A-list Confidential: Where Young Rock is filming on the GC
From American football in Nerang and Metricon Stadium to a major shopping centre, Young Rock season two has been spotted filming across Gold Coast hot spots this month
QLD News
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Young Rock was a hit among Queensland locals with its visible film sets last year and it seems filming on season two is no different.
The NBC comedy series about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s early life resumed filming in southeast Queensland midway through October, shifting to Gold Coast’s Village Roadshow Studios – Joe Exotic is using their first season home at Brisbane’s Screen Queensland Studios.
In the first week of filming, the crew, including actor Uli Latukefu, who plays a 20-year-old Johnson, were spotted filming inside Robina Town Centre, making use of The Kitchens area.
The following week a new set was spotted by locals at the beach at Broadbeach nearby on the Gold Coast.
Gridiron Queensland players were then recruited for two days of filming in Nerang on October 21 and 22 to replicate Johnson’s time playing in the Canadian Football League.
The players, hand-picked by the American production team, alongside Latukefu were seen wearing the red jerseys of the Calgary Stampeders, where Johnson was based for a short time in 1995.
To replicate Canada, biodegradable paper was used as fake snow.
The production also used Metricon Stadium to film locker room scenes.
A film crew was then spotted filming on a beachfront balcony at Palm Beach, further south on the Gold Coast, for a number of days this week.
THE HOME STRETCH
Angie Kent is eyeing off a return to her Gold Coast “safe haven” after dealing with a public drink-driving charge in Sydney.
Having travelled to the Gold Coast to film a role in horror movie The Possessed late last year, the reality TV star, 31, decided not to return to Sydney and bought her first home on Tamborine Mountain early this year.
She was then cast in Dancing With The Stars, which filmed in Sydney, and subsequently got caught up in the lockdown that prevented her from returning home to Queensland.
“I had to leave (my new home) for work and I thought I’d be back six weeks later but here I am still in Sydney,” she said.
“I’ve been waiting for hotel quarantine since September 19 and no word.”
Kent was pulled over by police in Pyrmont on October 3 and charged with mid-range drink-driving after having had two drinks on an empty stomach.
She pleaded guilty in court in Sydney during the week and was subsequently disqualified from driving for four months and fined $1200 in a ruling that made national headlines.
“Obviously I’m completely embarrassed, mortified, incredibly apologetic,” she said. “Personally dealing with a DUI, like anyone, it’s just an awful experience.”
“I have to deal with it publicly, financially, emotionally. It’s a privilege to drive and as soon as that’s taken from you and you realise how dangerous it is to do something as silly as have a couple of drinks and drive thinking you’re OK, you just know never to take that risk again.”
She is now waiting for Queensland to hit its vaccine target to return home.
“It’s my safe haven, it’s where I get to go and retreat,” she said. “I was looking (for properties) on the Gold Coast and it was off the Rickter (Scale) with prices and then I went up the mountain and fell in love.”
Kent was on the Gold Coast for her first acting role at the time, having jumped at the offer to audition for Chris Sun’s film The Possessed.
She had studied film and television before she “randomly got on Gogglebox” and began a career in reality TV.
Cast alongside John Jarratt, Lincoln Lewis and Lauren Grimson, the former Bachelorette completed quarantine on the Gold Coast late last year before filming.
“To work on a horror you really have to tap into this space where you are so frightened all the time. I had to kind of method act and really scare myself,” she said.
“The day after quarantine it was straight on set so I just watched horror film after horror film … just really took myself to a space where I had been frightened in the past and just channelled that energy.”
Coinciding with Halloween, The Possessed premiered at an event on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday before its theatrical release.
A QUEENSLAND ESCAPE
Cosentino’s reputation preceded him when he arrived at his quarantine hotel on the Gold Coast this month.
“The police officers, who were very lovely, they said as a joke ‘We know who you are, don’t even think about trying to escape’,” the grand illusionist told Confidential, adding he kept his promise.
“When I finally got out she said ‘it’s good to see you didn’t escape’”.
Cosentino, along with his cast and crew, finished quarantine last week before beginning the Queensland leg of his Deception tour, which will see him perform the 90-minute show in nine cities across the state.
