#AlexOLoughlin – There’s No “I” in Team – 2005

Alex talks about Feed.

Transcript of Alex telling us more about his movie Feed.

Picture from DVD: Alex O’Loughlin as Michael Turner/Feeder X – Alex O’Lachlan is undoubtedly one of a tenacious and talented emerging pool of young Australian actors. In 2004, Inside Film Magazine named him as one of the hottest actors in Australia.

Transcript:

I got a phone call from a friend saying, “I’ve just seen this documentary on SBS”, this is in Australia. And he sort of convinced myself and Patrick, the other lead in the film, to jump on the computer and have a look at these Feeders and Gainers.

And I didn’t know what he was talking about. We hopped on the computer at my place, back in Coogee in Sydney.

That was the first time we saw these images. And so immediately I was confronted by the image of a naked fit young man and a naked very overweight woman.

So immediately I was questioning why I was confronted by that?

And I jumped to judgement straight away as well. I was judging it all over the place and we were mocking it and we were ….

And then I went through a sort of anger, you know at the danger, and sort of the health issues, you know …

And I stepped away from that. And it was really interesting how quickly this all happened.

And then the concept came to me. I’ve been able to sit in a cinema from the age of 12 and watch communities of people get cut in half by Uzis and not bat an eyelid. And watch buckets of blood and rivers of blood flow and want more, but this sight was something that would throw me.

And so that was the sort of first point of interest for me. We thought, “Hang on this is something”.

As I went to more websites and watched the actual documentary, my … that friend had seen, and did more research, I saw … I started to see the people.

You know, past the images. And these are people who in most cases love each other, you know. And that love is no different than the love that I have for the people in my life.

All I saw was love and affection. And sure there were some kinky stuff and some sexy stuff, some hot stuff. But that’s no different to anything in my life, or anyone I know, lifestyle.

It was about the human element, you know. The further I went into it, the more the human element became apparent. And that’s what I really wanted to put a voice to.

And I think, that I was so shocked by these images, was really … was an important factor, because I thought, “Well hang on, I’ve seen a lot and I’ve seen a lot film and I’ve seen a lot of sort of dark nasty stuff. So if I am shocked by these images, maybe audiences will be as well.”

First of all, so Patrick and I started tossing around the idea of a feature film. A thriller, we were talking about “Se7en”, was probably the film that was most inspirational to me, in the beginning of this picture.

And we did not have the budget. We didn’t have the time, the money, the resources, we didn’t have anything like that.

From the beginning I wasn’t always Michael. We came up with this idea – and I think originally we were talking about Patrick playing the antagonist and myself playing the protagonist, even though they, kind of switch at the end.

Well that was the vision at the time anyway, that these two sort of swap. I was sort of set to play the cop, in the beginning.

So thank god that we had Brett at the helm. Because he has an energy that is unbelievable.

And so he sets the bar for everyone and if you don’t meet it …… well you meet it, because you don’t want to deal with that large man from Ohio, in the middle of a working day, trying to get these shots out.

So like I said we shot it in pretty short … we shot it in 28 days. And because the relationships that we already had and also the people that we hadn’t work with, everyone worked so smoothly together.

There was no problem. No one took anything personally. We really threw it all together and did our best.

Picture from DVD: Alex O’Loughlin – He first worked with Brett Leonard on the Marvel Comics feature Man-Thing and has recently won praise for stand-out performances in The Oyster Farmer and the TV Mini-Series Mary Bryant.

 

And also we were shooting on high-definition video as well, which made things a lot easier, because you can shoot everything.

You can shoot 20 masters if you need to. We shot a huge amount. As a young, sort of filmmaker, it’s like of course, you look at the film and you go agh.

You know, Brett and I fought …. and I love him. He’s like my big brother, you know.

And we told each other to fuck off, I don’t know how many times. Because we clash in ideas. But at the end of the day, it’s his picture, you know.

So it’s really difficult to let go of your own vision and to …… you know…..

But there’s no “I” in team. [Laughs] …..

Nice huh?

No, it’s very difficult to let go of your own vision and I think. And anyone of us as individuals, is going to make a different choice to the next person as far as ….

I mean it is such a personal art form, which is wonderful. It’s what makes it so exciting. So there’s a little bit of all of us in this picture.

So I hope you enjoy it.

My Thoughts

• You can clearly see in this interview that Alex had to give up on a lot of his own vision for this movie. My personal opinion is that he most probably wanted to show more of the relationships and lives of the Feeders and Gainers.
• One of the scenes showing more of the relationship between the Feeder and the Gainer, that we never got to see in the movie – Click here to see what it is about: Nekkid beauty, Michael, with socks on.  Just remember, Alex warned that images like that shocked him ……….. and that is why he thought it is a story to be told.
• I feel Alex had some of his best, but also some of his worst moments in acting, in this film.
• I really hope Alex will one day create that chance for himself, to do his own thing with a production – Good or bad, it will be his own.

 

You can watch the video here

 

Picture from DVD: Alex OLoughlin – In Feed, Alex creates a memorable portrayal of a seriously disturbed serial killer living by an internal logic that is hard to dispute. Now based in Los Angeles, Alex is represented by ICM

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