It’s Screen Time for Zoe
Actress Zoe Cipres rings in the new year by catching the latest movie releases while also basking in the warmth of her role as a rookie lifeguard in the Fox TV drama “Rescue: HI-Surf.”
Zoe Cipres was just 6 years old when she knew she wanted to be an actress. Today, she’s living her dream as one of the stars on Fox’s latest television drama series Rescue: HI-Surf.
Filmed on O‘ahu’s North Shore, the action-packed show follows the personal and professional lives of a team of heroic (and, of course, very good-looking) lifeguards as they patrol and protect the island’s famous and dangerous coastline. Cipres plays Hina Alexander, a rookie and one of the few female lifeguards on the show.
“She comes from a really big family where she carries a lot of responsibility. She’s the oldest sibling, the oldest cousin (and) her family relies on her to carry the weight of everyone else,” Cipres explains. “When we meet her, this is the first time that she’s going after something for herself, pursuing this dream that she’s had her whole life and really just doing it for her, and I love that about her. I love that she’s a hard worker, that she fights for what she deserves and she never lets anyone get in the way.
“I like to think of myself in that way. I like to think that this dream that I have, it’s not easy, it’s not going to come to me easily, but I’m going to work hard for it until I get there. I think Hina has some similar qualities: She’s very ambitious and she’s sassy — and I’m pretty sassy — and not letting anyone get in your way.”
For her role, Cipres also received lifeguard and CPR training, including riding on the back of a Jet Ski and learning to surf. In addition to having countless lifeguards and some of the best watermen on set, Cipres credits her stunt double, pro surfer Rosie Jaffurs, for helping her throughout filming.
“We were really lucky, and I think that’s why the show feels so authentic because we had actual lifeguards that were there helping us, telling us what to do and just trying to stay fit because it was so physical,” she says. “Every single day it felt like we were exercising, which is so different from any other job I’ve done when it’s just in the studio. Running in the sand is not as easy as it looks.”
As for her beauty secret, Cipres shares that she has a “very strict and long” skincare routine that includes SkinCeuticals vitamin C every morning, Tatcha moisturizer every night and Beauty of Joseon Korean sunscreen every day. She’s also a talented self-taught nail technician/artist, specializing in gel extensions (check out her work on Instagram @brooklynailgirl).
Born in Orange County, California, Cipres moved to Hawai‘i when she was 5 years old. She was raised in the Diamond Head neighborhood, and attended Kāhala Elementary School and Mid-Pacific Institute, where she graduated in 2014.
“My parents put me in some acting classes, and I was doing it on and off in elementary and middle school,” recalls Cipres. “When I went to Mid-Pac, (the school) is known for their performing arts but I kind of shifted to dance. Everyone who knew me knew I really identified as being an actress, but I was really focusing on dance in high school.”
A blend of Mexican, Filipino, Hawaiian, French and Irish ethnicities, Cipres also worked as a model, signing with an agency in Japan when she was around 14 years old, and spending her summers in Tokyo.
“For two years, I was flying once a month to Japan to work and that was a lot of fun but tough — I was a teenager,” she remembers. “A lot of times I was by myself. I did a lot of bridal catalogs. I did something for Teen Vogue, Nylon, and I did a fair amount of really cool projects there. I was supposed to move there after high school, but I decided to go to New York (to study acting) instead.”
Cipres would go on to attend the renowned William Esper Studio acting school in Manhattan (notable alumni include Amy Schumer, Jeff Goldblum and Patricia Heaton), and (prior to being cast in Rescue: HI-Surf) had been living in New York. Currently, she’s spending about a month in Australia with her fiance, actor Evan Evagora. Then, it’s back to the grind and, hopefully, a season two of Rescue: HI-Surf.
“I did a CW show a couple of years ago (playing Bonnie in the sci-fi drama Roswell, New Mexico), but this (Rescue: HI-Surf) was my biggest job and the highlight of my career so far,” says Cipres. “I got to be home and be with my family while doing a job. I never thought that was ever a possibility because you don’t think of Hawai‘i as a place to go for acting, so it was a huge blessing.”
A self-proclaimed homebody, Cipres is especially grateful to have been able to spend time with her three young nephews while she was home this past year. She even has their birthdates tattooed on her forearm.
“I just had my third nephew born two months before I came here to start filming, so I got to be with him this whole year,” she says. “I don’t know how I’m going to leave now, I’m so attached to them.”
Cipres is also a dedicated cinephile, making multiple visits a week to Consolidated Theatres at Kāhala Mall, enjoying the latest movie with her mom, a glass of red wine and her favorite movie snack, M&M’s. Her favorite films include Ex Machina with Oscar Isaac, Molly’s Game with Jessica Chastain and No Country for Old Men, and she also loves watching television shows, including The Last of Us and Severance, as well as reality TV shows Love Island, The Bachelor, Love Is Blind and The Later Daters. Her dream role would be to do a horror film, such as Talk To Me.
“I just want to make people feel something, whether that’s happiness or sadness, I want to make people feel,” Cipres says about her favorite part of being an actress. “That’s my biggest goal with this, is to inspire people with my work because I get so inspired when I’m watching something that I love and it can really lift my spirits. It affects the rest of my week.”
