Born in Canberra, Australia, and raised in Sydney, Alex O’Loughlin’s thick Aussie accent is nowhere to be heard on “Hawaii Five-0,” where he plays the lead character Steve McGarrett. “I heard that some people thought I was American,” said the 34-year-old actor during a break from shooting in Honolulu. “I take that as a great compliment. I try to be as authentic as I can for each role that I take. But once I’m done shooting, I sound like me again. I can’t hide it.” “Hawaii Five-0″ airs Mondays on CBS.

Q What is your favorite vacation destination?
A Tulum, Mexico, because it’s magic. There’s a yoga retreat at the Maya Tulum Resort (rrresorts.com/maya_tulum) that’s really great. I just love that part of Mexico. But Mexico is such a wonderful country in general. I love going out to Chichen Itza and climbing the pyramids and seeing the ancient ruins. The food is amazing, too. The ceviche there was some of the best I ever ate. [READ THE REST HERE]

The lantern jaw. The steely eyes. The no-nonsense approach.

Jack Lord played those attributes in the original “Hawaii Five-O.” Now, says Alex O’Loughlin, the update’s new Steve McGarrett, it’d be wrong to copy them.

“My Steve McGarrett is stoic in a lot of ways. He’s a military guy. It took a lot of dedication and perseverance to get to something like the Navy Seals…but he’s an interesting character study.”

The new version supplies plenty of back story — something the old one didn’t. “I found a lot of layers to this guy,” O’Loughlin says. “I had a lot to work with — stuff about his father, about his family, about the level of training that he’s done.”

That made him more than a facilitator and a real reason for O’Loughlin to predict success for the series. Indeed, “Hawaii Five-O” is one of the few new dramas to find a solid audience. It’s also O’Loughlin’s first hit — after tries with “Moonlight” and last year’s “Three Rivers.”

“If this one doesn’t work, I’m going to go away and look at films or go back to community theater,” the Australian says with a laugh. CBS executives, however, were determined to find O’Loughlin a property that worked. “Five-O” draws on his physicality; its past suggested some kind of tune-in. [READ THE REST HERE]

Have you been watching the new Hawaii Five-0 lately? If so, you’ve probably seen Alex O’Loughlin’s abs.

But working out isn’t the only thing he does when he’s away from the cameras. I got the chance to talk with him about his new role, and his new life here in Hawaii.

Kicking in doors to find an assassin. It’s just a regular day on the job for lieutenant commander Steve McGarrett.

Shoot out with a trained killer? No problem for this star of Hawaii Five-0.

Alex O’Loughlin’s character is an intense ex-Navy seal who is perfect.

[READ THE REST HERE]

Ever since the first scene in July, when the stars of “Hawaii Five-0″ raced into the spotlight with tire-squealing action, the pace of production has been brutal.

The first season of any show, even one with a pedigree like CBS Television’s “Five-0,” challenges everyone involved to learn their parts, their places and the personalities they are bringing to life. There’s a lot to do and barely enough time to do it — every episode, five to six days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day.

“Television is very exhausting,” said Alex O’Loughlin, who stars as the show’s dynamic leader, Steve McGarrett. “You kind of forfeit your life to work in TV.”

But now the show is halfway through the season, which will include a pair of bonus episodes next spring, bringing the season total to 24. The principal cast members — O’Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park — have found their marks and decided what they like about the network’s biggest hit of the season.

They’re passionate about the show but they’re tired. Up close, during time off so they could meet with a group international press gathered recently in Waikiki, they seem beat.

“With this show the work just keeps coming,” said the 34-year-old O’Loughlin. “It just doesn’t stop, and so you kind of do it and it’s gone and you’re on to the next thing. But it never goes away. [READ THE REST HERE]

Hawaii Five-0 star Alex O’Loughlin has insisted that his character Steve McGarrett is very different to the version played by Jack Lord.

Lord starred as the original McGarrett in the first version of the show from 1968 to 1980.

“[In] the old show, Jack Lord’s character was more sort of brooding,” O’Loughlin told Chicago Now. “He was more sort of stylised, as was the style of the day just all around. Everyone’s acting was different, everyone was different. So we’re going for much more naturalism and [there] are a few fundamental differences.”

He added: “I think [viewers are] going to be surprised at how sort of ruthless my McGarrett is. But also I think they’re going to be surprised at how thoroughly they enjoy the show on every level. Because I really do believe this show delivers character, crime and comedy in perfect balance.”

The actor also revealed that viewers will learn a lot of the new McGarrett’s back story in the pilot episode.

