Halle Hirsh has a recurring role as Mattie Grace, a teen-aged crop duster, on CBS' "JAG." She is best known for playing Rachel Green on NBC's "ER."
Young "ER" star Hallee Hirsh
is back in Hawaii to film a kids’
castaway series, "29 Down" for
NBC’s Saturday morning lineup
Hallee Hirsh remembers vividly her visit to Hawaii two years ago. "Well, I was surfing in Waikiki with my, well, uh, dad, who was dying of a brain tumor," she says in an unusual upbeat tone. "He only had a few days to live, but I made him stay out because I was having so much fun.
"Hey, how often do I get to surf in Hawaii, anyway?"
Sad to say, Dad succumbed to the disease. At least on the small screen.
Hirsh, now 16, was playing Rachel, the estranged daughter of Anthony Edwards' character on the award-winning series "E.R." in an episode called "On the Beach." Edwards' Dr. Mark Greene was making a last-ditch effort to reunite with his daughter while visiting Hawaii, where he had once lived.
"I know he was dying, but we had such a blast filming there," Hirsh said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "Brian Keaulana even taught me to surf."
Hirsh's portrayal of Rachel Greene on "E.R." won her Primetime Awards' "Best Rookie Child Actor" for 2002. The young actress is scheduled to return to Oahu next month to star in 13 episodes of the Discovery Kids' castaway series for NBC, "29 Down," about a group of teenagers whose plane crashes on a deserted, unnamed Pacific island.
"This is a kid's version of (ABC's) 'Lost,'" said Hirsh, laughing.
Most of each episode will be filmed outdoors, likely on the North Shore with Mokuleia high on the list of sites. One of the show's producers visited Oahu recently in search of crew and scouting locations.
"Down" will join NBC's Saturday morning lineup, programmed by Discovery Networks, next year. The series, executive produced by Stan Rogow Productions, has been scheduled to start filming here for 10 weeks beginning in early December but could be pushed to January, sources said. Rogow created and wrote the series with D.J. MacHale. Calls to Rogow were not returned.
Other cast members include Lauren Storm, 17, and Johnny Pacar ("Boston Public"), who expect to arrive Dec. 1. Other characters are still being cast. There may be up to nine castaways. To date the only local talent cast to date is 16-year-old singer/actress Tani Lynn.
Hallee Hirsh co-stars on "JAG" with David Elliott.
The series' name comes from the aircraft's registration number: 29DWN. The plane was headed to a South Pacific island where the seven teenagers, the only passengers, were going as part of a field trip. No one dies in the crash, said Hirsh, who offered several reasons for taking the role.
"It's a kid's show produced by a guy who produces good kids' shows," she said. "I don't have that much experience with kids' shows, so it's a chance to learn."
And the 5-foot-3 Hirsh likes her 15-year-old character, Daley.
"The way I read the character, Daley's the kind of girl who's always been the neighborhood baby sitter," Hirsh said. "She fancies herself the boss, the leader."
Once the group survives the crash, Daley must deal with her peers to survive and cooperate, but she still assumes she should be the boss.
"There's conflict," Hirsh said. "Daley felt all along that she's the most prepared for the trip. She's practical, very ready to tell people what she thinks."
Daley's nemesis is a boy who also fancies himself a leader.
"We're always head-butting," she says.
Taylor, Storm's character, is the polar opposite of Daley, "completely impractical" and who has brought along "tons of really cute clothes," Hirsh says.
"She won't ration water when I tell her to," she says. "She uses bottled water to wash her hair. And when we need her to work, she just lies on the beach to tan."
A similar male character is "very cute," said Hirsh, whose character also has a brother, Lex, the youngest cast member in "29 Down."
"Lex is very smart, but because he's my little brother, he doesn't get listened to," she said.
The castaways are eventually united by Jeremy, the quiet one. "No one is very sure about this guy," Hirsh said, "but he eventually shows he has real leadership ability. Daley doesn't see him as a threat because he's so quiet and reserved."
Kristy is the group's mediator, "very sweet and optimistic; everyone likes her," Hirsh said.
As for the pilot, Hirsh says he's "useless."
"He just goes off and leaves us; he doesn't want to baby-sit a bunch of kids," she says.
The last time Halle Hirsh was in Hawaii, she went surfing as her character, Rachel Green on "ER," accompanied her dying father to the islands.
"They're even getting him a job on the show," she said.
Hirsh said her character's wardrobe fits Daley's personality perfectly.
"All very practical camping stuff like Patagonia things and khaki cargo shorts," Hirsh said. "When they brought out the straw hat, it was too perfect.
"You can pretty much visualize the whistle I would be wearing, like a camp counselor. Oh, will there be conflict."
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