#AlexOLoughlin on the Bonnie Hunt Show (Transcript) – 29 Sept 2009

Bonnie: Okay, welcome back folks. Oh my, yes we’re having fun today. Okay, so before Twilight, our next guest got our blood pumping as a sexy vampire on Moonlight.

Now he’s traded in his fangs for some scrubs, as the star of CBS’s new medical drama, Three Rivers. Please welcome Alex O’Loughlin.

Bonnie: Hi Alex.

Alex: Hi, How are you?

Bonnie: Nice to meet you.

Alex: Nice to meet you.

Bonnie: So you’re from Australia.

Alex: I am.

Bonnie: Sydney?

Alex: Sydney.

Bonnie: So we see you on the show. You know it’s always surprising when someone does an American accent and you meet them in person and they like “Top the day” or whatever they say.

Alex: [In a funny accent] “Top of the day to you Bonnie. How ya doing?”

Bonnie: Wait a minute. What accent are you doing now?

Alex: That was kind of Swahili –Irish. It’s a hybrid I’m working on for a new film idea.

Bonnie: So hey, it might not be a bad idea.

Alex: Yeah.

Bonnie: I might be an investor in that.

Alex: Thank you.

Bonnie: So you’re doing the show where you play a Doctor. A transplant surgeon.

Alex: I play a cardiothoracic surgeon who is a …. yeah, specialises in transplant.

Bonnie: How do you do with all the medical jargon?

Alex: It’s tough.

Bonnie: That is, isn’t it?

Alex: Yeah, it’s though. And I don’t know what I’m talking about.
[Laughs]

Bonnie: Are you…..

Alex: That’s not true. I study everything, so…

Bonnie: I’m sure you do, because you take job very seriously. And you want to be as authentic and kind of free and easy with it as you can possibly be.

Alex: Right.

Bonnie: But don’t you just start laughing?

Alex: I do often. It’s usually everyone else on set that’s laughing, you know. I’m saying the word ‘hypertrophic-cardiomyopathy’, and I’m saying it backwards and I don’t realise, because I have read the script upside-down.

But it’s like another language, just like law or science.

Bonnie: Right, right…
And did you, when you were growing up, did you have anything else you wanted to do besides getting into this business? Did you ever have dreams of, anything else?

Alex: I worked all around the world. I did a lot of stuff and….

Bonnie: What kind of…what did you do? Different jobs? I’m fascinated.

Alex: I did lots of stuff. Well a lot of them weren’t … I don’t really want to talk about, you know.

Bonnie: Were you a dancer?

Alex: Cause it’s embarrassing.

Bonnie: Is that what you mean?

Alex: A little bit.

Bonnie: Come on. Is it true, Alex?

Alex: No, I can’t dance very well.

Bonnie: Oh.

Alex: I can a bit.

Bonnie: I don’t think anybody would want to.

Alex: I can pitch. Did you see my pitch at the Dodgers?

Bonnie. Yeah I did. How great was that? Your Dodgers…?

Alex: I can’t begin to tell you. I mean.

Bonnie: The Dodgers game. And they were playing and…

Alex: They called and said we want you to throw the first pitch. And I was like …

Bonnie: There you are. There’s the shot. Excellent.

Alex: Oh, what did I do with my mouth?

Bonnie: That’s a good look. That’s a serious sports guy look.

Alex: It’s kind of awful.

Bonnie: Tell us. Did you make it over the plate?

Alex: What happened?

Bonnie: What is that look for?

Alex: No, look. I’m going to tell you.

Bonnie: Alright. Thought you’re going to hit me.

Alex: This is what they told me. It was a perfect curve-ball strike. That’s what they told me.

Bonnie: The catcher said that?

Alex: Well the catcher was my friend. And he… he was blaspheming, cause I actually made it …. from the mount to the …. you know …..

Bonnie: Oh, he was jealous.

Alex: It was going at about 50 miles an hour. So it wasn’t very impressive. But it did sort of….

