They say ….. #AlexOloughlin shines.

I think Diana and Alex shine on the screen. And yet it’s in context. It’s not overwhelming any aspect of the production. I think that subtlety is coming from Anna’s direction, which is always crucially important.. But I do agree, I think Diana and Alex are going to go far.

Anthony Buckley, Producer, Oyster Farmer, DVD extras

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#AlexOLoughlin -A Young Aussie Lad and His Assets

Once again tried to have a short brief glimpse of Jack.

The movie (Oyster Farmer, if there are still fans out there who don´t know Jack), captured me and gave me such a happy feeling, that it was really hard to stop and just capture tiny moments.

I felt almost like a cougar, drooling over this young man (but being only 29, that seems a bit young for a cougar 😉 ) . Oh boy, what a talent in that body…

Jack and his spade

Jack in the dog race

Jack getting out of bed

Jack undressing

Jack getting in the shower

Jack carrying some groceries

What makes it even more wonderful, is knowing that Alex actually really wanted this part.

He knew he could be the best Jack there is 😀

Until we meet again Jack…

#AlexOLoughlin as Jack – A special report on why ‘Oyster Farmer’ is my p0rn

I opened up the script and started reading it, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s fantastic, the writing is so powerful and the characters are so strong and full, and it’s such a beautiful story and such an important story, I think, for us, because of the way things are in the world at the moment. It’s about love; it’s about hope; and it’s about family. I just went back to [my agent’s] office and said, ‘I’ve got to do this; get me this job!’

— Alex O’Loughlin, FilmStew.com, 16 September 2004

I love love-scenes in movies. Making love is part of human nature. It shows the deepest connection between two characters – especially if it is all part of a real story line and not just there for sensation or for the sake of just being there.

Whenever Oyster Farmer is discussed, the subject of the love scene on the pier turns up as well. I want to share my thoughts on it, but would like to start at the beginning.

Oyster Farmer tells many different stories and one of them is the golden tread of the beautiful love story between Jack and Pearl that developes during the course of the film. From the very first time that they meet, you know they have some sort of attraction –

Jack: “Will I see you around?”

And every time they run into each other, their curiosity about the other seems to grow even more.

Then Mumbles decides it is time to play matchmaker and he sends Pearl to ask Jack for a lift home. Jack takes his chance and tries to kiss her – but clumsiness gets in the way and the moment is lost – He takes her home.

Lucky for him he did at least manage a goodnight kiss when he dropped her off.

When Brownie sees them eyeballing each other in the pub one day, he confronts Jack about the “relationship”. He warns Jack that she is a high maintenance girlfriend and he also plants a seed of doubt with him about the source of her income. Is she earning her money with “special” favours to the men in town? She needs to get the money to pay for her hobby of buying expensive imported shoes from somewhere…..

Everything Brownie breaks down, Mumbles tries to rebuild; “She likes you” he tells Jack as they meet up with her at the post boxes. He also spills the beans on who her real father is. This helps Jack to understand her connection with Slug.

Pearl sees Jack acting very lovey-dovey with another girl at the hospital – you can see the disappointment on her face…..

And when he visits her at the post office, she enquire about his other girl. He tells her more about his past as an orphan and that he is actually there for is sister, who is recovering in hospital after an accident.

The fact that Pearl was not selling herself for money, now fills Jack with new suspicion of where she gets the money from to pay for her expensive taste. He suspects her of stealing the money that he himself stole from the fish market.

He attempts to get his money back from her by blackmailing her, but fails miserably and he accidentally causes her dogs death in the process.

For once Brownie does something good for this love story. He tells Jack that Pearl uses her credit cards to buy shoes and that her mom had to cut them up to stop the spending. He also tells Jack to make up for what he has done by buying her a new dog as present, to help her get over the loss of the dog he accidentally killed.

With all obstacles removed, Pearl takes her dads advice and invites Jack to ‘a place where you can think’ along the river. And here enters our love scene, totally motivated by all that I have mentioned before.

At this point I want to mention all the criticism I have seen on this particular love scene from others and with it, also address some of them in my views about the scene:
• They did not use a condom
• There was no foreplay
• Jack did not show a lot of stamina – it lasted only a few seconds
• Oh how uncomfortable and those splinters and rusted nails
(The thread about it on IMDB has some good answers and it is all worth a read)

There is nothing intimate about a sex scene at all.

