Australian actor Adam Demos on his racy new role: ‘I’ve got more clothes on in this one’
After making headlines for THAT full-frontal scene, Australian actor Adam Demos has unveiled his newest role – and he teases that it’s far less controversial than Sex/Life.
Stellar
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With his tousled blond hair, rippling muscles and broad Australian accent, Adam Demos certainly looks – and sounds – the part of someone who would be comfortable on a surfboard. But having grown up on a farm near Wollongong in NSW, Demos didn’t exactly have a stereotypical Aussie childhood filled with sun, surf and sand.
As such, the actor had to train hard for his latest role in TV drama Rescue: HI-Surf, spending several weeks learning how to ride a jet ski, swim confidently in massive swells and administer first aid.
“They wanted seasoned veterans and people within that lifesaving industry to watch and go, ‘That’s exactly how we would do it’,” Demos tells The Binge Guide.
“In the end, 95 per cent of it was no stunt doubles. It was all us,” he adds of the efforts put in by the cast.
“We got pretty good towards the end of it. It was a lot of hard work but it was very rewarding and cool to watch the final product and go, ‘That’s actually us. We did that.’”
Set on the North Shore of O‘ahu in Hawaii, Rescue: HI-Surf follows a team of heavy-water lifeguards as they deal with anything from drowning tourists to shark attacks and sand collapses.
Filming on location in places like O‘ahu’s Banzai Pipeline, where the barrelling waves can make Sydney’s Bondi Beach look like a paddling pool, provides an awe-inspiring backdrop to the action.
It also adds a layer of complication to the actors’ performances.
“You can plan for something, and then all of a sudden, the wind will change, the waves will start, the swell will go in a different direction,” Demos says of shooting in changeable conditions.
“So you really have got to think on the fly. We had great teachers who taught us how to read the ocean and that came into play within the takes as well.”
While the show may be populated by beautiful people in red swimsuits, it’s not another Baywatch.
Produced by John Wells (one of the creatives behind hit US shows ER, The West Wing and Shameless), HI-Surf treats lifesaving in a far more serious fashion than its campy predecessor. There are no musical montages or scenes with slow-motion running down the beach.
“It’s all fast and action-packed,” Demos says.
“And that’s no slight on Baywatch. What we’re doing is something really different.
“We’re doing huge jet ski rescues and stuff like that. But I understand why people will think it’s similar to what Baywatch was. It’s a win-win, really.
I welcome people thinking it might be one thing [and then tuning in], because they’re going to have a really great time watching.”
Having won notice thanks to his work in 2018 dating show drama UnReal and steamy 2021-2023 series Sex/Life, Demos is leaning further into his sex-symbol status with this latest performance as Aussie lifeguard Will Ready, who’s torn between a former flame and his new fiancee.
“I’m honestly just very thankful to call this my job,” Demos says.
“I would be egotistical to be thinking about [being a heart-throb] – that’s out of my control. I just get in there and try to do a good job.
“And technically, I’ve got more clothes on in this one than the last show.”
Rescue: HI-Surf premieres this Tuesday on Binge and is also available on Hubbl. Read the full interview with Adam Demos in The Binge Guide on Sunday, available on the flip side of Stellar.
For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here.
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