The Sydney-born actor and star of the new <i>Point Break </i> talks daredevil stunts, big waves and life inside the Hollywood party.

“If you want the ultimate rush, you’ve got to be willing to pay the ultimate price.” It’s one of the many lessons in the 1991 movie Point Break, and it takes on new meaning this December, given that the cult classic (about an undercover agent, Johnny Utah, who infiltrates a group of surfing bank robbers, led by the enigmatic Bodhi) has been given a big-budget Hollywood makeover. The film’s not out until Christmas Day in the US (UK cinemagoers will have to wait until February 2016), but judging from the trailer, which features skydiving, mountainside BMXing and surfing on the most preposterously huge waves imaginable, it offers an overwhelming amount of “rush” for your buck. The price? Many vocal die-hard fans of the original feel that it ought to have been spared the redo. MR PORTER even mused on the topic back in July. Will it shatter our fond memories of the original? How can you improve on a classic?

Australian rising star Mr Luke Bracey, 26, who tops the bill as Point Break’s crest-riding FBI agent Johnny Utah, is not worried. Particularly because the new version, he says, channels some of the original’s pioneering spirit, centring its plot around the fictional Ozaki 8, a series of extreme sports challenges (funded by Bodhi’s heists) that pit man against nature. “The 1991 movie pushed the limits of extreme sports over the past 25 years,” he says. “People weren’t surfing big waves then. Same with skydiving; no one was jumping out of planes for thrills. But now, through brands such as Red Bull and GoPro, these non-traditional sports are blowing up. And these ordeals, reaching many different sports, areas and ecosystems, are reflected in the remake.”

If it’s not already clear, Mr Bracey knows what he’s talking about, extreme-sports-wise. Though these days he’s based in Los Angeles, MR PORTER meets him in Sydney, where he’s filming Mr Mel Gibson’s WWII blockbuster Hacksaw Ridge, alongside Messrs Vince Vaughn, Andrew Garfield and Sam Worthington. A Newport boy from Sydney’s northern beaches, Mr Bracey grew up here, just a couple of point breaks away from Palm Beach, where, at 18, he joined the cast of Home And Away (the long-running soap and unofficial Australian acting academy that also launched the careers of Messrs Chris Hemsworth, Guy Pearce and Heath Ledger). We’re metres away from one of his favourite childhood surf spots. “I grew up surfing,” he says reclining, with hands combing through his now-cropped hair, a boyish smile on his face. “Bodhi and Johnny Utah were heroes of mine, so when I was at the final audition [for Point Break], I said, ‘I am Johnny Utah! I surf. I skate. I’ll jump off whatever you need, but there’s no way I’m not getting this part.’”

With that dose of tenacity, he landed the role as Mr Keanu Reeves’ successor. But during filming, he had to go that little bit further, rock climbing off Angel Falls in Venezuela, snowboarding in the Austrian Alps and skydiving into Mexico’s Cave of Swallows, as well as surfing the world’s most dangerous wave, Teahupo’o, in Tahiti. “In among all the thrills, I had to remember my lines,” he laughs. “If there was ever a moment of doubt, I’d give myself a slap and say, ‘Come on, bro. You’re Johnny Utah. Do your job.’”

One of those moments came when filming the scene at Teahupo’o. “We caught one of the biggest swells they’d had,” says Mr Bracey. The godfather and founder of big-wave surfing, American Mr Laird Hamilton, just happened to be on hand to show the cast and crew how it’s done.

“When it came to my take, I was being towed into this 10 to 15ft wave – I was right on top of the beast,” says Mr Bracey, crouched in a surfer’s stance as he tells the story, his green eyes wide. “Laird’s in front of me and I can’t believe this is happening. I’m pumped. That day, Laird Hamilton towing into those waves – that was the greatest show on earth.”  

What’s the next challenge? Well, Hollywood itself doesn’t sound like a walk in the park. Mr Bracey moved there in 2010 to pursue his acting career (or, as his dad put it, to become a “professional waiter”), and he admits it’s “a pretty brutal place”.

“In five years, I’ve probably got 0.001 per cent of the jobs I’ve auditioned for, and been in nine films,” he says from behind a pair of Dunhill sunglasses, cigarette in hand. “LA is like a metaphor for a party. You’re standing in line and people are helping you push to the front. Eventually, you get a break, and that’s like maybe you get to talk to the bouncer. You get another one and that’s a toe in the door. One more and bam! You’re in.”

To continue the metaphor, it seems that Point Break could well secure Mr Bracey’s place on the guest list. In the meantime, the typically laid-back Aussie is just enjoying this phase of his life,  something he shares with the film’s original protagonists. “I’m in that Goldilocks zone,” he says. “Young enough to think you know everything, but old enough to know you don’t. Confidence and humility – I like that mixture.”