NCIS: Hawai’i star Alex Tarrant has dyslexia – how he masters his lines

Originally Posted on Stuff by KERRY HARVEY / June 14, 2023

On paper, it might look like NCIS: Hawai’i star Alex Tarrant has had an easy ride to success – but looks can be deceiving.

The New Zealand actor, who plays agent Kai Holman on the show, had to overcome dyslexia – a tough call when you have to read scripts and learn lines for a living.

“I think I’ve been blessed with a really amazing memory,” Tarrant says.

“I have quite a few different ways of learning my lines. When it’s just listening and responding, I can usually just memorise them pretty easily.

“But when we’re in the War Room, for example, and I have to spout all this information about an agent who is missing, or something like that, I have to take a different approach.

“Sometimes I have to write out my lines over and over again, while other times I find a rhythm within it to almost make it a song, and then I have to forget the song once I get into the scene otherwise it’ll just sound like I’m reciting a song.”

Karen Neal

New Zealand actor Alex Tarrant plays agent Kai Holman in the American drama series NCIS: Hawai’i.

He hopes by speaking about his own learning difficulties he can set an example for children and others facing similar struggles.

“Just because you have a learning disability doesn’t mean you can’t achieve your goals and dreams. It’s about finding your authentic self and the systems that work for you,” he says.

Tarrant, his actor wife Luci Hare and five-year-old son Beau are just back in Hawaii after a trip home to New Zealand, waiting for series three of NCIS: Hawai’i to begin filming. The series follows a fictional team of Pearl Harbor-based Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents led by Special Agent Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey). It includes Hawaiian native Holman (Tarrant), tech whiz Ernie Malik (Jason Antoon), Lucy Tara (Yasmine Al-Bustami), Kate Whistler (Tori Anderson) and Jesse Boone (Noah Mills).

“This is where I always felt like I could be,” the actor says, of his starring role on a show belonging to one of the world’s biggest television franchises.

“I want to say that I’m very lucky – and I still will – but I think a lot of work went into this becoming a reality. And it took a lot of risk.”

Tarrant quit a full-time role on Shortland Street – as the villainous Dr Lincoln Kimiora – with the aim of furthering his career.

“Obviously, Shortland Street is an amazing opportunity and so after taking that risk, it’s really reassuring to know that it’s manifested into something really amazing and exactly what I wanted,” he says.

Karen Neal

“I get to do most of my own stunts,” says Alex Tarrant from NCIS: Hawai’i.

He has relished developing the character, who shares a lot of his own characteristics, and loves the show’s action scenes.

“I get to do most of my own stunts,” he says, adding while he has never been injured, others haven’t been as lucky. “And it was my fault. I accidentally threw a punch and I clipped one of the stuntmen.

“I got a really good hook on him and I feel so bad about that.”

And while NCIS: Hawai’i, like its stablemates, the original NCIS – launched 20 years ago – and the spinoffs NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans are among the most-watched TV series in the world, Tarrant says fame has not been a problem.

He says Hawaiians are much like Kiwis and are pretty laidback when they encounter celebrities.

“They don’t see it as something to get overly excited about – or at least they hide their excitement,” he says. “So it’s hard for me to be able to tell if someone recognises me or not.

“I think the weirdest thing that’s happened is that people have been making fake accounts saying that they’re me and trying to get unsuspecting people to fall in love with them or something like that.

“It’s a bit scary for sure but I have an amazing group of friends and a fan base that is able to help me know when someone’s out there impersonating me and we can shut it down pretty quickly.”

Meanwhile, he is over the moon at the news NCIS is moving closer to New Zealand with another spinoff, NCIS: Sydney, in production and slated to debut this year.

“The moment I get a whiff of (a Hawai’i and Sydney crossover) I’m putting my hand up. I think it’d be so fun.”