TV INTERVIEW: HAYDEN PANETIERRE & MASI OKA

Stars of 'Heroes' Talk Super Powers, Plot Twists & Secrets

Emmanuel Itier: As we’re going into the fourth year of the show, do you feel like you have a tight grip on your character, or are you still learning things as you come along?

 

Hayden Panettiere: It’s a little tough because, even though we are playing the same characters, you really do have the whole writing staff taking us in whichever direction they want to, and on this kind of show, there’s an infinite amount of possibilities of where you could go — whether you stay good, whether you turn bad, who you’re working with…so it’s always a surprise. I mean, we know our characters so well now that we can figure out what they would do in these situations and go from there, but really you never know what you’re going to be playing.

 

Masi Oka: I agree. I think that’s what keeps it interesting and challenging. There’s definitely something to be said about the familiarity that we want to give the audience with our character portrayals, but the writers put us in very different situations and combinations, and I think that’s always the fun part. So we might have a grip on our character, as we do in life — as we grow, the characters grow and evolve as well, so there’s always a constant change and surprise.

 

EI: What do you see your characters going through this season that maybe they haven’t before? New arcs?

 

MO: Hiro is going through the whole terminal illness and the bucket list, so I think he’s taking life a little bit more seriously, yet at the same time trying to keep hope alive, and it’s that duel and the juxtaposition between life and death and the hope and despair that I think Hiro is balancing well, so this is kind of a new thing for him.

 

HP: I’m personally in college and dealing with a new best friend and roommate. We have a very interesting relationship together, but she’s really the first person that she’s been able to let in on her secret and somebody that’s really a confidant. But that’s a very delicate balance that can easily fall apart. One little misstep, and her dad will bring Rene the Haitian in to wipe their memories, and that will be that. She’s happy that she’s semi-caught-up to that normal life she’s been chasing, but where exactly we’re going to go, I think there’s going to be some manipulation and some fun stuff. We really don’t know, so that’s why we get so excited to read the scripts every week.

EI: Masi, what about your role continues to challenge you?

 

MO: I think the writers give us different people to work with, different scenarios to be in, and there’s always that fun balance of trying to keep it light and light-hearted and put in the comedy while trying to make it into drama. So especially this season, I’ve just been absolutely creatively excited and jazzed about where the writers have been going with our characters and the constant evolving and new challenges they throw me. I think that’s what’s real exciting for me.

 

EI: Hayden, why do you think people continue to tune in and watch the show?

 

HP: I think because, just like we get excited to read our scripts and see what we get to do next, they get excited to see what adventure we’re going to go on next, and there are always these little twists and turns that are exciting, and it’s just a really fun show to watch. I found myself TiVo-ing because I was working so much last season. I TiVo’d all of the episodes so I could come back and watch them back to back to back, and I could not put my remote down. I was like, “Just one more episode, please.” This is a show that I’m on and I don’t generally like to watch myself, but it’s just exciting and it’s smart, and I don’t think it belittles the audience, and I think it’s just one of those rad shows. … Did I really just say that?

MO: What?

 

HP: Did I really just say “rad show”?

 

MO: Yes…

 

HP: Wow, I did.

 

EI: Hayden, it seems like, at the end of the day, this is going to come down to a battle between Claire and Sylar on some level. What can we expect on that relationship this season?

 

HP: Wow. You sound like you know more than I do. I actually have no idea, and I have not seen anything thus far that has the two of us going at it or even in the vicinity of each other, but I assume there’s going to be something with him ultimately, because Nathan and the whole Nathan & Sylar thing that’s going on right now, and what happened at the end of the third season because he’s my dad — our paths are obviously going to cross. I don’t know what’s going to happen yet. I’m still reading the scripts and chugging away and excited to hear about it. But yeah, I’m not positive yet, but it’d be fun.

 

MO: You don’t want to talk about the Sylar/Claire kiss scene?

