This Writer Wrote

This startling revelation was made by Tim Kring, Creator and Executive Producer, at the Paley Festival tribute to his NBC hit show Heroes last Saturday night, March 10, 2007. It was a packed, sold-out house at the DGA, with something I’ve never seen before at one of these events: a standby line. The shows being honored usually acquire a block of seats so that their crew and creative staff not on stage can huddle together and share in the festivities. For some reason (maybe late filming or weekend exhaustion), a number of these seats were unoccupied by the time the panel started. Hence, a group of lucky standbys were able to get primo seats in the front for what turned out to be a fun and laughter-filled event.

“The fluke of the wrong guy walking in” was Tim’s response to Sendhil Ramamurthy describing his audition for Mohinder Suresh. Sendhil explained that as soon as he saw the character was supposed to be 55-60, he thought he was wrong for the role. Tim nodded at this, interjecting that that character later became his father. Sendhil said he thought they were bringing him in for a giggle, but he went anyway.

At that point, Tim picked up the conversation and elaborated, “That’s what happens sometimes. Fascinating casting comes in and changes the whole dynamic of the role.” He immediately saw the potential for the father-son story, the search for his father’s killer, and the whole mythology that now surrounds that story. Sendhil’s audition sparked in Tim the idea to explore the relationship between the son and the dead father and added a hitherto unforeseen storyline that may have never seen the light of day if Sendhil had not braved that ‘giggle’.

Sendhil was not the only one who had had that ‘wrong for the role’ feeling. Leonard Roberts admitted that the description written for Hawkins was: big, big, big. But he really got into the emotion of the character and felt for his situation with his kid. That he was all wrong for the role was accentuated when he walked into the holding area and all the others were physically big guys. Still, he just did his interpretation and obviously Tim liked it better than what he had originally imagined.

Greg Grunberg did them one better – he lobbied for the wrong role. He had done a pilot for NBC, which didn’t work out. The role of Matt Parkman didn’t exist at the time, but the script captivated him. “I’d known director David Semel from before and called him up and told him I’d be the perfect Peter.” Semel told him that not only wasn’t he the perfect Peter, but he couldn’t be more wrong for the role. Tim jumped in at this point and explained that neither of them knew he was writing this other role, which turned out to be perfect for Greg. When Tim said this, Greg turned to him and joked, “You were thinking of Matt Dillon and said, why not go better-looking?”

Ali Larter said the original description fit her perfectly: an Internet surfer with a heart. Except the role changed on her. In the pilot, there was just one complicated woman, Niki, not two characters and she loved the idea of playing a different kind of woman than she had up until then. How different it became was a surprise to her. When asked how hard it was to play two characters, Ali said she felt she could really put herself out there because the writers protect her. “It’s freeing to know that if it doesn’t work, it won’t end up on the air.”

When they wanted somebody for Hiro who could speak fluent Japanese, was humorous, and who had experience in American TV, Masi Oka thought this was such a minor niche that if not this role, what role would there be for him? So he did his audition in Japanese, saying anything he could think of.

To add to the milieu of unexpected casting, Milo Ventimiglia then claimed he was the last person they had seen and teased that they had run out of options by the time they came to him. Tim explained that both Milo and Adrian Pasdar auditioned late in the process because the brother dynamic was extremely important. To which Milo added that he had been tied up at another studio at the time, so by the time he became free, he was the last actor to be seen. “Nobody else to go to,” he teased.

Many creators/executive producers talk about being open-minded in terms of casting and open to what actors bring to the roles, but here is actual proof that Tim Kring lives this way. That when he talks of character interaction being an organic process, of how the chemistry between characters has to be fluid, and the wisdom of going with what the actors give you even if it plays differently than you originally were looking for, you know he speaks with sincerity. That he really is open to seeing things differently when opportunities for better choices arise.

There’s a more traditional way to unexpected series regular status and that’s the route Jack Coleman found himself on: he just did a great job with his guest role. When Jack said there was less pressure and less procedure in his audition because he was only up for a guest role, Tim made sure that everyone understood that the results were a testament to Jack. Tim elaborated that this sometimes happens when “you have an actor who shows up really big on screen and gives you possibilities to write for.” To which Jack humbly replied he was grateful that the writers started writing for him.

As you can see from this one small discussion point, there were far more actors than you usually have on stage for a panel discussion. One of the things I like about the Paley Festival is that you usually get a mixture of actors and creative team. You usually get to hear from the guys who are rarely in the limelight but who are the most responsible for what you see on the show. But with eleven actors and Tim fielding questions, it was understandably impossible to hear from anyone else. And I missed that.

So that this doesn’t get to be too unwieldy, I’ll mention only one more cool question and save the rest for CAT Scratchings, which is a blog of some of my adventures in the Industry when I have time to write them (http://dannygirlpaceyjack.blogspot.com/). Tim was asked if he was familiar with comic books and if he had modeled his characters’ powers after those found in comic books.

Tim’s answer was enlightening. He said that he came at the powers from the character’s needs. In other words, he thought of the character first, then stumbled around until he found a power that suited that character. An example of how he backed into the powers choice is Niki. For her, he wanted a character of a single mom, stretched very thin, who was trying to be in two places at the same time… from this beginning, he got the doppelganger idea. On the other hand, Hiro is trapped in a life not of his own desire. Not only trapped, but confined in a small space – his cubicle. Hence, Tim thought a neat power for Hiro would be to transport himself out of that. Thus, each character’s power comes from what the character needs or wants.

As you can imagine, there were a lot of chuckles and the panel segment flew by very fast. I think some people were able to get autographs and pictures afterwards, but a couple of the writers on the show are old acquaintances and I stopped to chat with them. Hence, the above photo is just a quick flash from where I was to remind myself I was there.

For those of you who are wondering what episode they showed before the panel, it was episode 9 — “Homecoming” with a teaser scene from episode 19. Five new episodes start airing April 23rd.

And now I have a question for those of you who are far more familiar with the series than I am. Someone asked a question about a college drinking game, which the panelists said was started by their prop guys. Something about how often Peter moves his hair behind his ear, how often Hiro pushes up his glasses, and how often Suresh says ‘my father’s research’. Can anybody tell me what that’s all about?