Interview: Masi Oka of Heroes
In Season Three, Hiro Battles Ando, Sylar, Daphne, and more
Sep 30, 2008
Always enthusiastic, effusive and ebullient, Masi Oka who plays Hiro on Heroes spoke to Suite101.com this week. A few teasers – Adam Monroe, who Hiro first met in feudal Japan and then again in New York, somehow muscles his way out of the coffin Hiro locked him in. Yes, the nefarious Monroe is back in an upcoming episode. Heroes battle heroes and villains battle villains this season.
Q: Is Daphne (the speedster) going to be Hiro’s nemesis for long?
Masi Oka: “There’s a lot of great shocks and, you know, twists and turns. With Hiro and Daphne, you know, Daphne is kind of like the quintessential nemesis for Hiro. As Batman gets his Joker, Hiro gets Daphne.
It’s more like a Wile E. Coyote and a Road Runner scenario except she said more than meep-meep and not as many Acme gadgets although you will see Hiro fall on his face a lot.”
Q: As Hiro becomes more experienced how hard is it to keep him enthusiastic and not weighed down by tragedy?
Masi Oka: I think that’s an important balance to have and the writers, you know, are very conscious of that. But that’s what makes Hiro great, you know, is his enthusiasm. He’s not - he’s (only) discovered his power so it’s a little bit different.
One thing we know about Hiro is that he’s always going to be very pure. No matter what it is, he’s going to do what he feels is right in terms of saving the world.
So his naiveté might have gone away because of all the tragedy he’s experienced, but his purity and his sense of morality will always stay the same.
So that’s something we’ll see and, you know, and his childlike sensibility. So he’ll always be - there will always be some sort of wonderment.
Q: last two seasons Hiro has had a love interest. He had Charlie and she died, and then Yaeko, but she - well he (lives) without her as well. So is he going to be having a love interest this season?
Masi Oka: Oh, we don’t know yet. I mean, that’s always up in the air. Personally, as a fan, I kind of like Hiro and Charlie’s love story and just kind of leave it at that. Just having him fall for Yaeko right afterwards - because in Hiro’s biological timeline it was literally two weeks after, you know, Charlie’s death when Hiro had spent six months with Charlie. Ultimately if there is an end for Hiro, you know, my poetic ending for him would be like to live in an infinite time loop and living his life - and living his times with Charlie over and over, and over again.
Q: in one of the flash forwards this week we saw Ando killing Hiro. So - and it seems like he obviously doesn’t trust his best friend as much as he did in the past.
Masi Oka: I think so. I think we just - the writers wanted to introduce a little bit of a different dynamic between Hiro and Ando just to start things off. We will see them back to get their original selves, hopefully very soon.
But I think everyone is kind of like - because this is a season called Villains, or the volume is called Villains, we wanted to kind of put in seeds of doubt in terms of every relationship we’ve had and kind of shake up the status quo.
