Until a year ago, actor Alex O’Loughlin was, by his own admission, such a nobody in Los Angeles that he “couldn’t get arrested.” Living on baked beans and building work since arriving in 2005, his luck changed a year later when he met a certain starlet.
Who Magazine, February 2008
(Who Spotlight)
by Annette Dasey
O’Loughlin’s ability to empathise with other people and roles is “quite astounding,” says Tony Knight, NIDA’s head of acting
“I was helping a friend with a pergola and Holly [Valance] came over – they were mates,” says ex-Sydneysider O’Loughlin, who is best known here for the 2004 film Oyster Farmer and 2005 miniseries The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant. “I was like, `She’s so hot, ` but she played it really cool. As it turned out, she was more of a fan than she let on.”
Alex O’Loughlin and Holly Valance in 2006
The pair shacked up in Hollywood, where O’Loughlin was known for losing the James Bond role to Daniel Craig – “How gutted was I? I didn’t think I was going to get it. It was a f–ing fantastic experience. I’ve held the gun!” – and (erroneous) reports that he is the son of AC/DC rocker Bon Scott. “My dad didn’t care [about the rumours] but my mum was upset,” says the 31-year-old, whose father is a physics teacher and mother a nurse. “Being viewed as a charlatan worried her.”
Then he landed a part in TV crime series The Shield and a supporting role in August Rush, a magical drama (opening on Feb. 21) starring Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Robin Williams, about an orphan who is sure his parents are alive. O’Loughlin, whose son Saxon, 10, is in Australia, and Rhys Meyers shared an apartment in New York while making the movie. “We’d work out and see bands,” says O’Loughlin.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (left) and O’Loughlin play brothers in August Rush
Nabbing the lead in vampire TV series Moonlight means O’Loughlin has less time with Holly: “We’d prefer to be together more. You want to be with someone you love, but you adapt.”
My Thoughts:
- Good example of how things change in all our lives. Both Holly and Alex got married (of course to other people), since that time and both became parents with their respective partners since then. Alex & Malia with Lion in October 2012 and Holly & Nick Candy with daughter Luka in November 2013.
- But some things also stay the same.
Magazine scan
Alex & Jonathan
Alex & Jonathan in New York in 2006
Thank you Alex and Malia for a delicious New Years dinner and great company. I love this lil Lion (and Spike). 😍 @thelionandthelambchop on IG
(It looks like Mara Lane (who posted the picture on her Instagram today) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers got engaged earlier in December and are on vacation in Hawaii at the moment.)
Links to other articles we posted that featured August Rush:
& Cleo entertainment April 2008
Alex O´Loughlin ~ An Intense Study 