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HEROES- James Kyson Lee
TV Interview::
Exclusive Interview: HEROES JAMES KYSON LEE TALKS ABOUT BEING ONE HALF OF TV'S NEW ODD COUPLE
Hiro's faithful partner Ando gives iF the skinny on what's up next for the dynamic duo
By SEAN ELLIOTT, Senior Editor
Published 2/12/2007
A lot of great heroes in history have had partners. Look at Sherlock Homes and Watson or Batman and Robin, stories of heroic success through teamwork. On NBC’s hit drama HEROES, there is only one such team, that of Hiro (the time traveling continent hopping teleporter) and his best friend Ando. James Kyson Lee is the actor that plays Ando with a willingness to go along for the ride and learn how to speak fluent Japanese for the part. But, in a world where superpowers keep popping up will Lee’s character remain powerless, or even worse, will he become a casualty of the wars of the HEROES…only iF MAGAZINE got the answers.
iF MAGAZINE: On a TV show where a lot of the leads have superpowers, those of you who don’t…do you worry about being killed off?
JAMES KYSON LEE: So far, it’s been a great ride; it’s been a blast! The writers love writing for our [Hiro’s and mine] storyline and I’ve been really enjoying working with characters on the show. The question of the year for me has been, "is Ando ever sort of getting powers?" We were talking about it the other day and we decided it would be funny if Ando got some powers that were unique, but just random like making cheese out of thin air. He concentrates and suddenly, “mozzarella!” [Laughs] Or he gets really mad and starts singing Journey songs like a Karaoke Hulk or something. I don’t really know what the future holds for Ando in terms of a superpower, but he’s becoming more and more integral to Hiro’s journey and I think when Hiro tells him that you don’t have to have powers to be a hero, it really lands on him. You’ll see in the future episodes where that comes into play more. I just finished a two-episode arc where I got to have a love interest and a villainess with twists and turns and there’ll be a lot of fun stuff coming up.
iF: What about the partnership between Hiro and Ando?
LEE: It’s sort of grown to a point where the writers see Hiro and Ando as one entity because we’re a team and we’ve sort of become a modern day ODD COUPLE or Martin and Lewis. At the beginning of the story I sort of had to play the straight man for Hiro, and now they’re staring to flip things around and play with it and you’ll see in upcoming episodes where Ando gets to be the hero more.
iF: Do you actually speak Japanese?
LEE: I’ve been learning since we worked on the pilot. It’s a foreign language to me, but I took a semester of it in college. I have done some minor work in the Japanese language before, but this is definitely the most that I have had to study by far. It’s been a great challenge and also a lot of fun. We have a great coach that I have been working with exclusively and she’s really happy with my progress and I’ve been getting better in every episode. It’s really funny because my father actually went to graduate school in Japan and he worked there as an electrical engineer, so he speaks fluent Japanese and now 35 years later here I am playing a Japanese character so he’s getting a kick out of it.
iF: Have you liked it when you get to work with other storylines on the show?
LEE: It’s always fun to cross paths with other characters, and we’re getting into a lot more of that.
iF: As a viewer of the show, my question is will Hiro ever be able to teleport Ando with him?
LEE: Great question and all I will tell you is there is a big surprise coming up in one of the episodes and all I can say is you will see some big alterations in Hiro’s powers. Hint, hint.
iF: How was working with George Takei?
LEE: It was great of course! George actually came to my birthday party a month ago and we had a blast and it’s been really fun getting to know him. Talk about a guy who was a pioneer as an Asian-American actor in this industry; you’re talking about fifty years of experience and history. It has been really great working with him and hearing his stories, and really getting to know him. [Laughs] Sulu will live forever!
iF: Now with the success of the show, how have the fans been?
LEE: It’s always great to meet fans. I’ve met fans from everywhere, from the States to Europe to Asia. Just the amount of attention and buzz that this show has created around the world has been amazing. When I first read the pilot script I knew this was going to be something special and I was really excited and curious to see how it was going to come together. It’s a special show because it combines a genre of sci-fi and comic books with a core of everyday human drama that people can latch onto and what would happen to us if we were put into extraordinary circumstances. I feel like we have something really extraordinary ahead that could continue for a long time.
Reader Comments
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4/8/2009 8:34:39 AM
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