HEROES' TIM KRING & MASI OKA

As the push continues for the release of Heroes Season 1 on DVD on Aug. 28 and the second-season premiere on Sept. 24 on NBC, Heroes creator Tim Kring and Masi Oka, who plays Hiro, were subjects of a telephone press conference late last week.

Following is an edited transcription:

Question: Masi, you said the only only drawback with this job was that when Hiro teleports himself, all that staring and head rattling wears yourself out. Have you done anything for this new season to prevent that?

Oka: Not, really. It's become such an iconc gesture that we continue to be doing it. In fact, there's more of it now.

Kring: Yes, but Masi has now perfected it so that it's a much smaller gesture than it used to be. We can assume the character, through use of this technique, has gotten better and better. So it's now kind of a very simple, condensed version of the original one.

Question: With all the reluctant heroes, Masi seems to enjoy it. Of all of those with powers on the show, Hiro is the only one really excited about becoming a hero on the show. Tim, what made you come up with that and Masi, how did you respond to that?

Kring: You landed exactly on it. When I read the first draft of the script, the character actually didn't exist. There was sort of a preponderance of characters who felt that these powers were an affliction and the cumulative effect of reading this first draft was that it was kind of a downer. Nobody seemed to have any fun with it. So the character was really created to lighten up the initial script. You have to understand, it wasn't a pilot at the time. It hadn't been greenlit to be made as a pilot, so we were still trying to sell the script. I thought we needed one character who needed to embrace it in a very enthusiastic way.

Oka: I thought it was phenomenal because it wasn't one-note. Tim Kring created an amazing, beautiful world with such rich characters. Hiro embodied the sense of the everyman in many ways and how we all dreamed as a kid of wanting to be a superhero. He's someone who kept his dream, believed in it, believed in it, believed in it and finally his dreams came true. To be able to live my dreams of becoming a superhero through his dreams is fantastic. I'm just very fortunate to have been a part and to have Tim trust me with the character.

Question: Masi, how much fun have you had working with George Takei? How much more of that will we see this season?

Oka: George Takei was phenomenal to work with. Not only is he a generous actor but a generous person. He's an icon in every aspect, Asian American, TV, American cinema, you have Star Trek and everything. You learn so much from him. If you were to ask George Takei [about working with me] he would say, (in George Takei voice) "Well, I found working with Masi to be quite an experience. He's quite a young and talented individual. It's nice to see the sci-fi generation get passed on from the older to the younger and the legacy being kept alive. Ha. Ha. Ha."

Question: Will we see more of him this season?

Kring: Yes, in the season premiere you will see Takei as well as Masi and everybody else.

Question: Tim, will we see more smart casting like that?

Kring: Yes, the audience can expect some interesting casting. I cannot spoil it because it's going to be too much fun. Look for another face that will have a very similar impact to George Takei for the real genre fans.

Question: So the next DVD is set to come out during the next lunar eclipse. Do you hope it attracts a new audience?

Kring: Well, it's amazing to work for a big company like GE that can actually manipulate these huge astronomical events like that. What an amazing coincidence. (laughs) Yes, clearly with a show like this there's so many people, I think, that felt that they couldn't jump onto the show midseason because they felt that they would have missed too much, or people that just wait now for the DVD to come out in order to catch up with what's on television, and it's those viewers that we're really hoping to attract and gain a new fanbase for the opening of the second season, which is about three weeks later. So it could work out very nicely for us.

Oka: Season 2 is about a new storyline. It's a new beginning for everyone, so that people who haven't watched Season 1 not only can catch up with the DVD but can also just jump into Season 2 and watch is from there as well.

Question: Do you guys have any real-life heroes?

Oka: My real-life hero is definitely my mother. Growing up being raised by a single mother who came from Japan to America to provide for our entire family and give me a better life in America. She gave up pretty much her entire life for me, so I'll never be able to repay what my mom has done for me.

Kring: It's an interesting question because right now I have two small kids that I'm trying to involve in charitable work that our family is involved in, so this topic has come up quite a bit in our family lately. We've been involved in a few charities here in Los Angeles that we've spent some time with on weekends. Being that people are working in these very obscure ways doing tireless work to help the community, we're surrounded by these people and they're anonymous and giving, and many of them, most of them, want to stay that way. I'm just sort of struck by how many people out there are heroes, especially in the world today where celebrity is so ephemeral and temporal, where people come and go very quickly in our consciousness. It's just really fascinating to see people that are dedicating their lives to helping others.

