Interview with Jack Coleman a.k.a. H.R.G. from Heroes

It’s time for the fifth conference call for Heroes. A week ago, press from around the world got the chance to talk to a man who has no name. He is only known as three letters that stand for three words. Yet, he is probably the most mysterious character on the show. This call featured Jack Coleman a.k.a. H.R.G. a.k.a. “Horn Rimmed Glasses”.

If you don’t know, haven’t seen the show, or haven’t read my last four conference calls, Heroes is basically a show about ordinary people, like you or me, learning that they have extraordinary abilities. You might even call these people “superheroes”. As we have learned and will continue to learn, though, some of these people may not be “heroes” after all. They may use their new abilities for evil.

Jack Coleman (H.R.G. a.k.a. “Horn Rimmed Glasses”)

Jack Coleman stars on Heroes as the mysterious H.R.G. “Horn Rimmed Glasses,” Claire’s (Hayden Panettiere) father, as well as a man of mystery who has a special interest in people with special abilities. Jack has performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, in film, and on television. Series roles include Dynasty, Nightmare Café, Oh Baby, and Steven King’s Kingdom Hospital. Recently, he has been featured on such programs as Entourage, Nip/Tuck, Without a Trace, and CSI Miami.

And now here are the highlights of what was said in this fifth conference call for Heroes…

Was there much of a hunt in the props department for the perfect pair of glasses, and did the right pair help you find your character?

Jack Coleman: We probably went through about probably a hundred pairs. When I say we, I mean as in props and myself and Dave Semel, the director, Dennis Hammer, and Tim Kring and everybody put in their opinion on it. But yeah, we came up with sort of the perfect pair of horn-rimmed glasses, which we use everyday. And then there’s a backup pair and occasionally I’ve had to wear the backup pair, and it feels completely different and off and uncomfortable.

So yeah, as soon as I put the glasses on it’s the character. Beyond that, it was just kind of nice to just refine the pair that really felt right and looked right. And then the glasses do have to work. It certainly is amazing how much something like that became the character, to a certain extent.

Do you know what your character’s first name is or have you given yourself a first name?

JC: Well, there was a first name in a draft, which was then removed. I think partly because it just sort of kind of stopped the scene, in which it was delivered, cold. I think maybe they’re sort of happy at least for now going without a first name.

How do you justify playing a guy that is not entirely good, but not entirely bad either?

JC: I think it’s kind of the same way anybody justifies themselves. I think he sees himself working for the greater good and taking on a job which is dirty, but has to be done. I think it’s sort of the same way that people can justify doing all kinds of things in their personal and professional lives. But then, there is also a point where he’s been able to separate the personal and the professional for a long time. That is about to end, though.

Do people on the streets still recognize you more from Dynasty or do they recognize you more from Heroes now? Which character do you like playing the most?

JC: No, it’s much more from Heroes at this point. I mean, anyone who recognizes me from Dynasty is, dare I say, of a certain age, because Dynasty has been off the air for quite a while. I still get recognized all the time from Dynasty, but Heroes is so big with teenagers and 20-year-olds now so there is a whole new audience, which is fantastic.

To answer your other question, I have to say that this character is much more interesting and fun to play than Steven Carrington was. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great opportunity, I loved doing that but this is a much juicier role and, you know, the devil gets all the best lines, and it’s a lot of fun to play and it’s definitely something I’m proud of.

So you’re saying that you’re the devil, are you a bad guy?

JC: No. I certainly was setup as the bad guy for the first 2/3 of the season, but I think that there is going to be light shed on both his motivation and his loyalty which I think will broaden everyone’s understanding of who H.R.G. is and what he’s been trying to do. And I think it will make him in one way more sympathetic and in other ways maybe even more horrific. But I think there’s going to be a lot more light shed on who he is and where he came from.

For somebody who has done a lot of very high profile roles on the stage and on TV, does it bother you at all that we’re actually talking about your glasses? Is it odd to you that you’re known for a pair of glasses now?

JC: I don’t think it’s odd because after all that’s the character’s name. He’s an acronym, “H.R.G.”. I think the glasses were a very, very big part of how the character was originally conceived, behind a veil, kind of a 50s throw back to the old sort of imagining this guy formenting revolution in some South American country. He really is a throw back and the glasses are a huge part of the look and also who he is. It’s kind of a curtain between him and other people, a bit of a disguise, a bit of a wall. So I think it makes perfect sense to discuss the glasses if that’s all that anyone is interested in and maybe they’re missing the point, but I think that the glasses are certainly a huge part.

It was quite obvious to everyone that you’re playing somebody with a lot of gray area. Do you enjoy that ambiguity and being able to play both sides of the street a little bit?

