In this Courier Mail article Peter Lenkov explains why style and wardrobe details are important for Hawaii Five-0 and how Australian men make excellent action heroes!
Seasonally Dressed for Arrest
By Geoff Shearer
Getting the look just right for the new season of Hawaii Five-0 involved such small details of wardrobe as discarding a necktie here and there.
Executive producer Peter Lenkov says the first season’s opening episode had a specific, calculated look that has continued to be subtly refined.
“The pilot was a good example of the show I wanted to tell. Style. Wardrobe. Everyone had a specific look. If you look at the characters and the way they dressed… the personality matched the wardrobe,” Lenkov says.
“And sometimes when you’re doing a show week-to-week you start to deviate from that. In our show, if you start putting leather jackets on people or dressing them differently, I think it becomes an odd visual thing.”
For season two, Scott Caan’s character “Danno” is mostly seen without his tie.
“For me that’s a very important thing – for him understanding and accepting the fact that he’s going to be here for a while, is that he’s going to start letting go of the old Danny, says Lenkov whose previous credits include CSI: NY, 24, The District and La Femme Nikita.
“Even McGarrett (Aussie Alex O’Loughlin, pictured) wearing a suit – he’s going to be wearing a suit in the second episode, because he’s going to see the new governor. Now, his relationship with the new governor is going to be very different than the old governor.
“So, those are details, when you’re writing, that you have to put into your wardrobe and your props and every other department.”
In terms of the show’s syle, was there a decision to bring the sensitive alpha male back to serial television?
“Maybe,” Lenkov says, “I don’t know if I consciously did that. I think I’d met Alex a year before I did the pilot and we’d met on something else and it was going to be a medical show (the short-lived Three Rivers) and I didn’t think he was a doctor.
“To me he’s an action hero. To me, he had just got off a plane, he was unshaven, he was wearing jeans and a leather jacket and I was thinking that guy’s an action hero.
“When I was writing McGarrett and we were casting, and it was brought up, why don’t you work with Alex, I was thinking, a guy like that doesn’t exist on TV. I wanted to have a real action hero.”
Lenkov believes Australian men make good action heroes.
“I think, for some reason, I think life can be a little harder out there and they lead a more rugged life,” he says.
“Just from what I shot during a pilot out there years ago and I just remember being out there and everyone seemed a lot tougher.”
But Lenkov hasn’t gone over the top with testosterone. In fact, he changed one of the characters in the original series from male to female for the reboot. Kono Kalakaua was played by Gilbert Kauhi, better known as Zulu, in the original series and the 1997 TV movie. In the new version, Grace Park plays the role.
“Yeah. The original show was all male,” Lenkov says.
“Women were flight attendants, secretaries, there were no women – and I didn’t feel that was real. You can’t do a show, any kind of show, without some kind of female in there.
Source: The Courier Mail (scan in the gallery)
I disagree with him that Alex is only an action hero. He was superb as Mick in Moonlight but I totally believed that he was a doctor in 3R-they just neglected to delve into his character’s background as they should have and that, coupled with the worst spot on the schedule, was the problem. He was also amazing as a serial killer on Criminal Minds and if you can do that as well then you are definitely a very versatile actor.
Alex can be a awesome as an action hero-Moonlight proved that-but we want to see the sensitive side of his character and I hope the producers remember that. Action heros cannot be all action and nothing else. For that reason, the season ender last season was the ebst ep of that season because of Steve McGarrett’s suspicion of and confrontation with the governor. THAT kind of scene is what we want to see.
Thanks Mizz. Peter Lenkov has a great eye for talent! Alex O’Loughlin is absolutely the perfect actor to portray Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett, a brave, rugged and strong navy seal, cop and action hero on Hawaii Five-0. In my opinion, Alex is going to have a great film and television career.
Thanks Mizz for fixing the site so we can post our comments.
Alex O’Loughlin is the perfect Steve McGarrett. I also loved him as Mick St. John in Moonlight and as Andy Yablonski in Three Rivers. He is such a versatile actor. He was also awesome as Stan in The Back-Up Plan. Loved him in Oyster Farmer and Mary Bryant.
Interesting comments from Peter L. I suppose timing is everything in Hollywood and I totally agree Alex is an action hero type. Too bad he was not a bit older when he auditioned for James Bond. Just look at the above picture. He is definitely mature enough now!! Whew…..HOT!!! The man carries himself so well and has such a remarkable presence…cameras just love him. This is one smoooooooth man!
Thanks Mizz.