SAFETY FIRST
Cop drama ‘Oath’ braved Hurricanes Irma and Maria
RYAN Kwanten is best known for playing blond lunk Jason Stackhouse on HBO’s “True
Blood” (2008-2014), where his Southern accent was so perfect that many viewers don’t know he’s Australian.
“I prefer playing characters with [other] accents than my regular Aussie accent,” says Kwanten, 41. “It helps me get deeper into the bones and blood of the character. A lot of that comes from the voice, for me.”
For his current starring role in “The Oath,” Kwanten also employs an American accent to play a corrupt cop. But this time he sounds like an East Coast-er. “The Oath” revolves around the gang subculture within the police force. Think “Sons of Anarchy” meets “The Shield.” Kwanten’s character Steve Hammond simultaneously heads a police department and a criminal enterprise. Sean Bean (“Game of Thrones”) plays his incarcerated father, Tom. “He has that kind of aura about him — the moment he walks into a room, the air temperature changes,” says Kwanten. “There’s no love lost between our characters, so it was really interesting going to those darker place with such an esteemed actor as Sean.” “The Oath” is set in a fictional city that feels like it could be anywhere in America, but the show was filmed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hurricanes Irma and Maria both hit during production. The cast was evacuated to safety in LA, but the series continued to film on location after the storms hit. To help with the relief effort, the production made a donation to the Save the Children fund. “That added such a true emotion to this when we came back, particularly after Maria,” says Kwanten, “and the Puerto Ricans were still very much struggling to get themselves back on their feet.” He says the main practical impact the hurricanes had on the production was the scramble to lock down locations. “You go in with plans but you’ve got to be prepared to roll with the punches,” he says. The larger impact was an emotional one. “It was really nice to, if nothing else, give them a purpose and a little bit of cash flow coming in,” he says. “We all know the Puerto Ricans are such spirited people, but to see their tenacity shine through after this devastation was so powerful. It made it the most rewarding project that [all of us] had ever worked on. It was one of those, ‘How can you possibly make the most of such a devastating event?’ “At the end of the day, that’s kind of the purpose of art and what we do in film and television,” he says.