HP: Masi, they told us not to say anything.

MO: Oh, shoot. Just kidding. Well actually, Sylar says, “Claire, I’m your father,” or something like that.

HP: God…

 

EI: Thanks, Masi, for those little nuggets. Very cool. Obviously, as far as the media goes, it’s kind of been a roller coaster relationship with this show. How has it been on set over the years? Has it always been cohesive, or have you felt some of that tension on set?

 

HP: We hate each other. We don’t get along at all, no.

 

MO: We’re a big family and we just love working with each other, and I think it’s definitely hard not to ride the highs and the lows of the show. Without a doubt, Season 1 was absolute lightning in the bottle, and we knew we had something absolutely special, and Season 2 and 3, it was definitely hard for them to meet the expectations, in some senses. But Season 4, as I said, I think there is a sense — we understand our backs might be a little bit against the wall, but because of that, we’re creatively swinging for the fences, and there are so many bold choices and risks that are being made and a lot of creative freedom, in some senses, because of that. I’m really, really excited about this season. I would probably say this is as favorite of a season as Season 1, if not my second favorite season so far. So it’s fun to ride that ride, or the wave’s ups and downs, and it’s great to be on the crest again this season.

 

 

EI: Would you agree with that, Hayden?

 

HP: Yeah, absolutely. I think our closeness, during seasons, also depends on whom we’re working with the most. Some seasons, we haven’t seen me with a lot of people. Masi, lucky duck, got to work with a lot of the cast, but some of us just don’t cross paths all the time — not frequently. It’s exciting when we get that chance — that one scene or that one episode — where we get to do that.  I just celebrated my fourth “birthday” on the set, so it’s been awhile, and I grew up with these guys. These are my family. I was 16 years old and now I’m 20, and we’re still loving what we do and enjoying each other. I definitely agree, though, that when we ride those waves of up and down, and when everything’s teetering a little bit, you feel it, and you just try to be there for each other and make it the best you can, which is what we’re doing.

MO: I think that is the great thing — we’re always there for each other, no matter what happens, and this is a family. We’ve got people who’ve grown into amazing stars, like Hayden and Zach [Quinto], and they haven’t changed. They’re still the same people that we know…

 

HP: I paid him to say that, by the way. It’s just great to be working and growing with people who I could call my family and my colleagues and my mentors in many ways. So hopefully we’ll get a chance to work more together, because I really loved our scene together.

 

MO: I know. Those were so much fun.

HP: And everyone talks about it, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to have that happen.

 

EI: Hayden, does it energize you to get back into the season? How do your film projects affect your work on Heroes? How do the two connect? Do they help each other…?

 

HP: It does make me excited to go back to Heroes when I do movies. I love to do movies. That’s something I find so much joy in — being able to travel around and play new characters. But there is also something settling about coming back to a place where you know where you’re going to go every morning, you know who’s there and who’s waiting for you, and you’ve known them for such a long time and you’ve spent so much time with them. It’s like going home. It just felt good to know your schedule, as opposed to getting on set… The first day of I Love You, Beth Cooper, I walked on the set and we shot eight hours later. You walk on to the set of Heroes, you know as soon as you’re there and as soon as they’re ready — most of the time — 99.9% of the time, you are not sitting down for more than five minutes. But yeah, they do help each other, and they help us be able to spread our wings a little bit. I personally get a little rusty when I’ve jumped back and forth.

 

EI: That’s good. And Masi, are you planning to do anything on the big screen any time soon…?

 

MO: If you have something for me, I’d be more than willing… No, I think I’m very fortunate to work with (Steve Ferrell), but personally, as much as I love Heroes and I love acting, I’m also finding, creatively, something exciting about working behind the scenes. I have an opportunity to work with some of the most amazing people and amazing cast on our show, and my dream is to continue this relationship. Hopefully, if I’m writing and producing a project, I’ll bring my favorite actors. Hopefully they’ll give me a co-star discount because I’m not sure we can afford some of the big stars we have on our show, like Hayden and Zach. But when we do, I’m really excited about being in front of the camera and behind the camera.

