Fox’s newest series, Rescue HI-Surf, is rooted in a deep and passionate embrace of Hawaii and Hawaiian culture.
The series follows a group of dedicated and heroic lifeguards on the beaches of the North Shore of O’ahu. It combines high-octane rescues, spectacular scenery, and complex character stories into a delicious package audiences will surely fall in love with.
The series is a love letter to Hawaii, something encapsulated by one of its stars, Zoe Cipres, who plays Hina Alexander, a newbie lifeguard, when we spoke with her ahead of the series premiere.
Cipres, who starred in the final season of Roswell, New Mexico, is a Hawaii native and jumped at the chance to star in a new series in her home state.
We got to talk to Cipres ahead of the series premiere about joining the series, her character, what audiences can expect, and so much more.
Cipres is a joy as Hina, a rookie looking to find her place in a new role, and she shared great insight into the series during this chat. Enjoy this one, TV Fanatics!
Could you tell us a little bit about Hina?
Hina is a rookie lifeguard. She’s the only female rookie lifeguard, and she was born and raised on the North Shore. She comes from a super big Hawaiian family. She’s the oldest sibling of many cousins, little sisters, and little brothers, and this has been her dream for her entire life.
All she’s ever wanted to do was be a lifeguard, and this is the first time in her life that she’s actually able to go after it. She’s so used to putting the needs of her family and everyone she loves first; this is the first time she’s doing something for herself and going after it a hundred percent.
What attracted you to the role of Hina? Was there something about her that you were specifically connected with?
Well, yes, because I’m from Hawaii as well, and I just wanted to be a part of a show filmed in Hawaii and about Hawaii. What I love about Hina is her ambition and drive, and I feel like I have a lot of the same qualities as her. That was probably my main thing.
What do you feel drives Hina to do what she’s doing? What types of challenges and conflicts is she going to face this season as a rookie lifeguard?
What drives her is that she grew up on the North Shore. It’s her home, and she wants to protect the beaches that she grew up on and protect the people that live in Hawaii. She does learn a lot this season.
She has a lot of successes with some rescues, but she also messes up a couple of times and learns a lot, as she should, because it’s her rookie year. There are also some love interests, which was another fun thing to film. I think the main thing that drives her is just that she wants to be one of the few female lifeguards on the island she grew up on.
You just teased this a little, with the love interests and her being the only female rookie. I imagine she will bond with Em [Arielle Kebbel] along the way.
What can you tease about the dynamics we’ll see with Hina when she joins the house and the other lifeguards?
Her relationship with Em is special because they are two of the only women, and she looks up to Em. She is everything she wants to be and hopes to be. I’m so lucky because I see Arielle like that in real life as well.
Arielle has been a working actor for as long as I can remember. I remember being ten years old and watching her in Aquamarine at my 10th birthday party. She’s somebody that I’ve grown up watching and looking up to and admiring, so it was really cool to get to work with her.
As far as the guys, I think Hina finds it hard at first to find her footing. She really wants to prove herself, and I think she does pretty quickly.
There’s some friendly competition between her and Kainalu, which I think we’re going to see a lot of, but I think it’s healthy, and they push each other to be better, and they push each other to be the best lifeguards they can be.
For you, having grown up in Hawaii, it must have been exciting to film on location. Did you have previous experience with surfing or lifeguarding or anything like that before booking this role?
No, I didn’t. I grew up on the island, and so I understand the ocean. Going into this, I knew what I was getting into, and I knew that it would be hard. I know how the ocean can be, so that was definitely helpful.
I did a little bit of surfing growing up. My dad’s a surfer, so I would get out there sometimes with him, but I never really found my passion for it.
That’s not your thing?
Yeah, yeah. No, I haven’t had any experience, so that’s why I definitely needed a lot of training for this.
What was that training like? Because you guys are doing many of your own scenes out in the water.