Bonnie: Hey, that’s pretty impressive.

Alex: But I never pitched. Two weeks before, I had some lessons and they went…

Bonnie: And you don’t realise how big the distance, until you get on there.

Alex: Right, till you get out there and I ran onto the mount, cause remember they said, “You don’t really have to do it from the mount.”

Bonnie: Yeah they say, go to the bottom.

Alex: And I was like, “Oh, come on”

Bonnie: I know, yeah.

Alex: I got to do it from the mount and every one of my friends had advice, “Bro, when you do it, you got to do it… you’ve got to throw it as hard as you can”. “Bro, don’t worry about how hard you throw it, you’ll miss.” “Bro….” I’m just…

Bonnie: Everybody is calling you bro. “Hey bro”

Alex: All my friends call me bro.

Bonnie: Do they?

Alex: They do. I haven’t asked them yet. I’ve been here for 5 years, I think I’m going to ask them, why do you call me bro?

Bonnie: So bro, what happened? Did you go to the top of the mount?

Alex: Bro would be weird for you. Sis.

Bonnie: Sis.

Alex: So sis, I roll up onto the mount and everyone…

Bonnie: Do I have to be your sister?

Alex: No. We can do this though … [Bumps fists] I’ve learned that too.

Bonnie: That’s a new thing. I’ve never done that. Oh, that’s the first time. Oh, you’re my first time.

[Alex and everybody claps]

Bonnie: So come on.

Alex: I run out. I’m running.

Bonnie: You’re feeling pretty good?

Alex: Terrified. I don’t know how many, 30 – 40 thousand , whatever it was. And it’s like Forrest Gump in slow motion.

And I’m going, “Idiot, what are you doing this for? Who are….” And I see the big screen and I’m going, “Oh god, that’s me.”

And I’ve got a catcher’s mitt on and I’m like, I don’t even know if it’s on the right hand. And I get to the bottom of the mount and my brain goes, “Stop, stop” And my feet just keep going up the mount.

And everyone in the stadium goes, like this, “Oooo”

Bonnie: That’s when the pressure is on.

Alex: And I’m like, “What do you mean, Oooo? ” And no one can hear me. And I just went, “Stop”.  And my buddy Todd Tomczyk, who’s a trainer for the Dodgers. He told me how to pitch.

And I’m okay, “What would Todd…?” It’s kind of like what would Jesus do? “But what would Todd do?”

And I’m okay, “Kick the dirt”. Yeah, I’m really here. Breathe in … out ….  shoulders down. Do the thing, twist the knee, goes up and [throw] Then my buddy caught it and I was like, “Aw”.

Bonnie: Excellent. Excellent.

[Everybody claps]

Great, storyteller.
Okay so speaking of story time, we’re going to show a clip.

Alex: Okay.

Bonnie: All right. A view on Three Rivers and you’re talking to a woman who just had a heart transplant?

Alex: Yeah so this lady comes in and she’s ….. I can’t say too much, because we’re here in a week. But, she had a heart problem and she had a baby, in her tummy, at the same time.

Bonnie: [laughs] In her tummy.

Alex: As supposed to….

Bonnie: You got those technical terms NOW, my friend.

Alex: Boom.

Bonnie: Listen bro..

Alex: Who’s the doctor? Who’s your doctor?

Bonnie: Okay let’s see, come on, cause we see a whole different side of you.

[Show clip from the show]

Bonnie: So, it’s so nice to meet you.

Alex: Lovely to meet too.

Bonnie: Yeah, I hope you come back again. You guys, you can see Alex on Three Rivers, season premiere, this Sunday on CBS. We’ll be right back.

Bonnie to Alex: Nice job

Link to the video

My Thoughts:

• So Bonnie asked the question, but what do you think? Does Alex have the moves for ‘Magic Mike’? I personally think he’s got a lot of moves (just look at the hula hoop lesson and the grace with which Steve “dances” into a crime scene), but I’m not really seeing him as a strip dancer. 😕