 

EI: Do the writers sometimes come to both of you and say, “Hey, what do you think about this idea?” Or is it pretty much, “Here it is, go for it”?

 

MO: Our writers are very collaborative, but at the beginning of the season, we talk about the arc and where our characters might go, and they’re very open to it, but at the same time, we’re respectful for the process that by the time the script comes into our hands, it’s gone through hundreds of thousands of people to get that one word…and at the same time, because of many revisions it goes through, sometimes you lose focus of what the original intention was, and by the time it gets to us, it kind feels (muddled) because we do know our character really well. But overall, it’s been an amazing (and fun) experience. I’ve been on other shows where the writers have been a little bit more rigid with their work and the story, but our writers have been very open…

 

EI: And for you, Hayden?

 

HP: I agree with Mas, but if you think about it, 25 episodes and you’re going to ask every cast member to come in and tell them what you want to do and try to weave through that and somehow find a way to connect the story line is probably not going to happen, and they have such deadlines. We move so quickly and we’re constantly working, and when we’re on set, it’s all the time — it’s constant. And they do have so much information and so many little pieces and little connections to string together. How does this person run into this person? How does this match to this? And so much history to remember too, because this is a big show of those little tidbits that you have to keep in mind, those powers you have to keep in mind, what somebody said when, that if you drop one of those by accident, which can happen easily… I’ve seen it happen on set where somebody goes, “Oh, well what if…” “Don’t you remember when…” And we go, “Oh, crap.” We would have been screwed if we didn’t catch that before we did this stuff.

 

MO: Definitely a butterfly effect there…

EI: After so much time, after so many seasons of playing these characters, how territorial and possessive are you about them? For example, I remember when Battlestar Galactica made one of the actors, on their three years in, turn out his character was the Cylon, unbeknownst to him all those times, he was outraged. He took it personally. How possessive and territorial are you about your characters, not even necessarily if they said, “Okay, you’re a villain forever now” — just some little thing?

 

HP: I’d be very excited. I’d be like, “Yes!” Looking at the stuff that we do and the character, the changes we’ve had and all these different places they’ve taken our characters, it would be a little difficult if we were territorial, because I’m not saying that there aren’t story lines that you go, “Wait. Hold on. She really wouldn’t do that.” Or — rare occasion — you’re not such a fan of little lines here and there that they put in, and you go, “I just can’t figure out how to say that the way Claire would say it. I don’t feel like that’s something she would say.” But we’ve gone to the future and back again. We’ve gone to the past. We’ve gone all over the world. We’ve become good and bad, and I just think there’s nothing but excitement that we all get from that, especially being on a show for four years — you want nothing but spontaneity and change. You’re like, “Yeah, let’s make her this.” And you get excited from that kind of stuff. But I won’t speak for Mas…

 

MO: You definitely care about your character, because you wear it and you’re associated to it, by all means, and I love the change and spontaneity. At the same time, acting is a profession, and you realize this character is not necessarily your property. It is the property of Tim Kring and NBC Universal, and the audience as well. It’s a character that’s shared by everybody. So I think, as we kind of mentioned, the writers have a bigger picture toward the whole thing — of where the whole season goes, where each character’s arc will go. So I think it’s our job, as professionals, to go with the flow. It’s important to fight for your character but at the same time realize there’s a bigger picture involved, and this is a character that’s shared by everybody. It’s not just purely your own.

 

EI: Hayden, Ashley Crow is from Birmingham, and I was wondering if you could talk about working with Ashley and your relationship.

HP: Ashley is awesome. She’s one of my favorite people on the face of the planet. She’s so talented and so spunky and so funny, and such a lovely human being to be around. Even when I was younger, I would always say, “God, if there was anyone that I would want to be like when I grew up personality-wise, it’s Ashley,” because she’s got it all. She could win anyone over. I’m convinced.

