WHEN Alex O’Loughlin first rolled up his sleeves as Hawaii Five-O’s handsome crime-fighter, Steve McGarrett, he wasn’t so sure the CBS series would make it as far as this year’s sixth season.
For a start, his co-star Scott Caan made no secret to the media he wanted off the island (it’s hard to get good Italian food in Honolulu, apparently), openly struggling with the culture change.
But fast forward to 2016 and a baby boom which hit the US drama series — including a son born to O’Loughlin and his wife Malia Jones and a daughter for Caan with his girlfriend Kacy Byxbee — has helped make the crime drama one happy family again.
While it’s been all action for the Hawaii Five-0 team since 2010, O’Loughlin jokes it was all action behind the scenes for a while there too. “We’re all family men now. We had nothing else to do so we said, ‘let’s breed.’ The time has come to sow the Five-0 seed,” he tells Switched On, between takes on the Oahu set.
Factoring in more family time means Caan now films five less episodes each season than O’Loughlin, flying home to Los Angeles, partner Kacy Byxbee and their one-year-old, Josie.
“Funnily enough,” O’Loughlin explains, “Scott wants to be here more than anyone but that comes down to his schedule. He’s got his family now, he gets to go home to see his lady and his little bubba … he’s found his rhythm now, you know.”
Any break the Canberra-born actor gets he spends with his wife, Malia, his teenage son Saxon (from an earlier relationship), her son Spike (with surfer Luke Egan) and the couple’s three-year-old boy, Lion.
The physically demanding role takes a toll on the 39-year-old who admits he’d rather spend his hiatus in hibernation than Hollywood.
“The other cast rush off and are eager to do (movies) but I just want to hang out with my kids, with my dog and my wife and relax. By the time I get to the end of each season, I’m pretty run down … 25 episodes, that’s a lot of TV to do in 10 months. I need to just get my body back, eating and training and catching up on sleep.”
But McGarrett fans should prepare for pulses to race when it comes to his love life this year. And not before time, says O’Loughlin who thinks his character has done it hard in the romance department. “Mate, he’s a mess, poor bastard. The thing is though, he really is a victim of circumstance … it’s not like he’s blowing it,” he says
Still, the path to love won’t run smooth, O’Loughlin hints: “I just think (executive producer Peter Lenkov’s) got these bets going about how long he can torture McGarrett with these women, so we’ll see.”
My Thoughts
- Always great to get a new article and some fresh news directly from Alex, but I am going to nitpick a bit.
- There is nothing in the article that actually says what the title implies that it was about.
- I do not even know what this sentence mean >>>> – But fast forward to 2016 and a baby boom which hit the US drama series — including a son born to O’Loughlin and his wife Malia Jones and a daughter for Caan with his girlfriend Kacy Byxbee — has helped make the crime drama one happy family again. When were they not a happy family at Hawaii Five-0? And how did the two babies help with something that was never wrong?
- Malia’s ex-husband is Australian surfer Luke Stedman not Luke Egan.
- I also see one of the pictures in the original article is labeled as ‘McLoughlin’ – oops
- Interesting that the original article would link a twitter fan account to Alex’s name. Good thing though is that it is one of the reputable fan accounts of devoted fans and not one of those who try to imitate Alex.
- As usual I think much or most of what Alex said in this interview was tongue-in-cheek stuff.
- For those who don’t know, “bubba” is Australian slang for baby. And Alex uses it often when he talks about babies.
Alex O´Loughlin ~ An Intense Study 