Masi Oka: Time Traveler

He's made geek chic! Cute, Japanese-American Masi Oka who plays Hiro on "Heroes", still can't get used to being a chick magnet. This Fall (the new "Heroes" season starts on NBC Sept. 24th) Hiro will follow a timeline to Feudal Japan and do his Samurai thing! Math-whiz Masi, who moonlights as a digital effects artist, can be seen in the bigscreen comedy Balls of Fury and next year in the movie version of the classic TV show "Get Smart". Masi is the guy who translates the English dialogue in the "Heroes" scripts to Japanese! Wonder if this guy can cook too?

We pulled the star over to the side at a recent Hollywood party to ask a bit about Hiro's upcoming adventures...

TeenTelevision: So we gather that we'll see two different Hiro storylines this Fall?

Masi: Two separate timelines. One timeline is gonna start four months after the event happened and the other storyline with Hiro is 400 years in the past.

TeenTelevision: How much did you know about Feudal Japan?

Masi: What's fantastic is that you grow up with the Samurai and Ninja stuff, especially with my culture. American kids wish they could be like cowboys. We wish we could be like Samurais and Ninjas so I grew up on reading those kinds of mangas and reading the history behind them. I know about all the daimyos and the single coups, feudal terror so it's cool. It's great to be able to act it out.

TeenTelevision: Are they seeing the same episodes we are in Japan?

Masi: They will be. They just sold in Japan. I think they're already starting one and this one premieres in October. But my mom said she saw some. But we know it's going to be on the Super Drama Channel. Isn't that great? There's a Super Drama Channel. I want to assume that they do a lot of drama.

TeenTelevision: How are you liking being a chick magnet?

Masi: [is he blushing?] Oh, well, thank you. That's fantastic.

TeenTelevision: You've made geeks cool.

Masi: Well, thank you. I'm glad I could start a revolution because it was a long time in coming. A nice guy doesn't need to finish in last place.

TeenTelevision: That's right! Are you looking forward to more sword fighting?

Masi: Yeah, definitely. Lots of sword fighting would be cool. Actually, I did take some horseback riding lessons so we're going to be incorporating a little bit of that too.

TeenTelevision: How is that going?

Masi: We haven't shot any sword fighting yet but I know we're going to continue to be doing that. Horseback riding's been fantastic. It hurts your butt when you're starting. It's interesting. When you're going really slow it's fine, but when you're galloping, when they trot, it's like 'oh my God!'.

TeenTelevision: Do you have a system for teaching James Kyson Lee [who is Korean] Japanese phonetically?

Masi: Well, he has a translator on set and I know she works with him phonetically outside. Then once we start shooting, it's like, 'Oh, we need to make some adjustments.' We'll try to work with him. I know he has a system down with his coach. She does a fantastic job. I let them do it and then, when we need to adjust on set, we do that.

TeenTelevision: Isn't it hard to do all that dialogue translation into Japanese?

Masi: These days, for me, because I am fluent, I'm native, it's really easy for me to do it; just wake up in the morning and translate it out. I actually like doing that because one, it helps me memorize my lines and two, it allows me to actually write words that Hiro would say. If I want to throw in my 'yeah, dudes' or whatever in Japanese, then that stays. If I leave it up to another translator, it's going to be so rigid. Instead of saying, 'Yay, I did it, dad', it'll say, 'Father, I have completed my mission.' Since I'm saying those words, I want to be able to feel it. If I leave it up to someone, I won't be able to get that.

TeenTelevision: That does sound like fun for you. Will we see any more with Hiro's family in Japan this season?

Masi: [grins] Oh, well, George Takei is coming back. In feudal Japan there's going to be a lot of Japanese characters, so what does that mean? I don't know.

TeenTelevision: Does your mother ever appear?

Masi: That's an interesting question. She might. She might not. Who knows? Maybe, there's a theory out there, maybe Kaito's married to Angela Petrelli. No! I don't think my mom's coming in the picture yet, but I'm sure later on there's going to be a hole that they can fill. I don't even know if Mrs. Nakamura's alive or not. I assume she is.

TeenTelevision: What about the "Origins" spin-off?

Masi: It's five or six episodes, and it's going to be a standalone. Every episode is going to introduce a new character. That's not necessarily from the flagship.

TeenTelevision: So then will you be in it?

Masi: The idea is not to use anybody from the series but they'll have little nuggets in there. For instance, like a mailman delivers a piece of mail to Mr. Bennet's house, which of course is burnt down already. Or all of a sudden, a character introduced is walking and he runs into Mr. Muggle or whatever. Things like that, We'll have Easter eggs in there but it's going to be disconnected from the main storyline of 'Heroes' but in the same world if that makes sense.

TeenTelevision: What's different about being back for another season?

Masi: We're all more comfortable. We're just enjoying it. We love what we do. We know that we're passionate about what we do but there's not as much pressure I guess. Not as much because we had a great first season and we know fans love it so we're just going to continue what we do.

TeenTelevision: Have people come up and talked to you about the ending of last season?

Masi: No, not as much. I think it was definitely a fantastic ending. I wouldn't say the strongest, to be honest with you, I think we're compared to the 'Lost' ending. That ending was fantastic. But what we had to do for that finale was amazing. We had to tie up so many storylines, bring everyone together and then conclude where everyone's going to go, then plant seeds for next season. All of that in one hour. Because there were so many elements that they had to do plotwise, it was a little bit limiting I'm sure. If you had two hours, Tim Kring would have gotten everything he wanted to do, but because he didn't, he had to cut down a lot. That's why it may feel a little compressed, maybe some parts not as fulfilling as others. But for what it had to do, I think it was fantastic. It was definitely a strong episode, especially the last five episodes of our season I think probably phenomenal

TeenTelevision: What are you looking forward to playing through episode eight?

Masi: The romance storyline's there. I didn't want Hiro to forget about Charlie but a broken heart still ticks, so it's kind of nice to see him find another love interest. The sword fighting, all that, being immersed in that feudal Japan world is fantastic, but I would also love to see him come back to the future and spend some time with his buddy Ando and also with all the other characters. I want him to get back with Nathan.

TeenTelevision: Have you seen any of those guys yet?

Masi: Not yet. I've been working with all new folks in Japan right now.

TeenTelevision: Have you heard about "Journeyman" and the other sci-fi based shows coming up?

Masi: I haven't gotten a chance to see it. I know it's kind of like a 'Quantum Leap'. I'm looking forward to it. I mean, the Monday night lineup, I'm looking forward to 'Chuck' and the new 'Heroes'. I think it's a great night for anyone who is a genre lover.

***

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.