It’s a Swamp Thing

Photography by Mike Rosenthal

Matt Passmore’s hit show The Glades showcases the quirky nature of Florida life and crime.

By Linda Marx

One of the first things that attracted Australian actor Matt Passmore to A&E’s most popular TV show, The Glades, was the intriguing storyline. “I grew up listening to stories in Australia,” says Passmore, who will be 39 on Christmas Eve. “As an actor, I only want to be involved with good stories. Otherwise, I could be a plumber.”

The Brisbane-bred actor was fascinated by The Glades’ lead character, Jim Longworth, a handsome, charming, cocky, brilliant homicide detective with an out-of-the-box style who left Chicago after being wrongly accused of sleeping with his former police captain’s wife. Longworth moved south to the fictional Palm Glade, a humid, moody section of Florida, and took a job with the local office of the state police. After his stint on the rough streets of Chicago, he figured the Sunshine State would be an easy gig, and he’d be able to play golf most of the day. “I really liked the character of Jim Longworth,” says Passmore, who has shot two successful seasons of A&E’s hottest show to date. “The guy lifted off of the page. I thought I could have fun with the role. And I thought the overall storyline was a bit Twin Peaks-ish—light, yet creepy.”

The Glades, which broke records for A&E during its first season by averaging an audience of 3.88 million, works on a number of levels. Yes, Passmore has the looks and the camera presence to be a leading man. But the show’s producers take advantage of the reputation Florida has as a home to, well, wackos, so viewers never know what to expect in terms of the plot. It was written by Florida native Clifton Campbell, a TV writer and producer whose understanding of what makes Florida stand out as a mecca for arcane and crazy crimes allows him to capitalize on the offbeat criminality and quirky characters who populate the state—much like best-selling author and newspaperman Carl Hiaasen.

But the show is more than just a cops-and-robbers yarn featuring a hunky protagonist with a sexy Aussie accent. Passmore’s character dates the married mom (medical student Callie Cargill, played by Kiele Sanchez) of a young son whose father is in prison. Longworth has his own moral compass, and while he could date many other women, he is fixated on the challenge that Callie presents. And the interaction between Longworth and the array of bad guys is mesmerizing. “I love Jim’s quick mind and disarming mannerisms,” says Passmore. “He’s not afraid to accuse everyone, and he asks a lot of questions. He gets people off balance. No one will confess, so he makes them all feel uncomfortable until he finds the truth.”

Longworth, however, is arrogant and self-directed without coming off as nasty, but rather focused on his work and on doing his job well in his own idiosyncratic style. His goal is to simply find justice. “He works his way around the rules,” says Passmore, who shoots for five and a half months for up to 16 hours a day in the subtropical heat. “He’s sarcastic and talks a lot, so I have many lines to learn each night. I’m beat at the end of the day, but I want the lines to trip off of my tongue.”

Photography by Mike Rosenthal

And Passmore, who actually lives in Los Angeles when he’s not staying at his Hallandale digs during filming, remains fascinated with his role and with the state of Florida. “I liked Little Havana when we filmed there,” says the actor. “It was fun to watch the cigar rollers and learn about that interesting coffee and cigar culture. And when we were in Miami’s fashion district, I had incredible food at Sugarcane. I’ve learned a lot about Miami in two years, and I love it.”

Passmore grew up around the water in Brisbane, so it didn’t take long for him to get acclimated to South Florida’s casual beach lifestyle. His dad worked for an oil company in Australia and his mother stayed home with him and his brother and sister. He spent his youth surfing and swimming and enjoying the sun. (He learned to play golf in America.) “We had a real outdoor lifestyle,” he recalls. “I never wore shoes. The acting thing was kind of a black swan; it just came. It wasn’t really planned. I don’t remember having a major creative side back then.

After high school, he joined the Army before moving to Sydney in 1999 to attend the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). In fact, the more he got into the classical training areas of acting and theater, which he experienced full throttle in Sydney, the more he liked it. “My first acting gigs were actually in theater as opposed to TV or film,” says Passmore, who graduated in 2001 from NIDA.“I did several, including Midsummer Night’s Dream, and other Shakespeare plays. But soon I landed on TV, and I’ve been there ever since.”

He had married an Australian public relations executive in 1997 (they divorced in 2006), and as a settled, together guy, began his Australian TV career with the children’s series, Play School. From there, he performed and starred in many popular series and shows, including Always Greener and Blue Heelers (2003), The Cooks (2004), Last Man Standing and The Alice (2005), McLeod’s Daughters, the number-one TV series in Australia, The Cut, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, and Masterwork, a TV movie where he played an FBI agent (2006-2009). “I was doing Masterwork for 20th Century Fox in Los Angeles when I read about Longworth’s character,” explains Passmore. “I was waiting to see what was happening when I got very intrigued with the idea of shooting this Florida series.” He started working on The Glades around Christmas two years ago, shooting the pilot in Tampa and Atlanta. When it was picked up by A&E, he knew his work schedule would be full, training with real law enforcement officers and learning what they do on a day-to-day basis.

Although he loves South Florida beaches, he has little time to enjoy them or socialize, since he works so many hours and some of the locations are way out in the swamps. But he hopes to change that in coming months and attend more Florida Marlins games, try different restaurants, delve more into Miami’s eclectic cultural scene, and indulge in more water sports. “I like the laid-back nature of Miami,” he admits. “It reminds me of Queensland. But I also need to do more SWAT training and get more life skills. I like weapons and have a respect for them after being in the Army. All of this hard work helps me play the role better, but it keeps me from enjoying more about Miami.”

While his role on the TV series pays the bills, the actor hopes to eventually return to the theater where he began his career. “I am so attracted to story and characters and what makes them tick that I can’t help but want to be challenged by doing more stage work,” he says. “But if I am still acting in 60 years, I will be 100. At that time, I hope the stories will still be strong. And if they are, I will continue acting, whether it’s on stage or TV.”