 

EI: Masi, you haven’t worked with Ashley, have you?

 

MO: I haven’t, but she’s absolutely wonderful.

 

EI: Looking back at Season 1 and where your characters were then, going into the fourth season, is this how you thought your characters would evolve?

 

HP: God, I didn’t even try to guess. My brain never even went there. I couldn’t let it.

 

MO: Well, it’s good you’re going to college at least.

 

HP: But I mean there was always that discussion of it, but did I know that it was, per se, going to actually happen? No. I knew high school, because I don’t think they wanted to put out there that Claire was a high school dropout, but college is something that’s optional, obviously, because I didn’t go to college. But no, I didn’t specifically know that she was going to be bad at one point, or that we were going to go to the future and come back, so I just didn’t really try to guess. The scripts just surprise me so much all the time, and they have such a tough job to do — our writers and creators — so I don’t even try to guess.

 

MO: By the way, even though Hayden hasn’t gone to college, I think she’s smarter than, I would say, 90% of the people who have graduated college, so…

 

HP: Oh, thanks Mas. Your check’s in the mail.

 

MO: Oh, thanks.

 

EI: Hayden, what’s it like for you playing a character going to university when you haven’t had that experience yourself?

 

HP: They’re all kind of similar in the way of being around friends and feeling out of place sometimes and, for me, being new in any situation. So I think you can pretty much figure out how it would be, and I really had a rough time in middle school. Middle school, to me, was the way most people explain high school, and then high school I had a blast. I basically did everything that you would do in high school or in college, so it really wasn’t a difficult thing to pull out.

 

EI: Would you like to go to university, maybe after you finish working on Heroes?

 

HP: I love to learn, but just going back into school because of what I do, I’m so set in this path that I’m on right now, and I’m so excited about it and I love doing it so much that I like to focus myself on one thing at a time. But I’ve found that I really don’t like…as most people don’t about school — that there are subjects which are necessary to learn but you don’t really want to learn, on top of those ones that you do want to learn. So to take a class or two on subjects that I’m really interested in and curious about would be awesome. But I spend so much time with the brightest and most talented and well-rounded people. I’ve had the privilege of having long and very intellectual conversations with people, and sometimes I just sit there and listen. It’s like a better version of a class. So even though I’m not, per se, sitting at a desk and in school, I’m still learning all the time.

 

EI: And Masi, you were talking about the character of Charlie from Season 1…and it’s now being revealed that she’s going to be appearing (this series). Are you looking forward to working with that actress again?

 

MO: Jayma Mays was absolutely fantastic. We just, actually, literally finished, yesterday, shooting that episode, and it brought me memories and it was an absolutely fantastic, just working with her. Lots of laughter, lots of crying — it was sweet, it was heartbreaking — it was everything I loved about that story line all bundled into one. Episode 8 is a really heavy Hiro/Charlie story line, so and it was just an absolute pleasure and an honor to be working with Jayma Mays again. And I know Episode 9 is going to be a very heavy Claire episode too. So we’ve got some great episodes coming up.

 

EI: Is there any chance we’re going to be seeing Hiro’s sword again in the future?

 

MO: I don’t know. I think it depends on how well we’re doing on our budget, because I think last year we had some budget cuts and we had to use stale French bread instead of a sword.

 

EI: I wanted to talk about the personal lives of your characters — what we can look forward to coming up this season. Hayden, I know that Claire has been pretty unlucky with love up to this point. What’s going to happen with her this season?

 

HP: She has a roommate, who is the biggest relationship in this season thus far, because she has finally got someone like her friend Zach in the first season, which was a confidante and somebody who she can tell her secrets to — who knew, who would be there for her and who she could trust. She hasn’t had anyone like that since then. And then this new character — Gretchen, who becomes my roommate — comes along, and she becomes that person for me. It’s a very interesting relationship because there’s a little bit of a flirting with the whole “Are we friends? Are we more? Do I have feelings for you in that way?” So that’s the relationship so far, and where exactly it’s going, I have no idea.

