#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….

Alex O’Loughlin and the Ghosts of girlfriends past.

I think I owe you dinner

Steve McGarrett, Hawaii Five-0 – Episode 5 (Nalowale)

Spoiler Alert. Please be aware that if you haven’t seen all of Alex’s wonderful work , there might be some spoilers here or it might even get you curious enough to see them all.

It has been a while now since we heard that Catherine, played by Michelle Borth, is going to be a more permanent member of the cast of H5-0. Up until now we have only seen her in five episodes of the series.
She is, for the most part, a well-loved character that pops in and out of Steve’s life as it is needed in the story. We don’t know how the writers are going to incorporate her on a more permanent basis in the story, but most of us hope for the best.
Any love/lust interests in television shows are kind of doomed. They either don’t last long or they are very volatile. I suspect it is not going to be too different with these two love birds when she is around so much.

But let’s have a look at other love interests that Alex has encountered in the roles he has portrayed.

His biggest “lover” role, thus far, has been Stan in the romantic comedy The Back-Up Plan. Here he is a very noble character, that gets involved with a woman on the day she got artificially inseminated. They kind of like each other and just after they made love for the first time, she reveals her pregnancy to him. He decides to stick around and they continue to build their relationship, during those sometimes “difficult” months of pregnancy. Most people who have known each other for years already, struggle to adjust, so for two people just starting to build a relationship it can turn out to be a “comedy”.

Who cannot help but to fall in love with the wonderful Dr Andy Yablonski in Three Rivers? The man is basically a saint that is being rejected by his police-officer wife and they are separated. She doesn’t want to have his babies?!

Dr Liza Reed falls in the same category as Andy, somebody with a calling as a doctor and that can be classified as a saint. They are a match made in heaven.
Who knows what would have happened with their relationship if the series had continued.

In Moonlight Alex plays a vampire, Mick St John, turned to a life of doom he didn’t want, by the love of his life. His wife Coraline kind of betrays him by giving him “eternal” life without his consent, after they got married and he had proclaimed that he will love her forever. After 33 years of marriage he eventually “kills” her.

Then enters Beth, the woman he saved as a girl. As a grownup she fascinates him and he can’t help falling in love with her. A love that he does not want to pursue for many reasons. Not only the fact that she is human and he is a vampire but also that he has been watching over her since she has been four years old. When they actually meet for the “first” time she is very much involved with another man and Mick is a man of honour with old school values. Another big guess is as to how this relationship would have developed ………

I need a big excuse to somehow incorporate the kissing scene from the movie The Holiday. We can only guess as to what these two lovebirds (known as The Kissing Couple) story was……but it is still cute to watch and I am sure their happiness lasted for ever and ever……

The Invisible did not show us too much of the relationship between car thief and school girl. We can only imagine that things got hot between these two. They both carried the weight of their past and their present lifestyles with them……not good quality relationship material at all. No wonder they killed each other in the end.

FEED, this movie would most probably tip the scale to the side of bizarre relationships. First there is Michael’s wife Mrs Carter, who turns a blind eye to the life her husband lives. She is a religious woman who made herself believe that her husband was serving these women with good deeds (Feeding them while naked and without his wedding ring – service indeed!)

Then we have the feeder-gainer loves in Michael’s life. On some level they fill a warped need in his life. I have already  called them replacements for his mother, but they definitely also play a part in his weird love/lust life.

And then he went and married a pistol in Mary Bryant – the words of Will Bryant as spoken by Alex. This is the interesting tale of Will and Mary Bryant, that meet each other on the ship that transported convicts from Britton to Australia in the 1700’s. I was never really sure, if Will was just one of the many men that Mary used, to get what she needed in life. In the end it seems as if their love for each other was real and they gave each other comfort and hope in a time of great distress.

In Oyster Farmer we have Jack and Pearl. Oh the trials and tribulations of young love. My thanks to the writer/ director of Oyster Farmer that gave us the raw talent of Alex to last for ever. For me Alex was Jack! From their very first meeting you can see that Jack and Pearl kind of like each other.

But then there is always doubt in Jack’s mind. Is Pearl earning some extra income with her body or did she steal his stolen money? That is until he discovered the truth…….

This bring us back to present day and the prospects of Cath and Steve and what lies ahead for them. Alex Steve and Michelle  Catherine are a very well matched couple. Will we be treated with some nice moments between these two? Most of the times when they are together they provide some nice viewing moments for us fan girls.

Goodbye Sweetie…….we’re looking forward to some good times!

Goodbye girls……

For more info on what Michelle herself had to say about her character, you can read what Officer808 found out in Part 1 and Part 2

This is once again dedicated to Justine…..Happy Birthday, dear! We know that the biggest role he has ever played is the lover in your world of fantasy, but we unfortunately have no footage or detail of it to show on here….