JC: I love the ambiguity. I think it’s what makes the character so interesting, and I know that people are perplexed and certainly, the question I’m asked all the time is, “are you a good guy or a bad guy?” People want to know. They want to be able to pigeon hole you. They want to be able to figure out exactly who you are and what you are. But I think the fact that he is both good and bad is what makes him so fascinating, and you realize people can do horrible things and come home and love their children. It’s a perfectly human way to behave in the world because I think most of us are living in areas of gray in some part or another of our lives. And I think that’s what makes the character interesting and fun to play.

A lot actors are kept in the dark for what the overall plan for the show will be. Do you have your own conspiracy theories for what you think may happen in the futue that you can share with us?

JC: I mean, you can come up with all kinds of things, but you’ll be wrong, which is so great. I learned a long time ago in serial television that you got to play what’s in front of you, you got to play what you know. In general, I don’t spend too much time worrying about what’s coming up five episodes down the road because one of the things I find amazing about the show is how much happens in every episode and how action-packed it is and how much story there is. The writers’ expression is “stuffing 50 pounds of story into a 10-pound sack”, and they really do that. More and more as the season goes on, it’s just going to be chockfull of story, and also paying things off, bringing them up and then paying them off and not just leaving things unanswered. Speculation can only get you so far and you’re going to be wrong anyway, so you might as well just kind of go for the ride.

H.R.G. is a father as well. How much of that is your own personality fitting into the role as a father?

JC: Well certainly you bring your own experience to the table. Generally on television, parents tend to be a lot more patient and a lot more interested in every move their darling child makes than in real life when you’re trying to get things done yourself. So there’s a kind of idealization of my parenting skills, when I’m not “bagging and tagging”. People are doing horrible things and putting chips in them and following them around and performing experiments, so that part of the parenting thing is quite different from my own experience. But yeah, you bring your own experience and parenting to it as I have a daughter that I can compare to the whole thing with Claire. It makes sense to me, but it’s certainly not an entirely accurate equivalent from one to the other.

How did you come into this role and what were your first impressions? Did you see the show becoming as big as it has become?

JC: I first became aware of the show from a friend of mine who’s a writer on another series. He said that there’s this wonderful pilot called Heroes and I’ve been hearing great things about it and he said it’s my favorite script of the season. Then, I realized that it was being produced by Dennis Hammer who I know. I did not know Tim Kring before this. Dave Semel who directed the pilot was somebody who I knew as well, though. So I went in knowing that the part was a very small part. It was basically an one-page audition, the part from the pilot where I’m sitting at the back and out of focus with a very sort of a fuzzy sepia tones. That was all I knew about the part, until I saw the very end where he was Claire’s father. That’s when I said to myself, “This definitely has potential to carry on forward.”

Having said that, I had no idea that the role would become what it did. I had no idea the show would become the juggernaut that it has become. I did know that there was a tremendous buzz within the industry about this show, so it’s kind of being seen as “the little engine that could”, but I think that within people in the industry, this show is always seen as something that was potentially going to be a breakout hit.

What comic books did you read as a child and what superheroes did you look up to?

JC: Well, it’s funny because people are either DC guys or Marvel guys, and I was sort of a Marvel guy. I liked Spiderman and that whole thing. I always thought that the Marvel Comics had a great, sort of, angst to the characters and there was more of a personal cost to all of that stuff as opposed to just sort of straight, square-jawed heroes going and bumping heads and making things right. So I was kind of a Marvel guy and those are the comics I really liked.

Have you seen anybody who has actually been wearing the same glasses that you wear on the show? Sort of like the sideburns from Beverly Hills 90210. Can you imagine people trying to do that on their own? Have you seen anybody actually following in your fashion footstep?

JC: Well, I’m not sure that I have actually set off a fashion craze. I certainly have seen some pairs of horn-rimmed glasses which maybe I just wasn’t aware of before because they didn’t standout before. For example, you buy a white car and suddenly you notice all the white cars. But I have seen them out there and they are kind of anachronistic and you have to have a certain fashion courage to be anachronistic in this day and age, but I don’t know if that’s going to be setting off a trend or not. There is a kind of a hipness to being that retro, though.

You are on a show where there are heroes and it looks like there are good guys and there are bad guys. There is all of this ambiguity to it, but do you think the show would be just as popular or just as watched now if there wasn’t all of these shades of gray to it, if it was just here is the good and here is the evil?