 

MO: The two key words are “flirting” and “roommates.”

 

HP: (Bad) girls.

 

EI: Did you enjoy playing that kind of complicated relationship?

 

HP: Absolutely. Oh, yeah. [Sings] I kissed a girl and I liked it.

 

EI: Masi, can you talk about how important the hero Ando bromance is to the show?

 

MO: I think the bromance is there. Unfortunately, it’s going to get broken up because Ando goes and gets married, so… Sometimes it becomes a real bromance.

 

HP: Ando gets married?

 

MO: Yeah, Ando gets married to Hiro’s sister.

 

HP: What’d I miss?

 

MO: Didn’t read episode one, did you?

 

HP: Maybe I missed just a little marriage part. I swear to god I read the episode. Not just my stuff.

 

MO: Not just your stuff. It happens. I think it’s on the third page that it’s happened.

 

HP: Oh.

 

MO: But no, I think it’s important to have that duo — the kind of relationship progress from being like a friend, like partners, like brothers, in a sense, and literally they become brothers, at least brothers-in-law for real. And, of course, it was like he was going through his own trauma dealing with a terminal illness. You have that great happy news, and it’s all about Hiro trying to…in some sense, he’s sacrificing himself to make sure other people’s lives are happy at his own expense.

 

EI: Do you think it fundamentally changed the relationship when Ando got his powers?

 

MO: I’m not sure if it did. I think it always changes, because characters do have to grow and the relationship does change, but once Ando got his powers, it’s more on equal footing that they became partners, so it wasn’t more of the Batman and Robin — they became more of a Batman and Superman. I’m not sure if that was good or bad. There is something to be said about familiarity of the characters and what the audience wants and expects, but we also want the characters to grow and relationships to grow, as they do real life.

 

EI: Hayden, Claire also has to deal with her parents breaking up, so she’s going to have to deal with that over the course of the season…

 

HP: I think that’s always the pull and tug. Right now, it’s not quite at the forefront of the storyline for me. But yeah, that is a struggle and it’s something that sometimes can be very suppressed in somebody who’s so young. But she is very much on her own right now, in a good way, and finding that normal life — her biggest relationship being this friend, and she’s not living at home anymore. But there is an episode coming up — I think we all have a family time, which is going to be fun.

 

EI: What have your sci-fi convention experiences been like — your experiences traveling to conventions around the country and interacting with fans?

 

HP: It’s not real. It’s been a very interesting experience. The cool thing is you just run into true, die-hard fans. They’re not fans, necessarily, of you all the time — they’re fans of what you do in your character, which is a very cool thing. They’re all very legit and very real, and just genuinely love and live for the show. They don’t want anything from you. They’re not there for that reason. They’re just there for the love of the show.

 

MO: It’s great. They’re definitely the cool fans, and it’s always great to be able to talk to fans and interact with the fans. I wish I’d been to these sci-fi conventions before I was on Heroes, just so I could experience it from that side. That was the only thing. Actually to be able to do that, I went to a (BlizzCon) just two weeks ago, and that was fun, just to see if from that side. It’s amazing how much people…the time they put in for something they love, and that’s something we really appreciate. When people do love our show and they put on the costumes, they know everything about our characters, and it is overwhelming at the same time. But it’s something we’re grateful for, and that’s the reason why our show has continued to succeed.

 

HP: We’ve been known to put on a storm-trooper mask from time to time. We’re running around the convention…

 

MO: If you see a Wookie and a storm-trooper making out, that could be us.

 

HP: But a really short storm-trooper. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a storm-trooper as short as I am.

 

MO: Aren’t you a little short to be a storm-trooper?

 

HP: Absolutely. But look how big my gun is.

