Luke Bracey Grew Up Idolizing Johnny Utah, Now He Plays Him in 'Point Break'
Luke Bracey was wrapping up his press tour for Point Break, and he sounded wiped out. “It’s surprisingly draining, to tell you the truth,” the 26-year-old Australian actor told Yahoo Movies last week. “I didn’t know it would be this exhausting.”
Of course, answering questions from journalists can’t possibly be as exhausting as participating in all the extreme-sporting stunts it took to film Break during a grueling production. “I mean, the shoot was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Bracey, who not only tapped into his long-finessed surfing skills but also free-climbed Venezuela’s monstrous Angel Falls. “It was pretty intense stuff. That whole six months was pretty full-on for five-and-a-half, six days a week.”
In a way, Bracey explained, the extreme art of answering similar questions from press all day, every day for an extended stretch is a feat of strength in its own right, “a whole ‘nother beast… [that] you really don’t know how to prepare for.” The actor has appeared in other films, most notably in a mostly masked role as Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), but this was his first full-on ride through the junket rigmarole as a leading man.
And then there’s that giant elephant in the room that Bracey has to answer for with pretty much everyone who comes calling: that his film dares remake a cherished fan favorite, the original 1991 Point Break, starring Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, an FBI agent who goes undercover to take down a surfing crime syndicate lead by the late Patrick Swayze as Bodhi. In the new version, Bracey takes on the Johnny Utah role, while Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez) heads up a gang of eco-terrorists who do his bidding via extreme sports all over the globe.
Related: 25 Bodacious Facts About the Original ‘Point Break’
“Yeah, absolutely,” Bracey said when asked if he and his co-stars felt extra pressure in reimagining Kathryn Bigelow’s beloved thriller. “You feel the pressure with every movie you do. You want to make a good movie… No one ever goes out trying to make a bad movie, or not giving it everything. And especially for me, the pressure really came from being one of those huge, huge devoted fans of the original. I wanted it to have that Point Break feel.”
So while some loyalists may bristle at the new version’s very existence, Bracey emphasized that he himself is a member of the film’s passionate global following. “I could probably quote that movie from start to finish,” he said. “It’s a movie that I grew up loving, growing up in Australia in the '90s, surfing. For me, it’s a quintessential movie. That’s one of the reasons I felt so lucky getting to make it. They asked me to be Johnny Utah, and that’s kind of a dream for anyone who grew up watching that movie.” And he’s excited about what the new version brings to the table, like supporting cast/stunt doubles that included several famous extreme-sports athletes (like snowboarder Mike Basich, surfer Laurie Towner, and rock climber Chris Sharma) and a new story (see: eco-terrorism) updated with a topicality that better suits the 21st century.
Bracey didn’t get a chance to talk to the original Johnny Utah, Keanu Reeves, though: “Maybe it’s just nerves or embarrassment,” he said. “Or maybe I just don’t know how Hollywood works, still. Maybe I didn’t know to ask my agent for his phone number and call him up. But hopefully I’ll get to meet him one day and we’ll have a chance to chat about it.”
And though he considers himself a Point Break die-hard, Bracey has yet to experience the magic that is Point Break Live!, the popular and raucous national stage show famous for offering a random audience member the chance to play the Johnny Utah role every night by reading Reeves’s lines from cue cards (a thinly veiled, but also still lovingly orchestrated, shot at the Matrix actor’s sometimes-wooden acting).
“I definitely want to see it one time, for sure. I think it would be one of the funnest nights out ever.” Told he should make the experience even more meta by volunteering to play Johnny Utah, Bracey sounded game. "It would’ve been a pretty good publicity stunt, wouldn’t it?“ he wondered.
Yep, but it would’ve also made him even more exhausted.
Point Break opens everywhere Christmas Day.
