12 hours ago
Off the grid with Josh Duhamel: survival, fatherhood and the art of aging well
Josh Duhamel didn't just talk to me about going off the grid — he took me there.
Zooming in from his remote Minnesota cabin, a giant American flag draped in the background of his office, the actor was more than happy to offer a quick tour of the compound he's spent the last 15 years building from the ground up. You might have read about it as his "doomsday" bunker.
'You want to see?' he asked, before walking outside to reveal a peaceful lakeside view, a grill area and a croquet course that's apparently a very big deal.
'We have these mini — actually, not mini — it's a big croquet competition we do,' he said, panning the computer camera to a grassy patch. A deer casually wandered by.
'Who wins?' I asked.
'Well, me naturally,' he grinned. 'I mean, I won the last game … but also, I made the course. It was a bit of a home-field advantage.'
The setting couldn't have been more fitting as we were talking about his new film Off the Grid, on demand now, in which he plays a brilliant scientist who disappears into the wilderness to protect a dangerous piece of technology from falling into the wrong hands. The irony of life (somewhat) imitating art isn't lost on the actor.
"The fact that he took this thing and went into hiding in the middle of nowhere — that fascinated me, because as I just showed you, I have a real affinity for that," he said. "I don't know if I'm afraid of a zombie apocalypse or what, but I've always had this idea that, OK, what if something happens? Could I do it? Could we live off the land? I can tell you pretty positively right now — no. But I'm getting better."
While he admits he's not quite ready for the apocalypse, Duhamel said there's something deeply satisfying about the hands-on, back-to-basics rhythm of his daily life right now.
"It gives me purpose. I just love it," he said. "I'm out here fixing things all day long, creating games for the kids, pulling them on the jet ski or on my tractor clearing brush. I'm always busy doing something. There's something about that world — knowing how difficult it would be — that fascinates me."
That same sense of isolation and self-reliance plays a key role in Off the Grid, prompting Duhamel to reflect on his own relationship with nature, solitude and survival.
"I've had the luxury of doing this with my family — with my wife and kids. Our families are close by," he explained. "But the idea that [my character] would be out there by himself for that long ... how do you deal with the loneliness that he must've felt and this yearning for real human connection?"
Duhamel lives with his wife of nearly three years, Audra Mari, and their 17-month-old son, Shepherd. He's also father to son Axl, 11, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Fergie.
"I can't believe my wife even wanted to be with me, to be honest," the actor joked, reflecting on what Mari signed up for as he built his dream compound. "I started here with just a floating dock. I didn't even have a boat. We were literally washing dishes in the lake, had no plumbing, no bathrooms — we were using an outhouse. It was like homesteading. It really was. Now we've got three cabins out here — two little guest ones and this one. It's been a 15-year process."
One aspect Duhamel is perfectly fine leaving to the movies? The high-stakes danger.
'I'm not fighting off any bad guys out here,' he laughed.
But for Off the Grid, he still had to get in fighting shape, and at 51, that looks a little different than it did 20 years ago. These days, he said, staying fit for physically demanding roles comes with some new considerations.
'I try to stay in good shape, especially before we start shooting. I'm not a crazy fitness freak, but I try to stay healthy, generally eat well, do some kind of exercise every day,' he explained. 'But it's really about recovery. You're falling and banging yourself up for two months straight. For me, yoga is big — just to stay flexible and keep my back and knees from going out. I'm never going to be The Rock. I've tried. I just can't.'
I pointed out he pulled off his shirtless scene in Off the Grid just fine.
'It wasn't great,' he laughed. 'It wasn't great. Come on now.'
The self-deprecation might be classic Duhamel, but he's not brushing off the reality that aging in Hollywood comes with its own set of scrutiny, even for men. I asked if actors feel industry pressure to stay 'forever young,' something I often talk about with his female counterparts, and Duhamel said those expectations exist for everyone. It's part of what inspired him to launch his men's wellness company, Gatlan.
"I started taking testosterone a few years ago, peptides. I'm always looking at what keeps me feeling young, especially because I've got young kids," he said. For the Transformers alum, aging well isn't about appearances; it's about energy.
"I want to be rolling around in the dirt with them like I did in my thirties," he said. "That was a big motivation behind Gatlan. I'd learned a lot of secrets from other guys in the industry, and thought, 'Why don't I just share this with the masses?' Nobody wants to talk about it, but it's a real thing, and it's helped me tremendously. So yeah — part of it is good habits, good regimens, eating right, but also taking advantage of the science that's out there."
Living in rural Minnesota means leaving some luxuries behind, and Duhamel admitted there are a few Hollywood comforts he occasionally misses.
'Sushi restaurants. All the restaurants. The nightlife. Instacart. Uber Eats,' he smiled. 'Out here, we're over 40 miles from anything. We have to bring all of our food here. But that's part of the fun. We really do have to plan and bring what we need.'
It's a tradeoff he's happy to make, especially when it comes to the perks of raising his kids. Minnesota affords much more privacy than the paparazzi-happy California coast, but Duhamel said both places offer something important.
'It's a really good place for my 11-year-old son,' he said. 'I'm starting to teach him some of the things that someday he's going to have to know to take care of this place. And there's a lot of s*** to know.'
That education includes everything from storm cleanup to small-engine basics.
'Yesterday, we had a giant storm come through here: trees were down, branches everywhere. So I gave him the little saw, and he went out there and started cutting branches up and stacking them in the burn pit. Little things like that,' Duhamel shared. 'Teaching him how the battery works … just things I used to take for granted. He misses playing soccer and seeing his friends. He's getting all the great things that Los Angeles has to offer, but out here it's totally different. And I think he loves it equally as much.'
That same sense of simplicity, of slowing down and noticing the little things, is something Duhamel believes we're all craving right now, whether we realize it or not. That's evident as his blue sky cowboy drama, Ransom Canyon, was just renewed for a second season by Netflix.
'I think that because there's just so much technology in our faces all the time ... everything is so touch of a button and it's there. We're losing that connection to the simple things that we just sort of look past or don't even notice,' he said. 'I think that shows like Ransom Canyon did a beautiful job of just breathing life into things that are otherwise seen as mundane and boring, and making it feel like, 'Oh God, there's something really refreshing about sitting on your porch, looking out at the pasture and horses running.'"
Because in a world that's only getting faster, Duhamel shows there is power in slowing down — in fixing what's broken, building something lasting and and maybe even making time for a croquet match or two.
"It's good for the soul," he said. "I'm telling you.'