 

EI: What has your interaction been with Ray Park?

 

HP: Ray is awesome.

 

MO: He’s amazing and he comes from that world… He came with us to the (Comic-Con) panel. He was like a kid in a candy store, and his eyes were wide, and he really was excited about that whole process. I thought he was part of that fan world. So to have him be part of a different world, a different property and still be part of that world and expand his fan base, that’s pretty (nice).

 

HP: (Ray) is usually at (Comic-Cons). I’ve known (Ray) for a while, and I met him at (Comic-Con). He’s generally doing some sort of lesson or Jedi fight with light sabers somewhere in the (Comic-Con). So I think for him to be up on a big panel like that and see all the people that he’s generally just sitting there screwing around with and fighting with and just being one of them…for him to sit on the other side of that probably was cool, and I don’t want to speak for him, but he was like a kid in a candy shop. He was like, “Ah! This is awesome!” But yeah, (Ray) goes to tons of those things and he turns into a kid. It’s very funny and fun to see.

 

EI: Hiro has a terminal illness. I don’t like the sound of that.

 

MO: Dun-dun-dun…

 

EI: Is it possible that we might see the last of him? Because I know his power is not going to be able to save him. It couldn’t save Carly…

 

HP: Can you imagine Heroes without Hiro?

 

MO: I don’t know.

 

HP: I can’t.

 

MO: I can. I mean, I think it would be a very bold move. I don’t think anything has been set in stone yet, to be honest with you, but we don’t know which way we’re going. At the same time, we already have our Kenny from Southpark on our show — that’s Nathan Petrelli, so I can guarantee that Nathan Petrelli will die this season finale. It just happens. Every season finale, Nathan will die.

 

HP: He’ll be like Kenny in Southpark.

 

MO: So it will happen. Regarding Hiro, we really don’t know which direction we want to take it. Whatever it is, because it’s a terminal illness and a whole bucket list, it’s something that we’re going to be asking the audience to go on a real emotional ride on. Whatever is decided I want to make sure it’s going to be something that won’t betray the audience. We’re asking them to take this really,  emotional, sincere and sweet ride with Hiro, and we don’t want to just pull the rug and say, “Oops! It’s not that.” Or just kill him silently. So whatever outcome we come up with, we think we will do poetic justice to the storyline.

 

EI: Hayden, Claire is in university this season. Can we expect to see her in school the entire season?

 

HP: I have absolutely no idea. We shall see. I’m still in school now. She may go back and forth, I’m not positive. I know that she will be spending time elsewhere occasionally.

 

MO: By the way, I’m not advocating for Hiro’s death. Let’s get that out of the way. I love working the show (and love working everyone).

 

HP: Yeah, right, Masi. You’re just tired of us.

 

MO: No, whatever. I’m just saying that I do want to make sure we don’t cheat death like we have in the past, and not give it the wait that it’s meant to be. That’s all I’m asking.

 

HP: We’ll bring him back to life. Don’t tell him.

 

MO: As my evil twin…

 

HP: He’ll never get rid of us.

 

EI: Have either of you worked with Robert Napper?

 

MO: Oh, yeah, I’ve had a lot of scenes with Robert. Robert is such a phenomenal actor, and I had the opportunity to work with him on two or three episodes — I can’t keep track. I think maybe two episodes, but he’s wonderful. We’re having a blast together, and he just adds such a new energy to the show…

 

HP: He is one of a kind. He has the same car as me, except the difference between our two cars is that he has a taxidermy mouse with wings dangling from his mirror, which is really uncomfortable. I sat there for ten minutes staring at it, going, “I hope nobody thinks this is my car, because mine’s the exact same car. Just one small, minor difference.” I actually worked with Robert the first time this episode.

 

MO: He’s great. I love him. It’ll feel like working with Adrian a little bit, to be honest. He’s very generous and very focused.

