By Greg David
The star of ‘Heroes’ discusses Season 2, teasing George Takei, and learning about his character from the Internet
Masi Oka is all smiles at Global's fall event |
Masi Oka is surprisingly chipper for a guy who flew on the red-eye from Los Angeles to Toronto. And yet here he is, smiling and gracious at Global’s fall launch event he attended with fellow Heroes star Adrian Pasdar, and answering our questions about the hit drama.
TV Guide: Congratulations on the success of Heroes. Contrary to what some of the other media said, I really enjoyed the season finale. What did you think of it?
Masi Oka: I loved it. I liked the way that the final five or so episodes all came together in the finale. But it was also weird, because we shot a lot and the editors ended up cutting out a lot of stuff – those will be on the extended scenes on the DVD – and some scenes looked a little rough. Other than that, I thought it was a fantastic ending. Every storyline had a beginning, middle and end. And then the very end starts into the next season.
TVG: You mentioned the DVDs. Will you be doing commentary on them?
MO: We did the commentary as we went along. The day after the episode aired we would go in and do the commentary tracks.
TVG: Was that fun to do?
MO: It’s pretty cool. I only did one commentary, and it was with Matthew Armstrong [Ted Sprague] and George Takei. It was more riffing. George would say things like [takes on George Takei’s deep voice], ‘That colour is… peach. Why would anyone choose to use the colour peach?’ And then Matthew would argue that the colour wasn’t peach… and we weren’t even talking about what was happening in the episode anymore. But it was really fun.
TVG: I know you guys haven’t seen any scripts yet, but do you have any inkling as to what’s in store for Hiro in Season 2?
MO: I have an idea of what most of the characters are doing, but those tend to change. It’s funny, I find out more stuff about my character on the Internet than from the writers. My friends send me the stuff that they find.
TVG: Is it weird to get information about your character from that source?
MO: Yeah, it is. Sometimes it’s rumours that were based on fact, and sometimes it’s because the writer has a relationship with a producer. We don’t see the producers every day because they don’t visit the set every day when we’re shooting. It’s not like I can walk up to them and say, ‘Hey guys, how’s it going? Got any scoop for me?’
TVG: One of the rumours is that the cast will take on an international flavour – can you confirm that?
MO: Oh yeah. One of the heroes will be traveling a lot this upcoming season – maybe like an Indiana Jones-type, that goes around the world.
TVG: If you – Masi Oka – could adopt a superpower that one of the characters on Heroes has, which would it be?
MO: Flying is always fun. The idea of having a cape, and being able to fly around would be cool.
Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2007