#AlexOLoughlin ’s Tattoos (Part 3) – The Evolution

I love the outward expression, but there was a period when I was judged, because they weren’t part of popular culture, like they are now. Back then, tattoos meant you’d either been in prison or you were in some sort of gang. I had that conversation with so many girlfriends’ parents, explaining that I wasn’t a felon or a Hell’s Angel!

—  Alex O’Loughlin GQ Australia, November 2011

The Evolution:

The question that remains is how these tattoos evolved from what we see on Jack in Oyster Farmer to what we see on Alex today?

When and where did it all begin:

We don’t really know when and where it all started. It must have been a while before Alex, the public figure appeared. We don’t even know if some started out as other smaller works of art and are now covered with what we see and know today.

The earliest picture I could find that shows any tattoos, were from the 2003 year-end report of NIDA. The picture depicts a very youthful Alex starring in the play of the final year students, Country Music, in July 2002.

Not a very clear photo, but we get the picture, don’t we? It looked like he already had all his arm tattoos by then.

Let’s take a closer look at each tattoo and see how they have evolved over the years and specifically what they looked like in his movies Oyster Farmer, FEED, The Invisible and Whiteout respectively, to end up at what we see today.

(We apologize for the poor quality of these pictures – it is from  footage of his work and he was moving around so quickly and not posing for them. That makes it difficult to capture the images)

(1) The tattoo on the left bicep – We call it “The Lotus Flower”:

The general appearance of this tattoo seems to stay the same over the years. The only changes I could pick up was some colours that were re-touched and some sort of writing added in the middle section, sometime during mid-year 2011.

We add this comment from Kristy from our comments below – remember this is NOT an official explanation from Alex of what it means to him, but the comments from a very knowledgeable fan:

 Kristy (@Buffalobabe723)

August 16, 2012 at 06:39Edit

The writing on the “lotus tattoo” is Sanskrit – it’s a mantra, the mantra of compassion and one of protection – OHM MANI PADME HUNG; roughly translates as ‘the jewel is in the lotus”. It is a Buddhist mantra/prayer and it means we all have the buddha nature within us – roughly. I have the mantra on my left shoulder blade 🙂

(2) The right bicep tattoo – We call it “The Geiger”:

Taking a closer look, we can see that in Oyster Farmer (Filmed 2003) and FEED (filmed in 2005) this tattoo has got clean lines and it is smaller than the one on the left bicep.

Then in The Invisible (Filmed end 2005) we see that some work has been done around the edges and the tattoo appears to be of similar size to the left arm. It also looks like some colours have been added.

(3 & 4) The tattoos above each nipple:

We call the right tattoo “The Gecko” and left tattoo “Sunrise” (or eyelash, or my teeth marks 😀 ) :

The Gecko  is the only tattoo that seems unchanged over the years but as you can see Sunrise doesn’t make its appearance before The Invisible (Filmed  end 2005).

My guess is that it was added at the same time when enhancements were made to the right bicep.

As you can see all the tattoos that are visible today have been on display since

The Invisible was filmed at the end of 2005.

(5) The tattoo on the lower back:

This was my favorite tattoo, but now I am not so sure about my feelings towards it anymore. The tattoo was enhanced and enlarged during the course of early 2011, to cover the lower back and wrap around to the front and down the side of the legs.

I would really like to see the entire tattoo first, before I cast my vote on it. Are there any volunteers to start a petition to see this tattoo in full?

Jack in Oyster Farmer, looking for some hidden treasure lost fortune.

The Forearm Tattoos:

Jack working hard in Oyster Farmer.

It is not really clear to me what the right forearm tattoo was about, but it covered nearly the entire forearm. It looked a bit blurry in Oyster Farmer. In later years it seems to be touched up again and then somewhere during 2010 it started to fade away and at the moment it seems to be all gone.

Kevin standing around in The Shield.

The left forearm tattoo looked small in comparison to the right arm. It looked like a lace band wrapped around the arm.

It seems to be treated the same way as the right arm, touched up at some stage and now totally faded away.

Kevin sharing his thought in The Shield

(I hope you all remembered that these images were about the forearm tattoos and only that. :razz:)

On this 2012 interview, Alex’s forearms are visible. To me it seems as if the traces of these old forearm tattoos are reduced quite substantially.

HNN Interview at Season 3 Blessing Ceremony – 9 July 2012

This is Neropatti and FOYeur signing off from our very first research project. Hope you all enjoyed this instalment of our closer look at Alex and specifically his tattoos, just as much as we did compiling it. It is always a pleasure to search for anything on this beautiful body, isn’t it? 😉

Goodbye Sweetie….till next time!!

Goodbye girls….

We would like  to dedicate this first research project to our dear online friend Justine. You have been our inspiration on many an occasion to find all the hard evidence and to see the bigger picture. We truly appreciate your friendship!!

#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.