#AlexOLoughlin – Is he the Alpha and Omega (the first and the last)?

“Everything you do is an experience you can draw upon for a role, he said. Never mind that the project you’re in isn’t good; shine as bright as you can. And find the truth.”

– Alex O’Loughlin 6 March 2011, Workshop in Hawaii for aspiring actors
(Alex offered some tips while he talked about his background work as a young actor, which included work on Mission Impossible II)

We know that one of the film credits next to Alex’s name is The Holiday. His role in it …. The Kissing Couple. When I first looked for him in this movie, I passed over the credits and fiercely started scanning through the scenes looking for a couple, kissing.

Needless to say, I watched the whole movie and did not find anything. On the second viewing, I actually started the movie from the beginning and realised that he was in the very first scene, even before the credits started.

Of course one of the people, with a minor talking role in the movie, later became Coraline, Mick’s ex-wife in Moonlight.

Shannyn Sossamon plays Maggie, the unfaithful girlfriend of one of the lead characters in The Holiday. And by that time she already had starring roles opposite Heath Ledger and Josh Hartnett, in movies like A Knight’s Tale and 40 Days and 40 Nights.

So we know Alex was in the very first scene of a major Hollywood movie, but was he also in the last scene of another popular movie?

A few months ago Paula reminded me of the fact that Alex said he did some background work in Mission Impossible II, at that workshop in Hawaii in March 2011.

The movie was filmed in Sydney in 1999, even before Alex went for his training at NIDA.

Paula asked around and somebody mentioned this scene from the movie. This footage is from the very last scene of Mission Impossible II. Do you see what we think we see?

Here in the last scene of the movie, the two main characters kiss each other in a crowded park and there is some random people walking around behind them – we are just showing you the people walking behind them.

We are not at all sure whether we are correct about the fact that the guy is Alex or not.

We would however like to know if anybody can without a doubt confirm or deny it or maybe some reporter could ask him the question one day.

But even if it is not Alex in that scene, we do know that he was somehow involved with this movie. Some interesting facts to consider then, is that one of the main characters Dr Nekhorvich is played by Rade Sebedzija, who also played Josef Kostan in the original Pilot of Moonlight, that was called Twilight at that stage.

He was of course replaced by Jason Dohring because it was thought best to have a younger Josef opposite Alex.

Another interesting fact is that Ving Rhames played one of the lead roles as Luther Stickell in Mission Impossible II. Ving is now scheduled to make a guest appearance on Hawaii Five-0 (There is some conflicting reports and we will have to see if he will in fact still be a guest star).

Another person that will make a guest appearance soon on Hawaii Five-0, is Oscar nominated actor Terrence Howard. He of course played a role in the movie August Rush in which Alex played a smaller role as Marshall Connelly.

It is interesting what can happen in twelve years. From being just another face in the crowd to being the lead actor in a show that now invite the stars of those movies to appear as guests on your show.

Alex also had the privilege to work with many award-winning and nominated actors since he started Hawaii Five-0. People like Jean Smart, Patty Duke, Edward Asner, Robert Loggia, David Keith, Peter Fonda, Terry O’Quinn and of course James Caan

We as fans are hopeful that Alex will soon be the alpha and the omega and everything in between of his own movies,  with the star quality and box-office status as movies like The Holiday and Mission Impossible II.

Once you’ve done a couple of films, I think the whole idea of being a movie star — well I don’t know about the ’star’ thing — but the idea of working regularly in feature films that’s my dream. To go from one character to the next and get to tell a million different stories, that would be wonderful; I’d love to be able to do that.

— Alex O’Loughlin, TheTVAddict.com, 29 April 2009

Goodbye Sweetie……..see you on the red carpet!

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.