Date: May 30, 2006
Source: Daily Telegraph, The (Sydney)

Aussie Alex to cast his justice on The Shield

YOU can almost hear the Jacobs Creek popping over in La La Land as yet another Aussie has cracked it in Hollywood.

You know him best as the Oyster Farmer on the banks of the Hawkesbury river but Sydney actor Alex O’Loughlin has just scored a major break after being cast in a lead role on gritty US cop show The Shield.

O’Loughlin joins Vic Mackey’s strike team as detective Kevin Hiatt after one of the team dies in the series’ fifth-season finale.

“This will probably be the thing that gets me recognized,” O’Loughlin, who narrowly missed out on the role of James Bond, said yesterday.

“It’s a big deal. The role was highly coveted over here and I’m really happy.”

After a year and a half trying to crack the big time in the US, the actor said the audition process was a whirlwind.

“I auditioned two weeks ago, they called me back the next day and I just finished the first of seven episodes.”

Known in Australia for his roles as Will Bryant in the TV mini series Mary Bryant and as Jack Flange in the Oyster Farmer, word of the Sydneysider is already spreading in are fast in LA.

“G’day mate, you’re busted!’ one headline reads.

But it seems we can count on O’Loughlin, 29, staying down to earth.

“I’m an actor – there’s nothing glamorous about acting until you get to the f… you money and then it all turns to shit anyway,” he joked about his impending fame.