“[With] Jack Lord’s character, you didn’t really get much back story,” he claimed. “So we know more about [the new version]. He’s a good deal younger, a good deal more energetic [and] a good deal more aggressive.”

Hawaii Five-0 premieres this Monday at 9/10c on CBS. [Source]

Alex O’Loughlin hopes his third shot at TV success, “Hawaii Five-0,” is a charm. In fact, he might try anything to make it happen.

“Anything that helps–just keep it on the air,” the Aussie actor joked about the buzz generated by talk of his many shirtless scenes. “I’ll get the whole kit off if you do that.”

“Hawaii Five-0,” the reboot of the 1960s police drama, premieres at 9 p.m. Monday on CBS with O’Loughlin creating a much more physical–and sexier–Steve McGarrett than Jack Lord did in the original.

The new McGarrett is a Navy Seal who, after his father is murdered by baddie Victor Hesse (James Marsters), makes a deal with the governor to run an elite police task force designed to stop international terrorists, human traffikers and gun smugglers on the island.

He enlists the aid of former cop Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim), Kelly’s newbie officer niece, Kono Kalakaua (Grace Park), as well as Danny “Danno” Williams (Scott Caan), who isn’t real happy about being teamed with McGarrett.

It’s an action-packed, gorgeously shot drama that, after his CBS’ series “Moonlight” and “Three Rivers” failed to catch fire, should finally give O’Loughlin a hit.

“Basically, if this one doesn’t go the distance, then I’m dumbfounded,” he said. [READ THE REST HERE]

The stars of the new Hawaii Five-0 (CBS, Monday, 10 ET/PT) are walking on hallowed TV ground. The core four —Alex O’Loughlin (Steve McGarrett), Scott Caan (Danno Williams), Daniel Dae Kim (Chin Ho Kelly) and Grace Park (Kono) — talk to USA TODAY about the original, their reinvention of it — and that famed phrase.

Q: How does your show compare with the original?

O’Loughlin: “It’s a very different show. (The original) is pretty stylized. Television was really different back then. There are certain elements of the old show we are carrying across, but not that much. It’s the same idea, the characters have the same names, but it’s a very different feel.”

Kim: “One of the differences between this show and the original is there are going to be (ongoing) stories where you’re going to learn about their pasts, their families and their history.”

Q: So the new Five-0 will get more into characters’ personalities and backgrounds?

Caan: “I hope so. The fact I have a daughter and everything I do is for her, that immediately makes me more human than just a cop on a TV show. The reason I’m there is because of her. I don’t want to be there. There’s that struggle and dealing with a boss and new people and a partner I don’t see eye-to-eye with and dealing with my ex-wife, who’s on the island. And, ultimately, there’s the connection I have to the cases, personal connections. It’s set up for a lot of that, not to just be a procedural.”

Park: “The beginning few episodes are all about them coming together as a team, the conflicts, the harmonies, the history, the tension. It makes it more rich when you have some challenges, because when you forge a relationship, it’s that much more earned and it’s more satisfying.”

Q: Jack Lord’s McGarrett always seemed like a father figure to James MacArthur’s Danny Williams. What is the relationship now?

O’Loughlin: “We don’t start off as partners. (But) as they get to know each other, they realize they probably can work together. It feels like a sibling-esque thing. It feels like I’m playing a character with my brother in the scene. That’s the sort of antagonism, because it comes and goes quite easily.”

Caan: McGarrett “is definitely the boss. He’s the one that put this group of people together. He’s the leader of the pack.”

O’Loughlin: “But he certainly sees Danny as an equal. At the end of the day, he’s the shot-caller, but I think he gets comfortable pretty quickly with sharing that responsibility with Danny.”

Q: Does this McGarrett break the rules?

O’Loughlin: “Always. I don’t think he can help himself. He just gets (angry) at things moving too slowly, at island pace, and he just does what he needs to do to ramp it up and get the job done. It freaks Danny out to no end.”

Q: Will Chin Ho Kelly and Kono also will be more fleshed out — and how?

Kim: “Chin Ho is a character that was accused of taking bribes while on the police force. So he’s been exiled and removed from the force. He’s trying to put his life back together again when the Five-0 team asks him to join.”

Park: “Kono’s a native. She’s been on the surfing circuit. She’s cousin to Chin Ho, and it’s in the family now, being on the police force. Because of his history, it’s a bit of a challenge for Kono. But she doesn’t seem to mind. She goes in all barrels blazing.”

Q: What do you think of Kono going from a man (played by Zulu in the original) to a woman?

Park: “With her being a woman, that may either disarm people or maybe they wouldn’t expect her to be a cop. There are a lot of people on the island in the underground world who would know who to look out for. Since she’s a rookie, she has a fresh background. She has a clean slate.”