You have got 30 people standing around and there is a camera between your legs and there are lights and make-up girls looking at your bum to make sure you haven’t got too much shine.

If I never did another one, that would be just fine.

— Alex O’Loughlin, AAP General News, Australia, 16 June 2005

Who needs foreplay if you’ve had weeks of lusting after each other. Pearl knew why she invited him there and Jack is no fool. The small talk they have while lying there, also serves as foreplay. Add to that the thrill of being intimate in open air and some kisses and undressing in front of each other and by that time you would be begging him to just get on with it…..

Rarely would the use of a condom be depicted in a movie if there is no motivation for it. Only times when you will see it mentioned is, will be when there are some joke surrounding it or when something goes wrong with it.

It is actually rare to see love scenes in movies in real-time action. You normally see some sweaty bodies moving around seductively and an edited version of intertwining moments and flashes of the process. The love scene in Oyster Farmer is a rare jewel of something real. You see the process – the kissing, the undressing  and then the intercourse. Beautifully and very realistically done.

With so much history behind it plus the factors of discomfort and the thrill of a public place, a quickie is required. If you have ever had a quickie under these types of circumstances, you will know that just the thrill of it, speeds things up. There is not much action needed to reach the heights of passion. It is like the power nap of sex! Shorter and more powerful, but it serves its purpose well…… For me while watching it, those seconds feels like an eternity!

Their “moves” are also not the Hollywood directed ones used for the thrill of the viewers. They are real and raw and very believable. They are in an uncomfortable place, new to each other and hungry for passion! It also looks like no sound editing was needed. The two of them got it all to perfection.

I have watch many people watching the movie for the first time and somewhere during this scene, they all get this nervous shuffle in their chair – which tells me that they are finding it a bit uncomfortably hot, I think.

And then there are those little giggles of satisfaction from both of them at the end….sounding like some form of relieve, that they have done it and it was great!

After this and back in real life, when talking to his “mentors”, Jack talks about love. That for me, makes it so much more special, because you know he was not just banging another chick. He was MAKING LOVE……..

If we didn’t laugh about it, we would have been crying.

Now I’ve started worrying because Oyster Farmer is going out on 22 screens internationally in July, and there’ll be my naked bum again.

— Alex O’Loughlin,The Courier Mail, 23 June 2005

This story is dedicated to McMo – Thanks for being such a fun person and for loving this as much as I do!

And to Anna Reeves (Writer/ Director of Oyster Farmer)

– You are my hero for bringing the young uninhibited Alex O’Loughlin to the movies!

That longing to touch. Vote for the most emotional moment POLL!

That absolute yearning between two people. The longing to be closer, to share more and to become part of each other!! That need to be ONE…. Is there anything more exhilarating in life than that?

All these scenes are beautiful examples of that desire for more and are portrayed with wonderful emotion by Alex. Which one brings out that aching feeling of another’s touch the most for you?

(1) Mick & Beth : That moment of surrender.

(2) Stan & Zoe: Did luck bring them together?

(3) Jack & Pearl: Weeks of desire, turned into action…

(4) Andy & Lisa: An undeniable connection?

(5) Mick & Coraline: The raw power of attraction!

#AlexOLoughlin is Playing Cops and Robbers

None of us are just purely benevolent or malevolent.  I mean, it’s not possible in human nature, unless you’re Ghandi.

The more flaw you bring to a character or the more balance you give your character with flaw, the closer that character moves towards everyman, you know.  And if that character is an everyman, then we can all sit back and relate to them like we can’t relate to a superhero.

 – Alex O’Loughlin, TVaddict, 4 August  2010

Spoiler alert! Please remember if you haven’t seen all Alex’s work, there might be some spoilers here.

Part 1

– Finding himself on the wrong side of the law.

Maybe it’s because I know Simon so well, I understood exactly what he meant with the character, and I hope that I conveyed it through my performance, and if I haven’t, I apologize in advance, but I understood Vincent’s anguish, and I understood the desire for salvation, and I think before the end, he rests assured of himself. He’s not all bad.

