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“Save the cheerleader, save the world.”

iF MAGAZINE: You have the ability to turn back time, stop clocks?

 

MASI OKA: And teleport, I can bend time and space. Teleportation and chronokinesis are the official terms, [Laughs] big words. Key words that are good to know.

 

iF: You’re also a big science fiction fan as well?

 

OKA: Oh, I love science fiction, without a doubt. I worked for Industrial Light and Magic, so have done tons of special effects and things. I grew up with Japanese Mangas which has so much science fiction, and I love that stuff.

 

iF: So when you got your script for HEROES you knew this was perfect for you?

 

OKA: I was absolutely elated; this part is actually an extension of me in many ways.

 

iF: The series will eventually get more sci-fi as we go along right?

 

OKA: Well, the series is a drama. It’s about ordinary people getting extraordinary abilities; it is a character-based drama. Pretty much only my chracter is the big comic book geek. Through me, I would probably connect with the genre fans the most. The fundamental core of this is the drama.

 

iF: So you want to be geek liaison for HEROES then?

 

OKA: I represent the geeks and I represent the dreams that the geeks have. When a geek gets these superpowers or extraordinary abilities what would you do? Hopefully, I can go on representing them and portraying us correctly.

 

iF: What was your favorite sci-fi up until this point?

 

OKA: Like I said most of these things up until this point have been Japanese based. I really love JO JO, I think it’s “The Fantastical Adventures of Jo Jo”, I don’t know the exact translation. That was a really brilliant sci-fi comic strip. American-wise I love Superman and Spider-man. Spidey is great.

 

iF: You did San Diego Comic Con this summer and the fan reaction was good?

 

OKA: Yes, it was unbelievable. Those guys and girls were amazing. They’re so passionate, and when we saw the reaction, we knew we had something special. We knew we had hit it on the mark.

 

iF: What version of the pilot did they see?

 

OKA: We aired the 72-minute pilot, which is kind of like a director’s cut. You’ll never see it, but it was our 55 minutes that everyone has seen plus Greg Grunberg’s stuff and some of the terrorist stuff that we had to cut out.

 

iF: Will your characters ever get costumes?

 

OKA: Nah. It’s not about having costumes. I guess Hayden [Panettiere] has a cheerleader costume. [Laughs] We might down the line; we might be subtly playing with costumes. Once this is about ordinary people getting extraordinary abilities. Tim [Kring] is pretty adamant about no tights, no capes, not anything.

 On the other side of the HEROES coin is Isaac Mendez played by Santiago Cabrera. This tortured painter is the hub for all of the HEROES, because his visions of the future are a guide as to who, what, when, and where very key events must occur. Cabrera told iF he really relishes the tortured artist/visionary role that this series has given him the opportunity to play.

iF MAGAZINE: Tell me a little bit about what your character is all about?

 

SANTIAGO CABRERA:I play Isaac Mendez what has the ability to paint the future and to paint events that are to come.

 

iF: Your character has a heroin addiction as well, how tough is that to play?

 

CABRERA: He’s a troubled character certainly. He’s confused and self-destructive, dangerous, and at the moment we meet him he doesn’t remember what he’s painting. On top of that, he’s freaking out and not liking it very much and doesn’t know what to do with.

 

iF: Your character is somewhat unique on the series in that he connects with another hero right away.

 

CABRERA: He’s got a relationship that’s already falling to pieces with Simone played by Tawny Cypress. Then she and Milo’s [Ventimiglia] character finds him in the room together so there is that fact that Isaac can predict events to come so that can be a very strong linking element for the future. He can dictate in that Polaroid picture he is painting of what things will happen.

 

iF: When you auditioned was Isaac that character you really wanted to play, that tortured individual?

 

CABRERA: Yeah. It was really more of his dark side, I liked that complicated side to him with his many layers. It’s hard to find those characters anywhere and I have fun with it. It’s a challenge. I like characters where you say, “ooh that’s a bit tricky” but that challenge is exciting.

 

iF: How do feel about the direction they’re taking your character in the series, at least as far as the scripts you’ve read?

 

CABRERA: I’m very; very excited with the direction they’ve gone in terms of plot and character, especially in terms of my character. It’s what I was looking for when I did the pilot. It’s definitely there and I’m looking forward to everything they give me.

 

iF: Are you a comic book fan at all?

 

CABRERA: I wouldn’t say I grew up being a comic book fan, but I certainly have been reading a lot lately. I got together with Tim Sale very early on in the process before the pilot because he’s doing all of the paintings of all of Isaac’s. I went to his studio to see him work for a while, and he was very helpful. He gave me a lot of his comics, and kind of introduced me to that world. So now with the writers and all, I’ve been going and buying my own comics and Comic Con this summer was a great experience. They were very enthusiastic and very loving. It was great to see that.

 

iF: No capes, or a costume was that disappointing to you?

 

CABRERA: No, I actually hoped that wouldn’t happen. That’s what I think attracted everyone to it, was that it is character based, but it’s more mainstream. There’s something about ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities as opposed to powers and how do they deal with it. On top of that, there is a supernatural issue going on, but how they deal with it is what people will connect with.

 

iF: Have they revealed which HEROES will become evil and which won’t?

 

CABRERA: No, we’re trying to get everything we can out of them, but we don’t know. For me it’s exciting to work that way because it’s the first time as an actor I have no idea what’s going to happen with my character. It puts you in the audience perspective in a kind of a way, and it lead to new surprises when they give you new pages and you say, “What?!”  You always know you’re going to find out new things, so it makes each day at work exciting. We’ve been given a bit of an idea but not too much.

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 ALSO CHECK OUT iF'S INTERVIEW WITH HERO GREG GRUNBERG:

16308-16328

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