Sunday April 1, 2007
The whiz kid is doing Oka-y
By MUMTAJ BEGUM
At a time when Masi Oka was ready to turn his back on acting, fate brought Heroes to him.
THERE’S a new superhero on TV; he’s chubby, bespectacled and looks nerdy – he is none other than Hiro Nakamura, arguably the most popular character from Heroes. Ask any fan of the current hit series and chances are they’ll name him their favourite hero. And why not, the exuberant Japanese guy with the time-travelling ability provides the show with humour while still driving home that message – you know, about great power and great responsibility.
Strangely enough, Hiro Nakamura was almost an afterthought of the series creator Tim Kring. The latter added Hiro only after realising that there had to be a character that embraces his newfound power. Almost all the other main characters in the show are not too keen about the incredible powers that they suddenly find themselves possessing.
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Masi Oka jubilates as he and fellow Heroescast members accept the favourite new TV drama award at the 33rd Annual People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Jan 9. – AP |
Kring says they had a general casting call for a Japanese-speaking actor. “And we actually held the audition all in Japanese,” he recalls in a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles, California. “It was a challenge for us; I don’t speak Japanese. I had to see past the language, to the person beyond, and to the actor beyond that. And Masi brought to the part an incredible, infectious personality, a kind of enthusiasm and joy. It was only about ... oh, I don’t know ... eight pages, maybe even fewer in the pilot of this character, and a tremendous amount of who he is was invented by Masi.”
The 32-year-old is no newcomer to television having guest-starred in various series including Without a Trace, Gilmore Girls and Joey, plus a recurring role in Scrubs. He also made an appearance in the movie Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Nonetheless, at the beginning of last year, Oka was just about ready to quit acting.
It’s not like he can’t do anything else. The Brown University (Rhode Island, US) graduate has degrees in mathematics and computer science with a minor in arts (theatre). He was once a special effects artist at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) studio in San Francisco, California. Some of his behind-the-scenes work includes films like Mighty Joe Young, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Hulk, War of the Worlds and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. He was responsible for writing a software programme for the Star Wars prequels (in which asteroids shatter into millions of pieces) and another programme for a crucial scene in The Perfect Storm, the 2000 movie.
It was after his contribution to Storm that he decided to put his programming skills to rest and pursue acting instead. It turned out to be a long hard road in which he ended up working intermittently at ILM’s branch in Los Angeles, while trying to secure a steady job as an actor.
That opportunity arrived in the form of Heroes. Ever since its debut in the United States last September, the sci-fi show has gone on to be the 2006 hit, garnering an average 14.4 million viewers in the States weekly. Early this year, Oka was singled out from the ensemble cast for a Golden Globe nomination (best supporting actor in a TV series/miniseries/TV movie), one of two nods that the show picked up; the other being best TV drama series. It, however, did win favourite new TV drama at People’s Choice Awards 2007.
In a phone interview from Los Angeles recently, Oka is modest about his current success. “It’s, you know, absolutely unbelievable,” he says. “I’ve been an actor in Los Angeles, pursuing it professionally for, like, five years, and it does feel like destiny to land such an amazing role, to have an opportunity of a lifetime, and to work with such an amazing cast, writers and crew.”
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Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) with sidekick Ando Masahashi (James Kyson Lee) in Heroes. |
Born in Tokyo, Oka (real name Masayori Oka) and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was six years old. On weekdays he would go to Mirman School, and every Saturday he attended school along with children from other immigrant Japanese families. “It was pretty much a week’s worth of Japanese education compressed into that one day – one Saturday in America. I went through that programme for nine years until my junior high, so I was able to maintain my reading and writing skills. Not so much my writing, but my reading and history and society ... all that wonderful stuff.
“I was forced to do that for my mom, whom I cursed at when I was going to school but am now very thankful for.”
Like the next generation of many immigrant families in America, the still single Oka is strongly attached to his roots.
Is it surprising that the man is a huge manga fan – “I haven’t really grown up with American comic books” – and he still reads and collects manga and watches Japanese television. And he speaks Japanese with his mother all the time.
It is that destiny thing again, we think: not only were the lessons mighty useful when Heroes needed a Japanese-speaking actor, Oka actually does the translations for Hiro too!
According to Kring, they write the character in English, and Masi will translate into Japanese. “And so he is able to make the character very comfortably into something that he himself can play. Also, he does bring a tremendous amount of himself to the part and there have been many times when he’s ad-libbed ... adding a funny line that everybody loved, and that we ended up using.
“The script is a very organic thing. It has to change and grow. It’s not like we had years to polish up everything. We’re making it very quickly; it’s a work-in-progress all the way up until the time that you are shooting. And last-minute input often is the best work.”
Says Oka: “We’re fortunate that the writers have been very collaborative and generous with their words. They come up with some great words ... beautiful words ... and it’s so much fun to play with that.”
When asked what else he is good at, the actor laughingly says he likes to eat and sleep. As it happens, Oka is being modest again. In online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, Oka is listed as fluent in German and is proficient in Spanish. He also learnt kendo (Japanese fencing) and piano. In 1987, he was recruited for a photo shoot for a Time magazine cover titled Those Asian-American Whiz Kids. The school he attended in Los Angeles (Mirman) is for gifted children. Apparently, Oka was a great math student and represented California in a national math contest in 1988. Oh, he also has an IQ of 180.
“To be honest with you, I think it’s a curse to have that,” Oka sighs when the subject of his IQ is raised. “I don’t like to be labelled with having a high IQ. I’m actually really dumb. I think I just had a really lucky day when I was taking my IQ test, and this was when I was like five years old. Personally I like to kind of lower everyone’s expectations and over-perform, rather than waste everyone’s expectations and come under that. There’s nothing worse than disappointing people.”
Now a lot of fans will be disappointed if Hiro’s character is ever eliminated from the show. But if that happens, then Kring’s justification will be: “In order for new characters to turn up, some old characters will have to go.”
“It would be tough,” Oka admits about this possibility. “But the story is king. We’re here to service the story. I’m a big fan of the show and if that’s what the story requires, that’s what we’re hired to do as actors.
“Hopefully with Hiro – he can bend time and space – if someone gets killed, maybe he can go back in time and change that history. As long as Hiro is alive, I think someone else can stay alive, but that’s my wishful thinking of course.”
Despite Oka’s direct access to Hiro, he is not sure why people adore his character, though he does proffer a theory. “I love playing Hiro; he’s just so enthusiastic, so passionate about the world, and so optimistic.
He’s a wide-eyed wonder. He’s a kid that we all, I feel, once were. And he gets to live his dream. And that’s so rare in this landscape of American television, for someone who’s so enthusiastic. I just hope the joy of playing him rubs off on the audience as well.”
On Sunday, April 29, 1pm, four episodes will be aired back-to-back in the ‘Heroes Marathon’ slot (for those who missed earlier episodes).
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