Alex O’Loughlin Directs Tonight’s Hawaii Five 0 Episode- Congratulations!!

 

If you are an Alex O’Loughlin fan, you would have had to have been under a rock to not know that Alex’s directorial debut airs tonight. As expected, there were a couple more interviews that dropped yesterday since the time we posted the first two. These ones came from Alex’s home for 10+ years, CBS themselves, and Entertainment Weekly. The CBS one was done in depth and is probably the most detailed about the actual process and his directing experience. We have included excerpts from both below.

 

pic credit Ninjaloha 

 

CBS: Congratulations on your directorial debut! Is there any way you tried to leave your personal “stamp” on this episode?

ALEX: It’s weird to talk about being a director. I’ve done one episode of my own show, that I’m very comfortable on and fully supported by every single crew member. Part of my head is saying to me, “you’re not a director yet.” I just needed to qualify that!

 

CBS: What do you want audiences to take away from this episode?

ALEX: The heartbeat of this story is a domestic violence against women story.

Joanna [Christie] wasn’t an actor who was sent to me from the company. I searched her out because I’d seen her on Narcos and I thought she’d be fantastic for it. She agreed to do it and I was beyond thrilled. I was really humbled and moved that she would trust me to be her director—as a first time director. I got her on the phone right away, and she was such a collaborator. I feel she told the story beautifully. She’s really talented. She’s got such an open heart. We were both on the same page right away: that we’ve got a really important story to tell.

 

CBS: Is there a difference with how you approach each actor?

ALEX: …You make adjustments the actor you’re working with requires, and then it’s show time. You realize as a director you’ve got to be fluid. You’ve got to listen and really pay attention to what the actor is telling you. I may go to an actor and say “Hey, listen, how do you feel about this, and trying it this way? Is there a world where your character would do that?” And they may start asking questions, like, “Why would I do that? That doesn’t make sense.” And then it’s up to me to question my motivation, to actually answer the question.

 

CBS: What was it like directing a car (and foot!) action scene, and how does it compare to directing other scenes?

ALEX: It’s a different thing. Action is action. You either know how to do it or you don’t know how to do it.

I had extraordinary help around me. [Stunt coordinator] Eric Norris is so awesome. And Paul Lacovara, my double, who is also coordinating now, is so awesome. I can really hand it over to them and go,”‘Boys, do your thing.”

I think as an action director, it comes kind of naturally to me to a certain extent, because I’ve done so much action, myself—as my MRIs would suggest!

 

CBS: Anything else you learned as a director?

ALEX: …[Another lesson was] what people’s interpretations of your words are. You can say “blue” and some people hear you say “pink.” You learn on the fly who hears what when you say what you say, and making adjustments so they hear what you want them to hear, so you can tell the story you want to tell the story. It sounds manipulative, but it’s not. It’s more about communication.

For the entire CBS interview, click here 

 

pic credit CBS

“I was the most difficult part of directing,” O’Loughlin tells EW with a laugh, explaining that his extra duties as director prevented him from doing enough prep work as an actor.

 

But O’Loughlin says everything else about directing felt “strangely natural” to him. “I really loved it,” he says. “I didn’t know how it was going to be with actors, I just thought I would try to be the way I enjoy directors to be with me, which is informed, and informative, and open, and full of questions, and collaborative, and have a passionate connection to a story. For the most part the actors really felt that, and I had a lot of positive feedback from the actors. So that was great.”

 

For the entire Entertainment Weekly article, click here

 

                              pic credit CBS

 

Once again, CONGRATS to ALEX!! on such a wonderful milestone in his career. It is only hours away now that it will be shared with the world.