Q: How do you feel about the new show’s nods to the original, including the theme and McGarrett saying “Book ‘em, Danno” in the pilot?

Caan: “I feel like I like it if someone else likes it. It’s not my thing. I wouldn’t have written it. But if people dig it, then I’m up for it. I would like to stay away from anything from the old show that might be slightly goofy or corny. … If people hate the show but they like the line ‘Book ‘em, Danno,’ I think they’re going to tune out. If they love the show and they don’t like the line, it doesn’t mean they’ll tune out.”

O’Loughlin: “If it turns into a soundbite, then that’s what it is. It just becomes something that’s going to pop up to advertise the show. … I kind of get that it’s an important tagline, but as long as we do fun things with it, as long as we keep it alive and unique, that’s what’s important.”

Q: What are you hearing from fans of the original?

Caan: “They say, ‘Book ‘em, Danno.’ ”

O’Loughlin: “A lot of them are talking about Jack Lord. ‘You’re playing Jack Lord.’ ‘No, I’m playing Steve McGarrett.’ ‘That was Jack Lord’s character.’ ‘Yeah, mine’s pretty different.’ ‘Are you going to have the hair and the this … ?’ I’m like, ‘Well, no.’ Hopefully, they’ll like it. But it’s a complete redo.” [source]

The catchphrases may be the same — “Aloha,” “Book ‘em, Danno,” etc. — and a sexy, hard-hitting new opening-title sequence may pay homage to one of TV’s most iconic opening theme songs. The new Hawaii Five-0, though, is not a remake, so much as a reboot, says its star, Alex O’Loughlin.

O’Loughlin may be a post-modern sex symbol for the Internet age with devoted, (mostly) female online fans following his every move, but even O’Loughlin knows there’s no upside in trying to one-up the late Jack Lord, who played legendary TV crime-buster Steve McGarrett for 12 seasons between 1968 and 1980.

Lord had better hair, for one: a flamboyant, curling coif that resembled the famous surfer’s wave that opened every episode of Hawaii Five-0 in those years, when a generation of viewers familiarized themselves with iconic TV characters such as Dan “Danno” Williams, Chin Ho Kelly, Kono Kalakaua and the inestimable Wo Fat, Hawaii Five-0′s most famous, and infamous, villain.

O’Loughlin is a man of his time, and times have changed.

“I remember the old show from when I was a kid,” O’Loughlin says, in a quiet, measured tone that suggests his Steve McGarrett will be the strong, silent type — more David Caruso than Don Johnson. “If you can remember, the old show was taken off TV 40 years ago. It started more than 50 years ago. There’ve been a lot of changes in television and the way we act, stylistically and with technology, and what we can do in terms of special effects and stunts. It’s not a remake. We’re not picking up where they left off. It’s a complete reboot, and the characters are very different.”

In the original, viewers didn’t know much about McGarrett’s backstory, for example. He was simply there, a fixture of the Hawaiian landscape, like Diamond Head.

“You learn a lot about my Steve McGarrett right away in the pilot,” O’Loughlin says.

O’Loughlin may be a matinee idol for the new age, but that doesn’t mean his television projects are guaranteed hits. His vampire detective series Moonlight lasted just 16 episodes in 2007 to ’08, before going the way of all flesh. Last year’s hospital drama Three Rivers, in which O’Loughlin played a transplant surgeon, lasted just eight episodes before being pulled in November; the remaining episodes were burned off over the summer. Even though there are no sure things in television, Hawaii Five-0 is unlikely to need an emergency transplant.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the other shows I’ve done,” O’Loughlin says. “I’ve worked with some wonderful people. Those other shows were great in their own ways. There is a reason, though, why things either work or don’t work. I don’t know what the answer is: I just keep blundering along to the next thing and hoping.

“This has a special feel to it, though. Everyone involved in it, from the writers to the actors, just feels so . . . capable. I read the pilot. I did the pilot. I saw the pilot, and I saw what they did with it. There’s something about it (that) feels just right. I mean, if this one doesn’t go, I’ll be completely bewildered, I have no idea how television works at all.”

O’Loughlin has a deep, abiding respect for the original, even though he’s determined to put his own stamp on the role.

“I love Jack Lord’s McGarrett,” O’Loughlin says. “I love Jack Lord’s hair. I love Jack Lord’s version. I think he started Blue Steel, that look that he does. He’s awesome — none of which I can get away with in 2010 on television.

Hawaii Five-0 premieres Monday, Sept. 20 on Global and CBS at 10 p.m. ET/PT. [Source]