Kiwi rugby star Marco Alosio lands major role in Foxtel series
HE grew up in a rugby-loving, all boys school. But Marco Alosio deviated towards his love for acting, revealing what his early life as rugby star was like before he scored a major role on a Foxtel series.
Confidential
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GROWING up at a rugby-loving, all boys school in New Zealand, Marco Alosiowasn’t meant to fall in love with drama.
“It’s not normal where I come from,” the 23-year-old told Confidential of his passion for acting.
“It’s do your job Monday to Friday, on Saturday play rugby and go to church on Sunday, and then do it all over again and live inside that cycle.”
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But the Kiwi actor, who has landed his first major acting role in Foxtel’s Fighting Season — a new six-part drama which begins on Showcase this Sunday — couldn’t deny his love of the arts.
“I went to an all boys school and there were only seven guys in drama class across the whole school and none of us admitted it outside the room,” he said.
“I denied it up until the point where I was like ‘all right, I’m going to drama school’.”
Fighting Season tells the story of a platoon of Australian soldiers who return from Afghanistan and the emotional challenges they face adjusting to life back home.
Alosio, who finished drama school in New Zealand only last week, couldn’t believe it when he landed the Foxtel role halfway through his course.
“I’m big on purpose and purpose being the glue of every project, and this one has it in bucketloads,” he said.
“It’s pretty surreal. It’s still sinking in for me. I showed up on the first day and they took me to my apartment in Bondi and I sat there and just looked around and I was like ‘what is going on’.”
Alosio has long dreamt of landing his first big role, but has ensured he remains humble it about it.
“It’s not a normal thing when you talk about all these experiences to people who don’t really know the world. You kind of come off as being cocky in a weird way and that's what I hate the most. So I save those conservations for moments like this interview. (Acting) is still a concept my parents don’t really understand yet.”
But even more special to him than his own role in the show is his mum’s. “She helped me write a lot of the scenes where they speak Samoan.
“I told her, ‘that’s your writing’ and she couldn't help but cry, and she had to get up for work the next morning. She’s a carer at an old people’s home, that was the part that made me the most proud, being able to see her work essentially on screen.”
The first two episodes of the show will be screened at the influential Veterans Film Festival in Canberra on November 3 with cast and creative talent hosting a Q&A on the groundbreaking series.