D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai joins The Boys‘ Antony Starr for Netflix’s Aussie surfing drama.
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai of FX’s Reservation Dogs has joined The Boys villain Antony Starr in Breakers, a surfing drama series currently filming in the South West of Western Australia – presumably the Busselton – Margaret River area or thereabouts, because you’re hardly going to film a surfing series in Bunbury.
The eight episode Breakers follows the series follows two best friends from the US who go backpacking in Australia and are soon drawn into a seemingly perfect community of surfers led by a charismatic but mysterious figure, Brando, played by Starr.
Woon-A-Tai is playing Elliot, presumably one of the backpacking buddies. Also new to the cast are Oliver Edis (Gnomes) as Flynn, and Annabel Wolfe (Surviving Summer, Seven Snipers) as Harper, who’ll be joining Asher Yasbincek (Heartbreak High, The Heights) as Maggie, David Howell (Run, The Narrow Road To The Deep North) as Iggy, Tyroe Muhafidin (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) as Danno, Tom Dawson (Tenzing, He Had It Coming) as Don, Sherry-Lee Watson (Heartbreak High, Thou Shalt Not Steal) as Astrid, Lu Miller (Nansie) as Amara, Eliza Learmonth (Baby Shower) as Clementine, and Brodie Townsend (Heartbreak High, Significant Others) as Kurt. The series is is written by Pete Jackson (The Death of Bunny Munro, Somewhere Boy) and directed by Mary Nighy (Say Nothing, Industry) and Ng Choon Ping (What It Feels Like For A Girl, Femme)
The project is reportedly the biggest ever filmed in Western Australia, with the state government reporting that it’s expected to inject about $19 million into the local economy and create 100 jobs.
Breakers certainly isn’t the only surfing drama we’ve had in recent years, with the offbeat Nicolas Cage vehicle The Surfer also lensing in the same region not too long ago. Prior to that there was the ABC’s Barons in 2022, which fictionalised (pretty poorly, tbh) the rise of the Billabong and Quiksilver surf wear labels in the ’70s. Then there was 2013’s Drift, with Sam Worthington and Xavier Samuel, and Simon Baker’s 2017 Tim Winton adaptation, Breath – both also filmed around Busselton, come to think of it. Which is my way of saying that we’ve had a fair few WA-set surfing sagas already, so let’s hope Breakers does something to differentiate itself from the pack.
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