Alex O’Loughlin on his Hawaii Five-O exit

Hawaii Five-O’s Australian star, Alex O’Loughlin, has revealed when he will quit the popular TV show.

NEWS.COM.AU

15 October 2016

The actor is currently in the process of finishing season seven in the popular reboot of the original 1970s hit show, playing Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett. But it looks like this will be his penultimate season with the show.

“I signed on for another two (seasons), which is this year and next year, series seven and eight, and I don’t know if I can sustain any more than that just physically,” O’Loughlin said. “I’ve taken so many physical hits on this show, my back is pretty bad and I’ve got a lot of fixing I’ve got to do. I’ve got to fix my body.”

The actor appears to kick off season seven with a chase scene involving some serious parkour moves over buildings through Hawaii. Looks can be deceiving, however, as most of the action work is done by stunt professionals.

“Maybe 15 years ago I’d say `yeah I want to jump off that building’ but I was 40 a couple of weeks ago so I kind of know my place. There are certain things you don’t try to start doing at 40,” he said.

The show is not all about the action, the heart of the show is the relationship between O’Loughlin’s character and his partner Danny Williams, played by Scott Caan.

“Steve and Danny have been in therapy for a couple of years so they’re making leaps and bounds,” O’Loughlin said. “The wonderful thing about television as opposed to film is that it spans over years so you literally have years to work on these characters, therefore there is a natural ease between them on camera and that gets easier and easier.”

Aside from Steve and Danny, there’s another very important character in the series.

“We always said from the very beginning that Hawaii itself plays a character in the show and probably the most important character. To look at it vivid in high definition footage it’s like `oh my God it’s gorgeous’,” he said.

Despite the advantages of being in a long-running show, O’Loughlin still has an end date in mind for one specific reason.

“I want to throw a football with my grandkids one day so I’ve got to be smart,” he said. ” I think if we get through these two seasons and finish with an eighth season I think it would be an incredible feather in all of our caps and something to be proud of so I’m just focused at the moment on getting through seven and making it into eight.”

My Thoughts

• As usual I think the reporter filled in a lot gaps with her own thoughts and words and ideas, just to make the article look more interesting.
• Of course they are not finishing Season 7, but have only started and are not even half way through filming Season 7.
• Although the ratings are good, and Peter mentioned this week that the future looks good for a renewal of Season 8, it still remains to be seen if that will in fact happen (Even if contracts were signed or not).
• If I had to be in therapy constantly with a work partner, just to get along, I would rather quit …… #justsaying
• Interesting that Alex would want to quit because of the physical toll the series had on his body, and yet so many fans would like to see him as Bond. That, while Daniel Craig mentioned many time in interviews that the Bond role has been hard on his body. Apparently he needed a few operations thus far to repair some of the damage he sustained while doing the Bond films.
• When you read the last sentence, you can clearly see that the initial statement of the journalist is not completely true. Alex’s first and last words to me means that he is trying to look after his body better now (even repair it), so that he can get through this Season 7 and be okay if there are a Season 8 (…… and maybe beyond). He is not saying that he is quitting after 8 – maybe just a suggestion that it would be good enough if it was the last season. As usual words got a little twisted for me in the article it seems.

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