#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!

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#AlexOLoughlin – It’s Time To Say Goodbye!

I think really if there’s nothing out there in the dark, then once we’re dead we’re just dead and all religion, all spiritual belief, is redundant. So there has to be something else, or what’s the point? And if we accept that there has to be something… then there can be anything.

—  Alex O’Loughlin, Sydney Morning Herald, December 2007

SPOILER ALERT – If you haven’t seen all of Alex’s work, this might really give away the surprises of the work we refer to!

Where does an actor like Alex go to, to find the emotions of dying. For almost anything else they have to portray, they can go back somewhere to find something to relate too. But none of the living really knows what it is to die. I have always wondered if it is uncomfortable for an actor to “die” or play dead.

To be killed by a monster is kind of easy – it is total and brutal fear that you experience. And here we can see Deputy Eric Fraser’s last moments on earth. The thing he feared most in life, got to him, The Man-Thing!

What emotions flash through your mind when you know, this is the end. It is inevitable I am about to die and I want to do it with honour.

Apparently Alex extended the scene of Will Bryant being shot and dying much longer, than what was originally planned, but the director liked Alex’s version of it so much that he decided to use it. You decide for yourself….

(Of course the real life Will Bryant died of fever on the ship on his way back to England, but what can be more dramatic than to be killed by your wife’s lover? However I am certain Alex would have “killed” a death, dying of fever, just as well)

You live by the sword, you die by the sword. In The Invisible we have two lovers Marcus and Annie, who took their passion and their criminal behavior so far, that they kill each other in the end. (Not that we know if he really died)

In Moonlight, Mick the human, dies twice.

First by the hand of his wife Coraline, who feels that by “killing” him she is giving him eternal life.

The second, by the fangs of his best friend Josef, when he begs him to do it.

This time he is driven by love…..

“Kill me for Beth, My Beth!”

In Whiteout it seems Russell gets what´s coming to him.

He kills a few people in cold blood, out of pure greed, and in the end he meets a horrible death at the hands of nature itself.

As I am typing this, I can’t help but cry, thinking of Alex as Vincent in Criminal Minds.

Those touching words of guilt from Vincent,  towards a boy he related to after killing the boy’s mother. Seeing himself in that boy made him realise the monster in himself! FORGIVE ME.

Was there redemption in those words? Did the dying Vincent find peace for his soul? How is it that you want to cry at the death of this serial killer “monster”.

All I can say is Bravo ALEX, BRAVO!!

I think the spirit of the man himself is beyond salvation and that’s what I as the actor went for, you know?

— Alex O’Loughlin, MyTakeOnTV, 29 April 2009

Goodbye Sweetie………we know we’ll see you soon, because your present Ohana has got your six!

With Steve there will be good times and there will be bad times, but you’ll always be able to smile at the end…..

Goodbye girls….

#AlexOLoughlin Trademark Smile!

Here is a collection of smiles collection from some of Alex’s different roles, filled with AOL happiness 😀

A laugh is a smile that bursts

“A laugh is a smile that bursts”

“Wear a smile. One size fits all.”

“Laughter is what a smile alone can not express.”

“Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.”

“Never, ever, regret something that made you smile.”

“Smile, it is the key that fits the lock of everybody’s heart.”

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been”

“A smile happens in a flash, but its memory can last a lifetime.”

“If you see a friend without a smile; give him one of yours.”

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

“You can only hold a smile for so long, after that it’s just teeth.”

“A smile is happiness you’ll find right under your nose.”

#AlexOLoughlin ’s Tattoos (Part 2) – The Cover-Ups And Hidden Treasures

They (My tattoos) all have a meaning… but we all need secrets 😉

Alex O’Loughlin

– TV.com Live Chat, 1 October 2009

The Cover-Ups and Hidden Treasures:  

There is some added confusion from the fact that for some of Alex’s roles some or all of his tattoos are covered up, sometimes with better end results. Let´s start with his present day role:

Steve McGarrett, in Hawaii Five-0

Navy SEAL, turned Special Unit Cop. For this role only the bicep tattoos are allowed to be untouched. Whenever any of the other tattoos are visible they are covered up. Either badly with very orange make-up or it is digitally removed in editing.

But then there are some ‘hidden treasures’. The quest  of finding them has become many a fan girls’ priority. It is those brief glimpses of his lower back tattoo that we as viewers are not supposed to see.

