With Art Green confirmed as New Zealand’s first Bachelor, Alex Casey set about trying to find footage of his days as an extra on the swords and sandals sexfest Spartacus. //
If you, like me, have been retracing Art Green’s life story every hour since he was announced as the Bachelor, you will know of his Spartacus days. Turns out the steamy historical epic with the infamous onscreen group sex also inspired some serious offscreen group thinks. Clean Paleo, Art’s nutrition business, emerged from chats with co-founders (and fellow Spartacus extras) Mitchell McClenaghan and Ryan Kamins between takes.
Perhaps without this opportunity, Art wouldn’t have found success in the business world, and not even made it into The Bachelor world. Perhaps we have Spartacus to thank for this whole thing.
The violent orgy of television was filmed for four seasons in New Zealand, getting as many recognisable kiwis naked and draped in fine gold chain as possible. Not our Art, though. Art was a mere background artiste on the show, using his gladiatorial physique and telly friendly face to quietly partake in blurry Roman battles and gentle tent-door opening:
The Spinoff spoke with him this morning about his days in iron and leather. “I never saw any of the orgy scenes or saw any of the breasts that everyone kept talking about,” he said sadly, “because I was in the Roman section. It was the Rebel side that were all about having fun and drinking.”
Art also revealed that there were plenty of G-rated shenanigans that went down between the R18 scenes. “We’d play pranks on the Rebels. Come the end of the day everyone was just knackered and wanted to go home, so often we [Mitch and Art] would stand outside their tent and yell ‘okay Rebels, that’s a wrap – please go get changed’. The directors would come back and say ‘where the fuck are they all going?'”
Hilarious behind-the-scenes hijinks aside, I was still out here devoting altogether too much time to watching Spartacus and searching for Art. Possibly a little too much time. I definitely saw some heavy things on my journey to find Artacus. There’s only so many beheadings and slow-mo blood splatter one person can handle at a time. Not to mention the rampant group sex around every corner that feels deeply inappropriate to watch during work hours. I sat through it all and still, no Art.
I was at the end of S04E07, and about to throw an espresso martini at somebody. For a background artist, he’s done a really good job of blending in. Five star performance. Would hire again. Suddenly, Art boldly walked into the Spartacus tent with the gusto of a man who would, in future, be dating 21 women at once.
Art remains critical of his tiny period at centre stage in the epic.”I said that line like I was really concerned and just over acted so much,” he says. “It’s hilarious.”
Watch it for yourself below, Imperator:
The Bachelor airs on TV3 on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7.30pm