John Wells on Real-Life Rescues & Oahu’s North Shore in Fox’s ‘Rescue: HI-Surf’

On the set of Fox’s upcoming lifeguard procedural Rescue: HI-Surf, there are no divas. Except, perhaps, the Pacific Ocean itself.

The series was filmed exactly where it takes place, on the North Shore of O’ahu, which is considered the most famous and dangerous stretch of coastline in the world. Production delays for weather, sharks, whales, and even beachgoers in need of rescue were quite common, explained executive producer John Wells.

“We are constantly adjusting to what we actually get,” Wells said following an industry screening of the premiere episode in Los Angeles. “The actors regularly have to be prepared for one thing, and then it looks a little bit different, and we have to go this way, or the ocean’s flow is that way, or we have a whale that shows up, which is problematic.”

Since the series follows the personal and professional lives of the lifeguards, Wells and showrunner Matt Kester wanted the audience to be in on the action of saving lives in such a difficult and often life-threatening environment, instead of watching from the shoreline. That meant the cast and crew had to be, as well.

Series regulars were required to complete lifeguard training courtesy of renowned waterman Brian Keaulana, and even many of the background actors were real-life lifeguards. Patrolling the North Shore beaches in emergency services gear also often led to the show’s cast and crew getting involved in actual water rescues.

“You can’t be out on the water and see somebody who’s in trouble [and not help],” Wells posited, adding that to-date the water unit had been involved with more than 60 real-life rescues since filming began. Production is still underway, with 19 of 22 episodes completed, according to Wells.

“Everybody was around and pulled people in, and we would stop and bring people in on the jet skis constantly,” he continued. “Matt and Brian actually rescued somebody when they were scouting one day.”

After working on more than 300 episodes of ER, Wells is no stranger to the emergency services procedural. However, he contends that Rescue: HI-Surf is quite different from his other projects because, unlike doctors, lawyers, politicians, or even paramedics, lifeguards are only engaged with the people they serve for a brief moment in time — to get them out of the water and to safety.

“It means that you have a lot of time around that entertaining action to then tell the stories about the people as they wait for something else to happen, what’s going on in their lives,” he told Deadline in an interview following the event. “So it’s a really rich storytelling world for human interaction and getting to explore these characters’ lives.”

Rescue: HI-Surf is a passion project for Kester and Wells and, as cliché as it might initially sound, authenticity was at the forefront of their minds when crafting a story about the people who live in Hawai’i, especially service workers.

Kester has lived in Oahu for more than three decades after setting out on his own mission to become a professional surfer on the North Shore. While that dream didn’t work out, he stuck around ever since.

Wells says his family has owned a home in Kauai for 26 years, and “we both felt that the Hawai’i that we knew hadn’t really been shown.”

“It’s a difficult way to live, actually, because it’s an expensive place to live. So for first responders, for lifeguards, for teachers, it’s very hard to carve out a life, but it’s so beautiful, and you love it,” Wells explained. “So we both really wanted to kind of tell a story about the people that we love and know, and we wanted to put it into a format where you get to really see how exciting the place is.”

Rescue HI-Surf premieres with a special episode on September 22 on Fox. It then moves to its regular time period (9 p.m. ET/PT) beginning September 23.

Source: Deadline