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By Susan Hornik, TODAY contributor
When Dominic Monaghan made headlines with his tweets bashing the show "Swamp People" and accusing former 'Lost' co-star Matthew Fox of beating women, he didn't know what he was getting himself into.
“I didn’t realize how much of a powerful medium Twitter was,” Monaghan told The Clicker. “I went on it just out of curiosity and to build a bit of a fan base for my BBC series, 'Wild Things.' I realized you can actually directly interact with people and break some of these myths."
"I’m a huge fan of countering ideas or rumors or notions that people might have about things or you or anything in general," he said of his May tweet about Fox. "I like to make people understand that that angle might need a second look or not necessarily be true at all. That’s something I’m passionate about,” he said. “There are things that go hidden about a lot of people. I find myself becoming a little exhausted with this kind of public media spin about things or people."
"I find myself sometimes on Twitter being in opportunities where I can say that idea that you have about this particular thought that you heard about me is simply not true," Monaghan said. "And Twitter is a great way to do it.”
Were his former "Lost" co-stars supportive of his outspokenness against Fox?
“I think they, for the most part, stay out of any kind of controversy because they don’t want to be supporting things. But if someone asks me my opinion about something ... I think one of the worst things in the world is to be fake. I’d rather tell the truth and get in trouble for it than lie and everyone will think it’s OK,” Monaghan said.
In July, the actor practiced what he preached when he tweeted strong words against the treatment of alligators in History Channel’s “Swamp People.” It created a mini Twitter backlash.
“To be honest, I received probably 85 to 90 percent support and then 10 percent of the people telling me their opinions on the contrary. I’m fine with that, if people don’t agree with me," he said.
Monaghan also explained he understands that culling of the reptiles may sometimes be necessary, but what he doesn't accept is turning that process into a form of entertainment. "I eat chicken but I wouldn’t like to see a program that shows the killing of chickens. I just don’t think that that’s entertaining television.”
This is why, with his new upcoming animal friendly series, “Wild Things,” Monaghan is very careful about everything involving the preservation of natural habitats.
“We definitely try and be as respectful as possible. We obviously don’t break too many branches intentionally or turn over too many rocks. We’re very careful about where we step. We don’t use lights because we film in the day," he said. "If we do any stuff at nighttime, I use infrared cameras. So, we try not to disturb the kind of delicate balance of nature as much as we can. But my hope is that in the tiny amount of disruption that we cause, we also help the animals out to some degree by making people realize that they’re special and significant and important.”
Monaghan is appearing on Adult Swim's "Childrens Hospital" at midnight Thursday into Friday morning on Cartoon Network.
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