Interview With Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura In Heroes)

Power: Can Bend Time And Space

Can you tell us a little bit about your character and what his powers are?

My character is Hiro Nakamura. He’s an office drone in Japan and he’s a big comic book enthusiast. He learns that he can bend time and space, so teleportation and chronokinesis, and he’s just absolutely exhilarated with the fact that he can do this. It’s been his dream all along and he’s so happy that he’s been chosen.

The character is a big sci-fi and comic book fan. Is this a trait which you relate to?

I believe so. I am definitely a big enthusiast of science fiction and special effects. I grew up with Japanese Manga (Japanese comics), so I know a lot about the Manga world.

I really, really love the character and I believe the writers are doing an amazing job writing Hiro and bringing who I am into the character and extending me in terms of being a big comic book enthusiast. “Heroes” is a big extension of who I am.

There is an online graphic novel which goes hand-in-hand with the series. How important is this to the show? How does it feel to see yourself in cartoon form?

I think it’s just absolutely wonderful. When we went to the comic convention, we had a screening of the pilot episode and we knew we had something absolutely special and magical when we saw the fans’ reaction. We knew we hit it right on the head and that we had served the comic book community really well. And you know, in particular with Hiro being the comic book enthusiast as he is, he’s somewhat the representative for that voice of comic book fans. To have him as part of a comic book too is just absolutely thrilling, both in support of the character and for myself.

You worked on special effects before becoming an actor. Do you find yourself looking over people’s shoulders as the effects are produced for the show?
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Will Heroes Re-ignite British TV?

So you’re interested in one of the highest rating Scifi tv programmes since Lost?

Here at Scifi UK Review, we’re keeping a close eye on the series; to see how it progresses. Will it be canned halfway through, as such other delights as Farscape and I-Man were destined to be?

Heroes will be broadcast on the UK Scifi TV Channel from 19th February (a double bill of episode one and two), initially for 9 episodes, but judging by NBC’s decision to extend, it will be increased to 23 episodes!

From the creators of Lost, this explosive new drama entitled Heroes - a show about ordinary people discovering their extraordinary powers - is currently the number-one new show in America. Weekly figures are in excess of 14 million and increasing every week.

Heroes is predicted (not sure by who) to be a global phenomenon and looks set to grab the imagination of UK viewers when it premiers on the Scifi TV Channel in a few days time.

As a total eclipse casts its shadow across the globe, a genetics professor in India uncovers a secret theory – there are people with super powers living among us. Amongst these are a high school cheerleader who learns that she is totally indestructible; a gifted artist whose drug addiction enables him to paint the future; a young man who develops a way to stop time through sheer will power; and a single-mother stripper who learns that she has an alternate personality with homicidal tendencies. In Los Angeles, a jaded cop discovers that he can hear people’s thoughts, a revelation which puts him on the trail of an elusive and sadistic serial killer.

As we follow their lives week-by-week, we discover that their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the Earth from Armageddon.

Each blockbuster episode costs $2 million to make and is littered with CGI and special effects usually reserved for Hollywood films. The breath taking action sequences and cutting-edge drama are guaranteed to keep British viewers gripped from start to finish.

Creator Tim Kring says of the upcoming show, “We sort of made a pact internally that we weren’t going to be the show that made you wait for stuff.”

Working alongside Kring (also creator of long-running crime drama Crossing Jordan), is Damon Lindelof (Lost co-creator) and Jeph Loeb (television writing credits include Smallville and Lost, as well as writing credits for Batman and X-Men comics). With these credentials behind Heroes, there is little surprise that it has been hailed as X-Men meets Lost.

Find all articles on Scifi UK Review for Heroes.

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