— Alex O’Loughlin, MyTakeOnTV, 29 April  2009

Criminal Minds made me wonder if it is the specific roles he chooses to play or if it his acting abilities, but it always seems like Alex make you feel sorry for the criminal he plays at the end.

He succeeds in bringing you the humanity of someone like Vincent, who is the worst kind of murderer.

 

In Whiteout we will never know if Russell has been a criminal his whole life or if he just turned bad because of opportunity, when the carrot of extreme wealth was too big and the temptation to strong to get rich quickly.

It did seem easy for him to kill, maybe it got easier after the first one or maybe he had done it before?

 

In The Invisible he again creates this feeling of a character whose life has been tough on him and even his girlfriend does not stay loyal to him (not that he was very loyal to her) ……

Was he really a bad person or did life just deal him a bad hand?

As Marcus, Alex creates this sympathy you feel for him while the detective is questioning him. (well that and he looks so amazing during this scene)

 

Feed – could there be any worst kind of criminal. Somebody that exploits the vulnerability of helpless woman addicted to food and in the end addicted to his affection (Well who can blame them, if your reward for eating yourself to death, is to see him in all his naked glory?)
But still in the end you want to cheer for Michael, like Deirdre ……..

Has there ever been a more adorable criminal in the history, than Will Bryant in Mary Bryant? I never know if they play down the criminal element of the people who were convicted and send to Australia to create sympathy for them, or if they where just a bunch of unfortunate souls that where living in a time that mother England wanted to start a new colony and found reasons to do so.

 

I am sorry to say, I haven’t had the privilege yet to see BlackJack: Sweet Science. From what I read about it and the screen caps I have seen, it looks like, Luke was a boy who turned bad because of his past and the general ineptness of the police. And again the emotions from Alex that is displayed in what I have seen, show that he was doing a good job with it.

 

In Oyster Farmer Alex plays Jack Flange, the most harmless criminal. He turns to crime out of a pure heart. Did old man Mumbles save his “soul” or would his good nature have made him save himself at the end?

 

Part 2

– Is he playing Good Cop or Bad Cop?

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and spending a lot of time with the LAPD guys. I’ve been doing that and going out shooting lots of guns and sort of rolling with these cops and just talking to them and just doing as much research stuff as I can.

—  Alex O’Loughlin, IGN.com, June 2006

The Shield is the first television role for Alex in the USA. As Kevin, he was a little bit like a fish out of water with his new colleagues. In the end he just could not be bad like them……

 

At the moment we are seeing Alex in his biggest role thus far. Hawaii Five-0 is seen as an all-around success and they just started filming Season 3.
As a law man Steve is kind off unconventional because he did not do specific police training and he never worked within a department where he was overseen by a Head of Police.

The bottom line is Steve McGarrett doesn’t care what anyone thinks.

But there’s something lovable about that, it doesn’t come from ego or self-importance, he has a mission and he’s following that through.

— Alex O’Loughlin,  The Sun-Herald, 30 January 2011

In Season 1 they were given free rein to do whatever they wanted and used any method that came to mind as long as they got the job done…..

And in Season 2 they were supposed to be “better” controlled……

In Moonlight, Alex plays a PI that assists the police to solve crimes that they have difficulty with. In the original pilot Mick talks about him being up many a dark alley and that he knows things that the ordinary police do not have access to……..

Once in a while he would also stray to the side of vigilante ….. and it is debatable if he is really still on the right side of the law by doing that?

I really enjoyed Alex as Deputy Eric Fraser in Man-Thing. He was playing a character so far removed from himself. In what little screen time he had, he really gave his young man life and you feel sympathy for his life of being a law man but having to deal with the gruesome results of a monsters work.

 

So let’s recap. Alex has been on the wrong side of the law playing an oyster farming market robber, a smuggling sailor, a serial killer that feeds women to death, a serial killer that does bad things like daddy did, a car thief and a diamond thief murderer.

On the right side of the law he has been an ignorant small town deputy, an out of depth detective, a vigilante vampire PI and a Navy SEAL cop.

All of them memorable performances … the cops were never all good and the murders and thieves never all bad.

Alex managed to find the humanity in all of them and created great empathy in mostly all of them. What more can a storyteller want?

Goodbye Sweetie ….. till next time

Goodbye girls ……. I’ll be around soon!