To catch these rare moments, make some fans squeal with excitement and joy 😀

On these Season 1 footage, the old tattoo is still visible:

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 1:03 (Malama Ka Aina)

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 1:07 (Ho’apono)

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 1:10 (Heihei)

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 1:13 (Ke Kinohi)

Update 22 July 2014:

We also found this glimpse in this episode.

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 1:19 (Na Me’e Laua Na Paio)

Just now (September 9th 2014) stumbled upon the new back tattoo peekaboo in 1:23

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 1:23 Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau

From Season 2 onwards, the new enlarged back tattoo is visible:

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 2:02 (Ua awe Wale)

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 3:07

Hawaii Five-0: Episode 3:20

Hope you enjoyed seeing them all as much as we did in finding them! If anybody knows of some we might have missed, please let us know.

Mick St John – Moonlight

Vampire PI that was turned in 1952. I am no history buff about tattoos, but I would presume that the folks back then were not big on permanent ink decorations at all.

It would have been interesting to know if the process of getting a tattoo would be workable on the undead, though.

So for Moonlight the cover-up continues.

 

(I really wish the make-up department from H50 would get some tips about covering these works of art from the Moonlight and the Back-Up Plan people. Or maybe even better, just let Steve embrace Island life and leave them all alone!)

Moonlight’s “hidden treasures”

Episode 7 – Ringer

I have read many a claim of the rare forbidden glimpse of the back tattoo in the fight scene of  Ringer (Moonlight – Episode 7) and I agree, if you know it is there you see some markings, but it just didn’t get my fan girl heart racing at all. It really is just too dark. Or maybe not…….

My special thanks to my gifted partner who performed this miracle and provided us with something to squeal at!

Update: 22 July 2014

Episode 4 – Fever

With our latest look at Moonlight this last month, we found this small hidden treasure that we have missed before:

For me the greatest thing about these hidden treasures in Moonlight and also Hawaii Five-0, is that they so how much of the hard work Alex do himself.  – because most of them are seen during stunts.

Dr Andy Yablonski from Three Rivers

The transplant surgeon might have had had a sordid past, but he seems to be untouched by ink. Only one brief glimpse during the entire series shows us his naked and empty skin – with no tattoos.

SIGH!!

Stan the Cheese Farmer, in The Back-up Plan.

Sadly, a total cover-up here, but truly well done. There is no ink anywhere to be seen. Except maybe for that one forbidden glimpse of the tips of the back-tattoo on his side. (this glimpse is unfortunately not visible on all DVD versions of the film) Are you able to spot it ? 😉

Before and after picture from the make-up department of “The Back-Up Plan”

Gecko – Before

Rising Sun – Before

Lotus – Before

Geiger – Before

After

From the before and after pictures you can see it must have been a rather big job covering the tattoos. I really wish they would share with us how they did it and how long it took!

And it is interesting that there are no photos of the Tramp Stamp and how it was covered…..It must have been covered as well, because in the movie we see Stan from behind 😉

Russell Haden the Ozzie pilot from Whiteout.

For a bloke like him it is all systems go. He bares it all to the US Marshal to get her interested, but to no avail. Maybe all the ink was just not her style, or maybe she was not into the Australian accent, like most of the fan girls seem to be.

Who knows, why she did not volunteer to do that strip-search that the man so boldly offered and was clearly in need off……Maybe trying to advertise your manhood in minus 33°C, running naked across the snow, is not such a good idea after all.

Many a man might have fallen short on that one, I think……. 😀

Marshall, the musician in August Rush,

Unfortunately Alex’s screen time in this movie is so short, there are only a few moments of him without long sleeves and here you can see that they did not try to cover any of the tattoos.

This makes me wonder if the glimpse of the back tattoo on the roof should stir any feelings of hidden treasures found (well it does for me 😛 )……..

Detective Kevin Hiatt, in The Shield.

Nobody that has seen Alex in The Shield can forget the “chair scene”.

Although Alex is seemingly naked, there is not really much of this body to be seen. We do however know that possibly all of his tattoos were visible and there was no attempt at any cover-ups here, (although The Shield storylines were full of them 😀 ).

Marcus Bohem, the car thief from The Invisible.

In this film all his tattoos are visible, even the extra tattoo of the swallow that I spoke about earlier in part one.

They cast these two gorgeously hot people in a relationship in this movie. Why, oh why didn’t they just juice it up a bit more and showed us some more of Alex’s beautiful body?

