TV Close-Up: #AlexOLoughlin – April 2008

After yesterday’s post about the ‘Bond’ auditions back in 2005, I thought this article might be interesting, because it reveals how Alex first “heard” that he did not get the part of James Bond.

The link to the original article is lost.

It was from:

 Copley News Service
1 April 2008

His suitcases packed, Australian actor Alex O’Loughlin was ready to set course last year for Boucherville, Quebec, in a New York minute. He was all jacked up for “Whiteout,” an action-thriller set in Antarctica starring hot Brit actress Kate Beckinsale as a U.S. marshal tracking a stone-cold killer.

But a few days before heading toward the North Pole (a fine substitute for the South Pole), O’Loughlin received an urgent call at his Los Angeles home from one of his TV agents: Heavyweight executive producer Joel Silver and the entire CBS Network’s drama series development team in L.A. desperately wanted him to test for the lead – as a 90-year-old trapped in a 30-year-old body – in “Moonlight.”

Intrigued by the pilot script dealing with the eternal life and times of the charming, bloodsucking private eye Mick St. John, O’Loughlin was anxious to chat with them, too. An intelligent man with a conscience and strong sense of justice, the gentleman vampire always uses his supernatural abilities to assist the living rather than write them off for lunch. St. John was “turned” on his wedding night by the sexy Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon), apparently grounds for divorce in most Western countries. But his ex-wife is still hanging around 60 years later (both still physically unchanged), hoping he will forgive and forget.

By the time O’Loughlin, 32, returned from the far north last summer, “Moonlight” was in full production on a Hollywood back lot. And the cast suddenly included Jason Dohring as Josef Konstantin, a happy-go-lucky vampire hedge fund trader (once wealthy) and Sophia Myles as Beth Turner, a blond, ambitious Internet investigative reporter.

O’Loughlin – “chipping away at Hollywood” since 2002 and L.A.-based for the past four years in order to stay close to the mecca of the international film and television industry – is still playing out a string of amazing luck since creating a buzz for his work in the modest-budgeted Australian movie “Oyster Farmer” in 2004.

Sometimes he didn’t get the girl, but association with several showbiz power players kept O’Loughlin’s name in the media, including hooking up with Martin Campbell, the director of “Casino Royale” with Daniel Craig as the latest incarnation of James Bond.

Just before the 007 yarn went into production, O’Loughlin was asked to meet Campbell at his Sony Studios offices in L.A.

“I thought he was going to ask me to audition for the villain or some other character – I certainly had no idea that he had me in mind for the (James) Bond role,” he recalled.

“After explaining the whole story, he invited me to go with him to London, where I spent a week being fitted for wardrobe and screen testing.

“It was an extremely exciting time for me as a young actor,” he continued, chuckling.

“I felt as though I was doing a good job and handled myself professionally. I didn’t hear anything from them for a couple of months after that, so I shot a film called ‘The Invisible’ in Canada.

Over breakfast in a Vancouver cafe, I spotted a fellow customer eating pancakes reading a newspaper with a large photo of Daniel Craig and a headline that read, ‘Bond Revealed.’”

The whole Bond experience was a big, wonderful journey, according to the lean, 6-foot-2 actor, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. Naturally, his ego was bruised for a while, but he got over it without major psychological scars.

But I’m afraid it killed my mother,” he laughed. “She always thought I’d be a great Bond.”

But O’Loughlin took some comfort in an award-winning effort in an Australian miniseries called “The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant” before Bond and a seven-episode recurring bit as Detective Kevin Hiatt – a recent member of the L.A.P.D.’s Strike Team – on “The Shield” afterward. A major break.

Born in Canberra to a nurse and a teacher, O’Loughlin and his older sister* (a professional volleyball player) grew up* in Sydney. Not particularly career oriented, he became a plumber’s apprentice.

“It was a terrible job and I didn’t last long,” he recalled, laughing.

“At the same time, a friend of mine in Sydney encouraged me to become an actor. He kept saying that I was a natural storyteller and loved to show off anyway. My mate finally got to me so badly that I lost about three weeks of sleep over it, then finally realized that acting was the only thing I really wished to do.”

Three years later he graduated from Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art and made his professional screen debut in 1998 doing a guest shot on an Australian TV series that no longer exists.

And now he is reaching for the brass ring in the U.S. along with his Australian girlfriend, singer-actress Holly Valance. Valance’s debut single “Kiss Kiss” became No. 1 on the pop charts in Australia and the U.K. in 2002 and a three-year gig as Flick on the series “Neighbours” helped make her bulletproof at home.

“It’s just a matter of time before you hear about Holly in America,” said O’Loughlin. “She can do anything.”

Once again thank you to @Mymaximus (one of the greatest advocates of Alex and his career in general, and also of Alex’s hard work on Hawaii Five-0), for always sharing such beautiful pictures of Alex.

All of the above pictures originally came from her before we tweaked it a bit.

 My Thoughts

• Remember that the text from the article we mark in blue, is Alex’s own words, the rest is just some of the stuff the journalist wrote and include a number of mistakes.
• According to all other sources Alex’s sister Jackie is about two years younger than him, and not older as written in this article.
• According to most other sources, they grew up in Canberra for the most part and not in Sydney as stated above. He only traveled there later on to visit his dad.
• Not sure what they are talking about when they mention the guest spot in 1998 on a TV series. As far as we know all of Alex’s guest TV appearances in Australia happened after 2002 after he graduated from NIDA.
• Something people do not always realise is that Alex was asked by the director of Casino Royale  to audition – he did not apply to do it. Martin Campbell must have seen some potential in Alex back then in 2005 already when he asked him.