of their faces and by naming their children after them.

Lost‘s ensemble also included Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, Naveen Andrews, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson and Elizabeth Mitchell.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”