 

HP: He’s such a talent. He’s one of those actors, and the character that he’s created on this show is just awesome. He’s really one of those character actors where he reminds me a little bit like Daniel Day Lewis sometimes, just the way that Daniel will come up with the little quirks about a character…

 

MO: It’s the detail that’s really amazing, and those little choices he makes.

 

HP: He’s awesome.

 

MO: It’s really fascinating to watch him get into that character right before we shoot. It’s a really great learning experience.

 

HP: He’s brilliant, and it will be very exciting for me to work with him and learn from him.

 

EI: Are you studying any particular type of illness to play for Hiro this year?

 

MO: If I was a good actor, I’d say yes, but I’m not. I’m just imagining what would go through… I’ve personally had people near me with an illness… My mom went through the whole breast cancer thing last year, and the whole idea of teetering on the brink of life and death brought me a realization and appreciation for life, and just talking through my mom and what she had to go through  helped me prepare… That’s the wrong word to say, but understand a little bit. There’s no way, of course, to fully understand what an illness does to someone or what emotional state or physical state it puts you in, but to show respect, yeah, definitely I’ve had a chance to talk to many people that — it wasn’t really a specific illness that I “researched,” and as I said, if I was a good actor, I would have done that. But I just wanted to pay respect without putting too much into it.

 

HP: It’s also one of those things that there’s not a specific reaction to when somebody says you’re dying…

 

EI: I just meant in terms of playing the symptoms — are you moving any differently or…?

 

MO: Oh, I just kind of feel weak and that stuff, although I’d completely gone on a big fast and lost about 80 pounds.

 

EI: Don’t do that. You’d disappear. Hayden, Claire didn’t use her powers too much in the third season. Are we going to get to see you get to do any sort of action stuff this season?

 

HP: I hope so. My power does come into play, but there’s an episode that we just shot that’s pretty action-packed, so we do. You’ll see it. Maybe not quite as much as in other pockets of time in different seasons, but we definitely use it.

 

EI: After four years on the show, what are some of the special effects that continue to really astonish you?

 

HP: It’s all real. I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s all us. I lend my blood to the show all the time. You gotta take one for the team. All of it. I mean, Masi’s probably not quite as astonished because this is something that he’s very good at in computer graphics and that kind of stuff, so it’s something I don’t understand in the slightest, so it’s all shocking to me. Does it shock you, Mas?

 

MO: I am an effects snob…but I do have to say I am impressed about the speed and what they can do, because I know the budget they’re given and how much time they have and the resources they have to do what they have to do, and the quality they maintain on the show is quite impressive, without a doubt.

 

EI: You guys were talking a little bit about the convention fans earlier, and Masi, I know you’ve told us lots of times you’ve had some pretty wacky fan encounters. Anything lately that you guys have come across? I’m sure you still get people who are like, “Oh, show me your powers for real!”

 

HP: I’m just afraid somebody’s going to stab me one day and think that my power is real and they expect me to start healing.

 

MO: Oh no!

 

HP: I’ve been thinking about that since the first season. I’m like, what if somebody really thought I was indestructible? Because I’ve heard some wacky things come out of people’s mouths that you go, “Guys, it’s not real…”

 

MO: Definitely don’t give people ideas.

 

HP: I know, right? Keep my mouth shut.

 

MO: I’m actually more adventurous. I like to go out on the floors and try to be incognito because it’s more fun to be out there. But when people do recognize you, it’s a little bit scarier. I’ve had someone chase me down the hall…it’s one of those things — you walk slow, you know they recognize you so then you start brisking it up, and then they start to match your exact rhythm, pace per pace, and then you start running…

 

EI: And then you’re sprinting, running for dear life…

 

MO: Yeah, I did get chased by someone with the Hero (Katana), and then they like fell to their knees and presented it to me and said, “Master Hiro, would you knight me?”

 

EI: Oh my gosh. Did you knight him?

 

HP: That’s awesome!