Along with close-up magic and dance, Deception involves death-defying escapes which Cosentino said he was concerned about performing after being in a hotel for two weeks. He typically trained and rehearsed for one month in order to be physically fit for a tour.
“The show is very physical … so for me now I have to build up that fitness. This is what I was talking to Queensland Health about as well,” he said.
“I’m really holding my breath, I’m really picking my locks.”
“You can’t just stop a show and say ‘Excuse me while I catch my breath’. If I’m being completely honest … it is a little bit of a concern, but I’ve done it before in WA and Victoria as well.
“You don’t work if you don’t do this. For me this is my absolute passion not my job.”
He said it took six months to prepare for a new escape act, and they had signals and safety elements built in to protect him if something went wrong.
While his national tour would typically take three months it has drawn out through the year due to state lockdowns and quarantine.
For the next few weeks he, will transport his set around Queensland in a 22-tonne truck.
“I do 80 to 100 shows per year; that was reduced to less than half,” he said.
“To be able to do what I love to do, to be on stage and see peoples’ reaction, to hear the gasps, it’s audible – that response that I haven’t had in such a long time is a really beautiful thing.”
Cosentino will perform in Mackay on Sunday before taking in shows in Rockhampton, Townsville and Caloundra and arriving at QPAC in Brisbane on November 10.
He will finish the tour in Maryborough, Gladstone and Bundaberg.
IN GOOD COMPANY
Brisbane musician Mallrat has scored a massive gig supporting American rising star Conan Gray.
The 23-year-old, whose real name is Grace Shaw, will join Gray in May on a mammoth 24-date tour across Europe and the UK as a special guest of the star signer.
Mallrat shared the news to social media following the announcement and was met with a bevy of well wishes from fellow Brisbane and Australian artists.
“I can’t wait,” Gray, 22, commented.
His debut album, Kid Krow, debuted at no. 5 on the US Billboard 200 last year, making it the biggest US new artist debut of 2020.
Having started his career on YouTube, he has 4.8m Instagram followers
10 QUESTIONS WITH … BERNARD CURRY
1. Who was your teen idol/ crush? Alison Brahe. I wouldn’t tell Cam Daddo that I had a huge crush on his missus, but he would have to know there’s a few blokes out there in my generation. Or the Antz Pantz girl Toneya Bird. “Sic ‘em Rex!”
2. Who are your three ideal dinner guests? Will Ferrell, Richard Pryor and John Belushi. Would that be fun or what?
3. What’s your worst date experience? I once went on a date with a girl who couldn’t use chopsticks. Now, before you judge me for being too judgmental, she had never even tried to use chopsticks. Ever. Next!
4. What’s the movie that made you cry? Lion. When you have children, a film like that can kick you in the guts to know the fear these little kids would have had to lose their family, and the sheer joy of being reunited with them.
5. Which song do you sing in the car? Foo Fighters. Everlong. My wife Sonya doesn’t like it when I air drums in the car because “Hands on the wheel!!”
6. What’s your favourite movie or TV series you never admit to loving? Sonya and I are Survivor addicts. Australian, US, doesn’t matter, we love it!
7. What’s the most sentimental thing you own? My watch. Omega Seamaster Plan Ocean. It stays on my wrist all the time, and I hope to hand it down to my kids one day.
8. What do we need to know about your time on Big Brother? It’s just great fun! Lots of interesting characters, fun game play and a bit of underhanded, dastardly tactics and strategy
9. What’s your most embarrassing moment? I was with my scout group when I was about 12 years old and we were on this beautiful old train called “Puffing Billy”. Really needed to do a wee, but there were no stops and I couldn’t hold it in. No hiding it in Khaki shorts, I can tell you that.
10. What’s on your bucket list? I want to do burning man at some point. I keep putting it off, but maybe some day. And finish renovating my house! I’d also love to take the wife and kids to Egypt. It was one of my favourite places to travel.
The Wentworth star is a contestant on Big Brother VIP, which premieres Monday at 7.30pm on 7 and 7plus
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