Josh Holloway suffered a "hard seven years" in Hollywood after his acting work dried up.

The 'Lost' star, 55, has admitted he went through a major dry spell before landing a role in J. J. Abrams' new TV show 'Duster' and he used the enforced break focus on his family and take up new hobbies like learning to play piano.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: " I must have thrown the penny over the wrong shoulder and broke a mirror while I did it, because I had a hard seven years.

"Just hard - nothing was coming through. I had to focus on my family. I learned piano. I did all sorts of different things.

"I started telling my agents: 'Just bring me work, I need to get out of house, it's ridiculous, I only work for the Holloways now and I need to do something'.

"They started sending me random scripts. A lot of them that were not good projects that I had to pass on, but some came through."

Josh is returning to the small screen in 'Duster' - which was created by his former 'Lost' boss JJ - and the actor admits he was thrilled to get the phone call offering him the part.

He said: "[JJ] called me out of the blue and immediately was like: 'You got a minute?' I was like: 'Yeah, I think I got a minute, J.J. Abrams!'

"He launched into pitching me this show and I couldn't even believe what I was hearing. He said: 'You're a wheel man for the mafia in 1972' - and I had a hard time focusing on anything else he said after that.

"It was that old 'Jerry Maguire' moment - 'You had me at 'hello'. That was right before the pandemic and then HBO was sold twice.

"But we kept making it through everything. [We wondered] 'Are they going to cancel us?' No, no. We kept chugging along. So here we are."

Josh went on to admit the only thing that's changed for him over the last few years is his body - admitting fight scenes feel much harder now he's in his 50s.

He explained: "Fight scenes are different. I did a lot of action throughout my career and it's harder now.

"When I'm trying to drop kick somebody and I land on the cement, it's different. But I love it still. How can you not? And luckily, a lot of the stunts are in the car, so the car has to take the beating."