It's no surprise that if there was a character you wanted to play when Lost first started, it would be Sawyer (or Locke).  Thirteen audition tapes from the original cast (minus Terry O'Quinn) have landed online and it's fascinating to see Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, and Dominic Monaghan all try out for the character.  Of course, when you see Josh Holloway's audition, it's hard to imagine that he didn't get the role in the room.  One of the most impressive aspects of Lost is that it's been able to maintain the strength of its best characters (or at least my personal favorites).  Sawyer, Locke, Ben, and Hurley have been fantastic throughout the run of the series.  But watching these tapes, the biggest challenge is in seeing the actors play

Hit the jump to see the thirteen audition tapes, which also include Naveen Andrews, Ian Somerhalder, Maggie Grace, Harold Perrineau, Daniel Dae Kim, Emile de Ravin, Malcolm David Kelly all auditioning for the roles they eventually got, plus Yunjin Kim auditioning for Kate. There's also a joke audition from Comic-Con of Michael Emerson trying out for the role of Hurley.

Thanks to io9 for uncovering these.

Josh Holloway auditioning for Sawyer:

Matthew Fox auditioning for Sawyer (I couldn't watch the whole way through; it's cringeworthy):

Dominic Monaghan auditioning for Sawyer*:

Jorge Garcia auditioning for Sawyer:

Yunjin Kim auditioning for Kate:

Evangeline Lilly auditioning for Kate (with notes from J.J. Abrams):**

Naveen Andrews auditioning for Sayid:

Daniel Dae Kim Auditioning For Jin:

Emile de Ravin Auditioning For Claire:

Harold Perrineau Auditioning For Michael:

Malcolm David Kelley Auditioning For Waaaaaaalt!:

Maggie Grace Auditioning For Shannon:

Ian Somerhalder Auditioning For Boone:

Michael Emerson Fake Auditioning For Hurley:

*The tape says that Monaghan is trying out for Sawyer, but listening to his dialogue, I'm pretty sure these lines belonged to Charlie.  Perhaps the actions of following Jack and Kate to find the pilot and the dialogue that went along with it ultimately went to Charlie and Sawyer went off the kill a polar bear instead.

**Keep in mind that Kate was originally supposed to be the series' protagonist and Jack was going to be killed off in the pilot.