Here's Everything You Should Know About Holidate Hunk Luke Bracey

Before landing his first life-changing role, Luke never imagined himself becoming an actor. “I thought I’d be a professional rugby player or go to university and get some degree in construction, just so I’d have something to fall back on,” he told Interview back in June 2014. “I got asked to audition for a soap opera in Australia called Home and Away. I had no idea what I was doing; I just tried to sound like a human being. Unbelievably, I got the job and then I ended up being on the show for about six months. It wasn’t until my third or fourth day of work that I realized, ‘I’m getting paid for this!’ It was awesome.”

Luke joined the cast of Home and Away in 2009 as Summer Bay High bully Trey Palmer. The character eventually left the series after being arrested for attempted murder. Other Home and Away alums you may know include Chris Hemsworth, Isla Fisher, Heath Ledger, and Naomi Watts, among others.

At 20, Luke made the bold decision to move to Los Angeles on his own, though he’d never been to the United States before. “I had this moment when I felt like I needed to put on my big-boy pants and just make that leap to see what would happen,” he explained to Interview. “I remember my first night in L.A., I was sitting outside, looking out at the city and thinking, ‘I don’t know anyone.’ I just approached it as a big adventure. I still think of it that way.”

Though he spends much of his time in LA, Luke isn’t all that into the LA nightlife. “I like hanging out with my friends and family, and keeping it quiet, and so I was lucky that I didn’t have that real need to go out and live a Hollywood, LA life,” he told Buro 24/7 during a December 2017 interview. “All those parties and all that, it didn’t appeal to me so much. I knew ultimately that’s not going to [fulfill] me.”

For Luke, being thought of as a heartthrob is strange at times. “It is weird to think about why people are drawn to watching you,” he confessed to Interview back in 2014. “I’m only just starting my career. There are those moments when you are asked to take your shirt off, and you realize why you are doing it. I wake up every day and look at my own ugly mug in the mirror and don’t think twice about it. The fact that other people might want to look at me still feels funny. It’s flattering, but funny.”

As he grew up playing sports and surfing, Luke loves taking on his own stunts in movies. Part of what drew him to the role of Johnny Utah in Point Break was getting the chance to train at wingsuiting and rock climbing. “The physical side of the movie is what drew me to it,” he explained to The Fresno Bee in December 2015. “I grew up surfing and snowboarding and skateboarding, so it is something that is very close to me. I wanted to do everything I could do until the pros took over.”

He may share an Australian accent with the Hemsworth brothers, but no, he’s not related – even though people ask Luke if he’s a Hemsworth pretty often. “It’s funny, [because] when people come up and go, ‘Oh, hi there. Can I have a photograph?’ I always want to say, ‘You know I’m not Hemsworth, right?’ Kind of like, ‘Do you know who I am?'” Luke joked to Buro 24/7. “But I don’t just say it because maybe I’d just give them a good story. And I’m flattered because Chris is like 6’5. Like, massive. And they’re all good boys as well. We’ve got the same management here in Australia and they’re all great blokes.”