Question: Congratulations on your Emmy nominations. What do you think are of your Emmy chances and what could a few wins do for the show?

Kring: I was just thrilled, obviously, to be nominated. I had talked myself out of any chances of getting a nomination before it was announced, so I came at it very thrilled and surprised by it. Clearly in the category of Best Show, we're up against very stiff competition of a show like Sopranos, which was crowned this year with so many accolades. It feels like that's the one to beat. Obviously, winning a few Emmys really helps with a show like this because this is a show that many viewers, I think, dismissed early on as a fantasy show or a genre show or a sci-fi show, and those kinds of shows aren't always associated with critical acclaim or with awards. So I think with a show like ours it's very important because it stamps the show with a certain mark of quality that will attract new viewers.

Oka: I'm definitely proud of our nomination. Personally, it's definitely an honor.

Question: Heroes was the breakout series of last season. Do you feel pressure to top the success with the second season and the spinoff series, Heroes: Origins?

Kring: Well, yes, it's not pressure to top it, it's pressure to keep it going. This particular show has become a show that has been defined by its ability to defy your expectations. People want that experience of watching the show and not knowing where it's going to take them. That's the difficult part, is constantly trying to stay one step ahead of everybody's expectations.

We have a really extrordinary staff here, an extraordinary cast. We're kind of on a big roll right now. It's feeling like we're really poised to repeat the creativity of the first season. Obviously, we hope the audience comes along for the ride.

Question: Masi, was there anything in the second season concerning your character that came as a big surprise to you?

Oka: Oh gosh, so many things. Every week is always a surprise. Before (being) actors, we're big fans of the show. We just can't wait to read the script and that's even moreso in Season 2. You think, "How can they top the week before?" It's just amazing because the writers always find a way to surprise us and put smiles on everyone's faces and puts us on the edges our seats wanting to know what's next.

Question: Are you guys fans of DVDs and were you scheming on that from the beginning?

Kring: We knew early on that this kind of show was designed to nowadays to be able to watch on DVD. So we started our planning of the DVD pretty much right at the very beginning, in terms of a lot of behind-the scenes footage that we shot and the commentaries. And it was somethat that was certainly planned for. The core audience of a show like Heroes is very savvy about these kinds of things and wants a DVD that reflects the nature of the show, which is always surprising and always state-of-the-art.

So we are aiming very high with this. We are doing an HD-DVD release that is for very serious DVD fans that has tremendous interactive capabilities that allows you to navigate onto the web and collect various materials and to participate in various games and tests and that sort of thing that runs on HD-DVD players that many people are starting to buy.

Oka: DVDs are great because it give us an opportunity to give fans more as well, not only just recap the episode they've seen, but there's like 50 deleted/extended scenes, we even have the 72-minute premiere pilot episode. Heroes was a great success online through iTunes. Even those fan base, they have extra value by purchase by buying the DVD.

Question: What was your experience like at this year's Comic-Con?

Oka: It was absolutely amazing! It was a homecoming. It was kind of like winning the Super Bowl and going back to your home city. It was just a great parade of celebration of the phenomenon that we all created together: the fans, the writers, the cast. I was there from Thursday night. I even got a chance to walk through the floor and interact with some of the fans. It's just great. There's so much love and passion for our show and just to be a part of that celebration was phenomenal.

Kring: We really looked at Comic-Con this year as a big, giant thank you. We were very committed to the idea of bringing everybody that we could from the show down to show our appreciation for the fans who I am convinced were very instrumental in making the show a hit last year when we launched.

Question: Heroes is kind of a mirror held up to the core audience -- a mass of fans could have been the driving force. What are you guys fans of? What really gets you up and get going? What are your hobbies?

Oka: I'm enjoying life right now. I get to meet so many great people. I guess what I'm really passionate about these days -- just to be able to work on a great show, first of all. But then from there, I also get to meet great people, whether it's my cast, the writers -- just going down the street, the fans. And it's just really cool. Experiencing life right now is what I'm passionate about.

Kring: One of the downsides of running a big television show is you don't have a lot of time in your life for hobbies. But I have to tell you, I've always been passionate about storytelling. And I find whether it's this show -- or any of the other shows that I've worked on -- that process is still the same. The idea of facing a blank computer screen or blank page is still the same process.

And I still try and find the truth and the humanity in every moment that I write. And so in many ways, that part of it has not changed at all -- since I started this career as a writer 20-some years ago. But I'm obviously a big fan of this kind of storytelling, which I think was not available to television until very recently -- the idea of a big, long unfolding saga.