 

MO: I did my best knight impression, whatever it is. First of all, knighthood is a British thing, so you wouldn’t do a (Katano). And it was a weird reaction. It’s like, “Well, okay, sure.”

 

HP: I wouldn’t know how to react to that.

 

MO: When in Rome, do what the Romans do, right?

 

HP: It’s a little scary when you…I just got a box at my house for my birthday from this girl. It’s a box of like body lotions and stuff like this, and this little box of dog toys in there. There’s — you name it — candles…it’s like this little box that she put together for my birthday. But it came to my house, and she wrote in it things like, “I’m so glad to be able to call you friend, and I tell you everyday what an amazing…” just things that were basically saying that she knew me, and I have no idea who it is. When it gets that close to home, then it gets a little nerve-wracking.

 

EI: Don’t you wish you had the Claire powers for real?

 

MO: So Hayden, you’re saying you didn’t like my birthday gift?

 

HP: Well, unless your name is, like, Shayna.

 

MO: I’m very shy, so I write my name as Shayna.

 

HP: It was very nice, but Mas, it’s a little creepy.

 

MO: I’ll have to try a different name.

 

EI: Does doing a shorter season effect your work at all? Are you only shooting two episodes at once instead of three?

 

MO: It’s actually fantastic, to be honest with you. Doubling up always puts a strain because it becomes about quantity and not quality, and I think 25 episodes, as much as it’s great to have that work, stresses out a storyline that should have been perhaps in 22. You’ve got to route it. You’ve got to route every episode incoming, out one episode. You have to dilute a storyline and make a filler, and that last episode is not going to be as strong as it should be. Having 19 allows you to be really creatively tight. Make every episode so packed with story, character development, action, all that. I think, ultimately, it’s just great for show, and that’s the one thing I say about the great British shows. I see it on the series on HBO, where the season is shortened to like 12 or six or whatever it is. There’s a reason why there’s a quality behind that, because I think the writers, as well as the crew and the cast, do get burned out after doing continuous episodes, and it feels like a factory rather than something of a creative process. We get tapped out. That’s just my opinion.

 

HP: I definitely agree. I feel like the past four years have, at the same time, been like one run-on season, not that we’re doing anything the same or the characters haven’t changed or the storylines aren’t different, but this has been like 80% of our life for the past four years and our time. But it does get drawn out sometimes, and sometimes you’re trying to slow yourself down, and with this amount of story, it’s just nice when you can keep it moving. There doesn’t have to be any fillers.

 

MO: The one thing about season one was that it was so fast-paced and so much thought (with Eaton). It’s hard to maintain that pace, and 19 is such a perfect number. It’s not like the writers’ strike in season two where we got cut short. Knowing that we have 19 allows everybody, especially the writers and creators, to come up with that perfect arc for the 19 episodes. What would usually take 22 would be compressed to 19. That means we get to pack more stuff in there. So as long as it’s not cut short involuntarily, a shorter season is actually, in my mind, more preferred. Of course, I would rather have the crew to have more work, but creatively, for longevity’s sake, I think it’s a better decision.

 

EI: Masi, the illness that Hiro has — it seemed like it came out of left field a little bit at the end of last season. That had never been brought up that these might affect somebody adversely.

 

MO: Right. I think the justification for that illness is I don’t think we’re (having anything cut), but the whole reason why that started is because Hiro let someone into his world. The first time he stopped time while touching someone, in that case it was Ando when they were struggling somewhat, from the bullet. That was the first time he froze time with someone else in that freeze-time world, and that’s what started the adverse effects in Hiro’s brain. So now that’s an irreversible repercussion from misusing your power like that.

 

EI: So is it just the freezing? Because you had blinked people away.

 

MO: Yes, it’s all about manipulating space and time while having someone else. So the power was meant to be for the capacity of one, and when you start adding Ando, Soresh, and other people into that world, it’s just a strain that puts on Hiro’s brain. That’s the way it was explained to me.