#AlexOLoughlin Sharing August Rush Treasures With Dolly – February 2008

 We caught up with Aussie actor Alex O’Loughlin to hear all about his new film August Rush with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Kerri Russell.

by Emma Vidgen,

for Dolly,

15  Feb 2008

Emma: So what’s August Rush all about?

Alex: It’s a film I really wanted to be in — the script was amazing, it’s really good stuff.

My character is Marshall and he is Louis’ (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) brother.

The story is that we are from Dublin and go to New York to expand our musical careers and play rock.

Johnny’s character falls for Kerri’s (Russell) and he gets so distracted by this woman we essentially lose him as the older brother and key guitarist.

I get really upset with him and a rift happens until we finally come back together and he comes back and he really finds his music and essentially finds himself.

Emma: Did you have fun making the film?

Alex: I lived with Johnny and the other guys in the band (in the film) for four months. We had to learn all the music that we perform in the film so we developed relationships.

The main thing was that I had a lot of work to do on the accent. I was hanging out with other Irish guys and we played a lot of music together.

Living with cast mates was something I’d never done before but it was a lot of fun.

Emma: I bet you got up to a lot of mischief…

Alex: We partied, we saw a lot of music, and because Jonathan is who he is we got a lot of free tickets to stuff.

We ate a lot of fantastic food, saw lots of great gigs, and before you know it shooting was over.

New York is the one place in the world where you really want to forfeit sleep to go out and see the city.

Emma: What’s the biggest misconception about being an actor?

Alex: The biggest misconception is that in the first 20 years you’re making money. People can’t believe it, they’re like, “Dude you must make heaps, did this or that,” but the reality is while people in regular jobs get a pay cheque every week or month, I get one once a year.

August Rush on Answers. com

August Rush received mixed to negative reviews from film critics, although it has earned mostly positive reception from the general public.

• In a review by USA Today, Claudia Puig commented that “August Rush will not be for everyone, but it works if you surrender to its lilting and unabashedly sentimental tale of evocative music and visual poetry.” The Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film positively, writing “the story is about musicians and how music connects people, so the movie’s score and songs, created by composers Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer, give poetic whimsy to an implausible tale.”

• On the review aggregator  Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 110 reviews. “Consensus: Though featuring a talented cast, August Rush cannot overcome the flimsy direction and schmaltzy plot.“On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 38 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.

• Pam Grady of the San Fransisco Chronicle called the film “an inane musical melodrama.” Grady said “the entire story is ridiculous” and “Coincidences pile on, behavior and motivations defy logic, and the characters are so thinly drawn that most of the cast is at a loss.” Edward Douglas of comingsoon.net said it “does not take long for the movie to reveal itself as an extremely contrived and predictable movie that tries too hard to tug on the heartstrings.”

• Roger Ebert gave the movie three stars, calling it “a movie drenched in sentimentality, but it’s supposed to be. The movie also came to a very sudden end leaving it unfinished.”

• Jamila Gavin compared the film to Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Coram Boy.