It's a tremendously exciting way to tell stories. It just keeps generating and generating and generating. And the more twists and the more turns, and the more reveals -- the more story that's generated -- and it's a very exciting, kind of adventurous way to tell story.

Question: Masi, your character over the last year or so has kind of become the quintessential coolest geek around. So how have you felt kind of building this character? Do you feel like you're giving geeks out there some street cred for the masses?

Oka: Oh yeah, if I can represent the geeks. I'm very fortunate to be able to do that. For me, the notion of a geek has always been someone who's passionate about something, whether it's computers, ant farms or musicals, or storytelling or paperweights -- whatever it is. Anything you're passionate about something -- and that's what makes us human. It defines us as individuals. It gives us our uniqueness. And I think it's more human. it's more us. It's more commendable to be a geek -- and be passionate about something -- that be apathetic about everything.

Question: And Tim, did you ever think that your character. when you were creating it, the Hiro character. did you think that he was going to catch on as this kind of quintessential cool geek?

Kring: Well I did think that the character did represent a certain portion of the viewers out there. So I did feel the people would relate to him. But, no, you never expect this kind of reaction. I've worked on lots of things before. And this is a unique situation, where the show and Masi's character have been embraced with such enthusiasm.

Question: Tim, who came up with the idea of asking Kevin Smith to write and direct an episode of 'Heroes: Origins'?

Kring: I did. The idea of the six episodes is it's an anthology series. Each episode will tell a stand-alone story concerning various characters that are not on Heroes who are out there in the world experiencing these transformations and discovery of power. And each one of these stories is intended to feel and look -- and be different from one another -- and to have a different tonal quality to it. And it really lends itself to the idea of unique voices coming in and doing these episodes. So Kevin is the first -- in a hopefully very interesting line of writers and directors -- that we are going to attract to this show.

Question: And what can you tell us about the new villain? Anything like gender, ethnicity, initials of the person playing him or her?

Kring: Well there's a couple new villains. So I'm not sure which one you're referring to.

Question: Well why don't you just dish?

Kring:Last year we had a couple of villains. We had Sylar. And we had Linderman. At the end of last season, in the season finale, gave a premonition of someone who was a very scary villain out there -- who had invaded the dreams and nightmares of this character on our show named Molly Walker -- who can locate people in her -- by just by thinking about them.

So we teased the idea that there was another villain out there. And the audience can expect to see him somewhere in the first run of episodes. They're doing 11 episodes in a row that start on Sept. 24. And somewhere in that run of episodes we're going to introduce a very scary villain.

Question: So it's a him? What's his ethnicity?

Kring:Again, I'm just going to hold off on all of that for now.

Question: Of all the loads of special features that are going to be on the DVD, where do you think people should start?

Kring: I think a very interesting place to start would be the original pilot. The original pilot version told a couple of storylines that were dropped for various reasons. I think I talk a little about it in the commentary. I think it's a really fascinating place to start because you begin to gain some insight into how the series took shape in the way that it did. Some of the key elements of the storytelling were shifted and you get to experience what the original thought process was and how they changed and why they changed.

Oka: I was actually a big fan of the score documentary because they showed a lot of cool stuff that I never knew was going on. What they contribute to the show is really unsung and absolutely fascinating.

Question:Obviously this show is very much based on the ensemble. And with such a large cast, even from Season 1 -- moving into Season 2, with all the cast additions that you've already mentioned -- and I'm sure that there are more you haven't but you're leaning towards -- Tim, how does that kind of help you balance -- or does it make it even harder -- to kind of juggle all the characters? And Masi, with your character how are the new characters informing Hiro?

Kring: Well it's a constant challenge -- on a show with this large a cast -- to balance things. I think last year when the show was starting -- and for the first part of the season -- it was very important for us to have every character in every single episode -- because people were getting to know them.

Now that people know some of these characters -- or most of these characters, and are used to the storytelling of bouncing around from one story to another -- I think we can expect to spend a little more time this year on fewer storylines per episode that allow us to heighten certain - or highlight certain characters each week. And by extension, some characters will be left out of episodes each week. So that's kind of the way that we're going to juggle it this year.

Oka: And I guess with regards -- well right now in Season 2, I'm in feudal Japan -- Hiro's doing a lot of stuff in feudal Japan. So the characters he interacts are going to be in feudal Japan. So we don't know how that affects ­ unless, I guess -- Hiro could theoretically take people back into present day. I don't know the storyline unfortunately. But as far as I know I'm in feudal Japan.