Michael Carter in FEED

Boy oh boy, FEED! All I can say is, the naked truth is beautiful and it showed us everything……about the tattoos of course!! 😉

Will Bryant in  Mary Bryant

Alex plays a convict send to Australia to start the new colony. In today’s day and age a convict without a tattoo seems rare, but of course this took place in the 1700’s, so the people from Western civilizations were not yet big on ink decorations, I think.

Here it was easy; they could just splash some dirt on him for the tattoo cover-up. Well, apparently not. According to a report, he spent three hours in the make-up department to get the tattoos covered – lucky girls (or boys)!

(Maybe I would have taken just a little bit longer to get the job done).

Jack Flange in Oyster Farmer

This was my first sighting of all of Alex’s tattoos. Not difficult to see that somebody that has seen The Back-up Plan with the “clean” Stan, could find all Jack’s ink confusing!

All these cover-ups just show us how many happy make-up girls there must be walking around……sigh!!

Please take note, that this is not where our story ends – Here our next quest follows the trail of how these works of art evolved over the years.

#AlexOLoughlin ’s Tattoos (Part 1) – What is Real and What is Not?

Man, tattoos are cool! They’re something that started in the folly of youth and there’s been a progression ever since.

— Alex O’Loughlin, GQ Australia, November 2011

There I was in 2011, watching The Back-Up Plan for the first time on Television. Needless to say, the leading man fascinated me – Alex O’Loughlin.

Who was he? Why haven’t I heard of him before? Did he just appear out of thin air, or has he done anything else worth watching?

Some days I think, maybe I  should have just left it there and not explored any further! Now I just can’t stop my need to know even more about him ………

Anybody else have that same problem? 😆

As soon as I started watching his other work, I found myself in total confusion about all of his tattoos. Different tattoos and different versions of tattoos appeared.

So there I was, not a real big lover of tattoos, wondering what is real and what is not?

This is what I saw in Oyster Farmer:

 Something else I was not big on, was surfing the internet, looking up celebrities and making friends out of strangers on the internet. But Alex and his tattoos inspired me to do so …..

Well the rest is history and here I am writing a story on Alex’s tattoos for the internet, together with a friend I have never met in person, who lives thousands of miles away.

Up until today I haven’t found a good understandable answer to this very first question of mine – How many tattoos does Alex have and what do they look like?

So this is my gift to any new fans looking for answers about the body art and hopefully some of the old fans will also enjoy just looking at all once more.

The Real Tattoos:

There are  five (5) tattoos clearly visible on Alex  at the moment I am writing this. One on each of his biceps, one above each of his nipples and one on his lower back, that wraps around his hips and is visible from the front. (Also read Part 2 & Part 3 where we explore them further)

1 May 2012. Photos: Splash

 

BTS photo’s of 3:03 Filmed August 2012. Thanks to @MyMaximus, as always you are the Genie of New Pictures!

From this behind the scenes picture filmed during August 2012, it looks like not only does the new Back Tattoo wrap around to the front, it also extends down the thigh.

My guess would be that it has been there since the Tattoo has been redone in 2011.

Whatever else he has hidden in some dark private corners of his body, I can unfortunately not report on.  😥

The Faded Tattoos:

In the past he used to have two more tattoos that have been removed and are now faded. Sometimes glimpses of their existence are still there to be seen. There used to be one on each of his forearms as seen in these pictures.

The Added/ Temporary Tattoos:

Some of the confusion about his tattoos may arise from the fact that for certain characters he played, it was deemed necessary to add even more tattoos.

Please remember the following tattoos are all fake!!

• The biggest and most prominent one was for ‘FEED’. A beautiful cross on Michael’s back.

• For ‘The Invisible, a swallow on Marcus’s neck.

• Also for The Invisible, some words written on the left side of his abdomen. (It looks like 4 names underneath each other)

(Thank you to Mary from the old .org site for providing the information about the abdomen tattoos 🙂 )

• And another one from ‘The Invisible‘ – some sort of weird symbol at the back of Marcus’s head

• And for ‘BlackJack: Sweet Science’ Luke needed a little cross on his neck.

To be honest, I am glad these were only temporary tattoos and were just added for those roles – but then again anything looks good on this man and we will most probably accept anything he adds.

This is not where our story ends, because for specific roles they cover up some or all of his tattoos and we explore that further in our next post.

We continue our research herewith all the cover-ups and maybe find some hidden treasures as well…….

 

UPDATE:

We made a update to the tattoos post in 2019:

#AlexOLoughlin and his Tattoos

and here

The Mystery of the ‘New’ #AlexOloughlin Tattoo Unfolds

(Just click  on the links)