Yeah. The training was … it was a lot. I was the last person to get cast, so I only had about four days of training before we started filming, whereas the rest of the cast had about two weeks. I keep saying the training, but it never stopped. We kept training. I mean, even at work, we were training.
We were constantly out in the water, surfing, swimming, doing lifeguard drills, running, and just staying active. I tried to stay super active and super fit throughout the entire filming process.
We even did a lot of breath work because we were underwater, and we never knew if we were going to get hit and go down and be down for a long time, so that was really important.
The training was a lot. I was definitely not fully prepared for it, but it was the most fun I’ve ever had, and I’m so, so lucky that we had such an amazing crew and people who were willing to help us.
What did you learn from filming the first season and pushing yourself like you were just talking about? I assume you learned things that helped you learn more about yourself.
Oh, yeah. I tell people all the time this show made me fall in love with Hawaii again because I moved away ten years ago. I’ll come back in the summertime and for Christmas, but I forgot. I forgot what it’s like to be fully immersed in Hawaiian culture and to live on this island.
It made me fall in love with my home all over again, which I don’t think many people get to experience very often. I never thought I would get to book a job that films in Hawaii because there are really few and far between.
I consider myself a pretty active person, but not in this sense. I was out there doing things that I did not think I was capable of, and I’m afraid of the ocean. I’ve always been afraid of the deep blue sea.
Really, as cheesy as it sounds, I was overcoming a fear of mine, and being out in the water and just being thrown, literally just thrown off a boat in the middle of the ocean, so facing a lot of fears. I loved it. It was just the best job ever.
I’ve covered some first responder shows, and when you talk to many actors, they have a deeper appreciation for what first responders do. I would assume you guys have that, too, seeing what lifeguards go through daily, especially on dangerous beaches.
It’s crazy because even though I grew up there, I had no idea what was really going on. Of course, it’s a TV show, and you’re going to think, “Oh, this probably doesn’t actually happen in real life,” but it does.
We always had lifeguards, real lifeguards on set with us, helping us through rescues and just making sure we were doing everything correctly. I would ask them, “Is this actually something that would happen in real life?” They were like, “Yes, this happens all the time.”
Sometimes, we see lifeguards portrayed in the media as hot people running in slow motion on the beach, and some of it is that. But they’re saving people’s lives every single day, and I didn’t realize it was as often as it actually is. They need to be recognized as first responders because the work that they’re doing is unreal.
You were just saying that we’ve seen lifeguard shows and shows about first responders before, but what do you think sets Rescue: HI-Surf apart? What do you think will resonate with viewers about this show?
I think this is the first time we’re seeing Hawaii in this light. It’s a little bit grittier. It’s a little bit more complex. I think a lot of the shows that film in Hawaii are just beautiful beaches and beautiful people, and rainbows and butterflies and sunshine.
There is some of that in our show, but there’s also the grittiness and a side that I don’t think people have seen before. I think that’s what makes our show unique. It’s a thriller, a romance, a drama, and a comedy. It has everything, so I think people are going to love that, as well as seeing these crazy rescues.
Yeah, I agree. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was like, “Is it going to be more drama? Is it going to be more of this?” It’s a healthy mix of many different genres that will keep people interested, and I mean, the action is crazy. I was holding my breath the whole time for some of those rescues.
You already talked about it, but can you tease the season, things we can be on the lookout for, and things that you’re excited for the viewers to see? You’ve summed up well in this interview that it’s like a love letter to Hawaii in many ways, which is beautiful that you’ve touched on that.
Thank you.
I’m excited for people to pay more attention to lifeguards after this and see true, authentic Hawaiian culture, which hasn’t been represented often in the media. That’s what I’m most excited about, and I hope that people start to respect their local lifeguards maybe a little bit more.
The series premiere airs Sunday, September 22 at 8/7c on FOX. And moving forward, you can watch Rescue HI-Surf on FOX every Monday at 9/8c.
