Sunday May 10, 2009
Partners in crime drama
By ELIZABETH TAI
Travis Fimmel is inspired by the indomitable work ethic of his cancer-stricken co-star Patrick Swayze.
GOOGLE Travis Fimmel, and chances are the first photo you see at the top of the page is of a blond Adonis with his underpants peeking out seductively from his unbuttoned jeans (or sans said jeans).
Fimmel, one of the lead stars in the gritty cop drama The Beast, got his start at stardom when he appeared in magazines and giant billboards around the world as a Calvin Klein underwear model seven years ago.
His sleek, chiselled physique caused quite a stir. In fact, the media reported that a billboard featuring Fimmel in his white Calvin Klein underwear – and nothing else – had to be removed in London after it caused traffic congestion!
“That was some rumour someone started on the Internet,” insists the 30-year-old Australian actor during a recent telephone interview with South-East Asian journalists.
Travis Fimmel and Patrick Swayze are undercover cops in the crime drama, The Beast. The show has earned headlines because of Swayze’s determination to star in the series despite fight with pancreatic cancer. Someone, apparently, also started a rumour that he was an oil painter.
“If I was good at painting, I wouldn’t be acting, you know? Acting is probably the only thing where I can get my creative spirit out. I can’t play music or paint,” he says.
Well, the Calvin Klein advertising campaign certainly brought Fimmel enough fame for people to bother speculating about him, but the six-footer would like you to forget about those semi-nude photos, please.
“I did modelling for six hours in my life – just stood there and looked like an idiot. I don’t know why people still talk about it – it was seven years ago. I just paid my rent and that was it,” says Fimmel, who then insists that us journos focus our questions on The Beast.
After all, he is a serious actor now. After being the lead in 2003’s TV series Tarzan (cancelled after eight episodes) and then having bit parts in movies, Fimmel has managed to snag the role of undercover FBI agent Ellis Dove and is acting opposite veteran star Patrick Swayze in The Beast.
It’s a meaty role: Dove is a young, enthusiastic FBI agent who becomes shady FBI agent Charles Barker’s (Swayze) new partner. But what Dove doesn’t know is that Barker is being investigated, and the powers that be want him to spy on Barker.
“Barker torments Dove a lot throughout the show; he’s always testing me because I think he knows I’m investigating him. So I think everything he does is a test, whether I’m ever going to tell him if people are setting him up or not,” says Fimmel.
“It is very interesting just to see how our characters’ relationships end up – a lot of people don’t want us to be partners,” he says.
But who should he trust? Barker or the forces who insist that he’s corrupt?
Dove’s trust issues is something Fimmel can relate to.
“I live in Hollywood so you’re never quite sure who to trust, although you want to trust everybody,” he says.
Cancer battle
The Beast has been making a lot of headlines lately – but not for its television success. Instead, the focus has been on Swayze’s difficult battle with pancreatic cancer. The 56-year-old Texan went public with his illness last year, and despite having to undergo aggressive chemotherapy, threw himself into the role of Charles Barker, endured gruelling filming hours and even did his own stunts.
Now, The Beast faces an uncertain future as there are questions about whether Swayze is strong enough to tackle a second season.
The journalists pepper Fimmel with questions about Swayze and his cancer, but Fimmel takes it in his stride; he is all praise for his co-star.
“Patrick showed me you gotta stand up and take life as it comes and make the most of every opportunity and never be defeated,” he says.
Swayze was always the first guy at work and the last to leave, reveals Fimmel.
“He’s an inspiration – a cowboy. He does an amazing job on the series. He’s been really good.
“You see how hard Patrick works on set, and in his life he has a big battle ahead of him and he never lets anything get him down. He fights everything. He’s very inspirational,” says Fimmel.
Being Dove
For his role as Dove, Fimmel watched a lot of the TV show Cops and hung out with a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team in Memphis, Tennessee, for a week.
“That was great fun – I loved it. But I was from a farm so I grew up with guns,” he says.
And he had to eliminate his strong Aussie accent as well.
“I had a very strong Australian accent. It took a lot of work, I read a lot of books about it, and watched a lot of TV,” he says in his hybrid Aussie-American accent.
The Beast films in Chicago, Illinois, and Fimmel has to get used to the bitter cold as well as the gruelling filming schedule.
“We get there 5am. We go through hair and make-up. We work about 14 hours a day. We definitely have input but we don’t have time as we get the script the night before or that same morning so we don’t have a lot of time to change stuff,” he says.
But one thing he doesn’t mind doing is that he and Swayze perform their own stunts. “It’s good fun doing the stunts - you don’t have to remember any of the lines!” he quips.
And because they play undercover agents, Fimmel and Swayze have to put on different personas, and this means that the actors could play different roles within a role.
“I was an AWOL soldier, an Irish thug, Patrick played an Apache and a homeless guy. There’s a lot of different characters to play with,” he says.
His favourite “disguise” was when he played a hired hitman.
“I loved it – I got to shoot with a lot of guns,” he says with a chuckle.
‘The Beast’ premieres on AXN (Astro Channel 701) on Tuesday at 11pm; it airs the same time every Tuesday.
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