Hungry like the Wolf

Grant Bowler. Photo / Supplied

The trouble with playing a menacing thug frighteningly well is that Outrageous Fortune star Grant Bowler sometimes feels like a social pariah.

Fortunate, then, that the Kiwi-born, Aussie-raised thespian's plum roles in American hits Ugly Betty and Lost are bringing him to the attention of unintimidated fans and, more importantly, powerful casting agents.

"White middle-class people [in Auckland] walk past me as fast as humanly possible without making any eye contact," Bowler says. "But all the young fellas out West come up to say 'g'day' a lot."

Grant, speaking to View while on a flying visit to shoot scenes for the upcoming season of Outrageous, is now recognised not only Downunder but in the United States after he finally achieved his dream of making an impact in the epicentre of global television. Bowler's mint roles as the freighter captain on Lost and as Mode magazine's suave exec Connor on Ugly Betty - in which he appears tonight on TV2 - are the result of a "defiance" that Wolf West would be proud of.

"When the first 100 people said 'no' I got angry," explains the tenacious father-of-two. "I wanted to work over there so much, just because of the standard of their scripts and their production values, and for four-and-a-half years I'd been going over and coming back in a state of abject failure. The first time I went by myself, then I'd drag my wife over, and then my wife and one child and then both children, with still no success. I sort of keeled over when I got a job. And since I started working I haven't stopped - it's fantastic."

Finding himself suddenly in demand in a country he fought so hard to break into is a satisfying position for the "Aussie hunk", as the Americans call him.

"I'm a 'Kaussie'," he says emphatically. "I'm a hybrid. I'll never relinquish either [nationality]. I can't - I'm both. As for the hunk part, I'm 40 - any chunk of hunk left long ago."

Roxane Wilson, his actress wife who lives in Sydney with the couple's children Edie, 6, and Zeke, 4, agrees with the tag "wholeheartedly". Which is just as well, considering Bowler's recent flurry of work inhibits her own.

"The funny thing is, I upset the apple cart more when I'm home than when I'm away," Bowler muses. "Roxane has things running so smoothly. It's a bit of a struggle for her - and she's still working, doing amazing work - but she makes it work. We make sure she gets plenty of help. We're a tag team, so when I get home she's off for two to three months doing anything she wants to do."

The domestic stint this year will be a welcome break for Bowler, who spent last year dashing between Sydney and Auckland for Outrageous, New York for Ugly Betty and Hawaii for Lost. The affable family man loves being at the top of his game, but admits there's a cost.

"I missed Edie's birthday last year," he says. "I spent three hours on the laptop watching her blow out her candles, all from Honolulu. It was horrible. You have to steel yourself by saying, 'This job's bought that bike and that princess dress'." It's a trade-off Bowler is getting used to. His Ugly Betty role of Connor Owens, an Aussie exec who becomes romantically involved with the villainous Wilhelmina, has finished for now but there are signs - cross your fingers - he may be recalled.

Chances are also good he'll be back on our shores again soon. Before leaving Auckland, Bowler set in motion plans to establish a theatre company with a friend. It's just another way the antipodean star intends to retain his ties with New Zealand.

"It will cement my feet here," he says. "Theatre is where I come from - the TV and film stuff is a distraction, which I fully intend to keep doing."

If Bowler applies the tenacity responsible for his American triumph to this latest project, it will flourish. And in the face of any obstacles, he may resort to the same strategy he uses in the face of Kiwi-bashing he gets lumbered with in Australia, and the Aussie sledging he is saddled with here.

"I'm big and I play a bloke who belts people, so I just stare at them," he explains.

Wolf would be proud of that, too.

* Ugly Betty plays on TV2 today at 5.30pm.