JC: It’s very well might be. It wouldn’t be as interesting a show though, that’s for sure. To me, what makes the show interesting are the shades of gray or the fact that although we’re talking about super abilities, no one’s done in costumes, people have to deal with the fact that it does make them a freak, it does make them haunted. I mean if you think about how people might actually respond to these kind of things. There could be sort of widespread panics, so I just like the fact that there’s a price to pay, and that you really have to come to terms with your ability. I mean, you look at the differences between Peter and Nathan. Peter has embraced or trying desperately to embrace all of his abilities, and Nathan is trying desperately to deny his ability because it’s a total liability to what he is doing for a living. I think the shades of gray is definitely what makes it interesting and the fact that people really have to try to deal with these things. I think that the realistic human consequences are what makes the show interesting and I think it’s what makes it appeal to people, because I think that the old days of the straightforward superhero are probably behind, for better or worse.

Since you were a Marvel guy, how did it feel to have Stan Lee making an appearance on the show?

JC: Oh, it was brilliant. I was working that day that he came into the makeup trailer and he was just the nicest guy and he was shaking hands and signing autographs and everybody loved him. It was great. I don’t know how old he is but he is a spitfire, he’s in great shape. So it was really fun to have him on the show.

Is H.R.G. aware that the Haitian can speak?

JC: That little tidbit rears its head very soon, and shall we say causes a bit of friction between the two of them. Very soon he becomes aware of it and it does a cause problems between the two of them, at least temporarily.

Have you had a particular sequence in the series that has stood out to you so far?

JC: Yeah, there are several. I’ll just say that the end of Episode 1-17, was very emotional and it’s stuck with me for awhile. I think of all the scenes that I’ve done, and there are many that are fun and memorable, but I think the end of Episode 1-17 was one that stood out the most so far.

If these heroes have only come to discovery in the past six months or so, what has your character and his organization been doing for the past 15 years?

JC: That’s actually not accurate but the organization has been going on for 15 years and people have manifested well before this. Episode 1-10, which was entitled “Six Months Ago”, where Claire first manifests, that’s where a lot of things start to happen to propel our story from this point forward. But there’s a lot of back story to a number of these heroes and some heroes that we haven’t met yet that go back well before that.

Your character is teaming up with Matt Parkman for an episode. Can you talk about that relationship and maybe any other cast member you haven’t gotten the chance to work with yet or that you’re hoping to?

JC: Yeah. Matt Parkman and H.R.G. have met a couple of times in very odd and confrontational ways. I won’t call it a marriage of convenience but there’s a sort of an allegiance which takes place out of necessity and the allegiances are constantly shifting. It’s one of the things I really love about the show is that as soon as you think you know who is on whose side, all of a sudden the land shifts beneath you, and things are suddenly very different.

So that is somethuing you have to sort through, but I’ve really had a great time working with Greg Grunberg and that’s been a lot of fun, and also with Matt Armstrong, who plays Nuclear Ted. He and I have worked together before. I have not worked with Masi yet, but that’s actually about to change too soon. I haven’t worked with Ali yet. I haven’t really worked with Adrian yet. I gotten to know Leonard quite well. So there’s a bunch of people in the cast and I’ve actually integrated with more storylines than many other cast members. I’m looking forward to all these things expanding soon.

How do you think he feels about his wife basically turning into a vegetable?

JC: I actually think that it’s one of the things that really brings the story to a crisis, the toll that is taking on his family. I think he will soon see that the toll that it’s taking on his family is starting to really wear H.R.G. and he can no longer just sort of roll with it and gloss it over.

Because your character remains so enigmatic throughout the shows run, is it rough trying to decide how to play the part or have the writers provided you with enough information about the general direction to give you something to work with?

JC: Well, one of the things that usually happens is they’re usually, one of the writer-producers on set or several of our directors or producers, and they tend to have knowledge of things that I may not have knowledge of. So they’re good at filling in the blanks where they need to be because there are some scenes where I am just kind of at a lost. But I don’t think it’s not the grayness or the ambivalence because I think my feeling is I have a very specific attitude toward motivation for every individual scene, and those things are often kind of at odds with each other when they’re taken in total. For the scenes itself, I just try to play what I think is going on at that moment, and not worry about how this fits into the greater picture because again on serial television, the greater picture is ever shifting and the show is as well. You just have to trust that your own truth that you bring to it will kind of work as a glue to hold together things which might seem to be contradictory.

What can you say about how H.R.G. is going to approach handling Sylar now that he may be overwhelmed by feelings of revenge?

JC: Well, I can tell you that the antipathy toward Sylar is put on the backburner for a little while because other things come up and supercede it, and Sylar’s out on his own away from the prying eyes of H.R.G. for a little while. H.R.G. has other things on his plate which are demanding his full attention. So I can say that I’m not exactly sure what H.R.G.’s approach to Sylar is going to be toward the end of the season and how it’s all going to play out. But there’s no question that that’s the guy that he would very much like to get his hands on or somebody’s hands who can deal with him. That is something, which I think will keep H.R.G. moving forward.

As you’re going along shooting the season, have you been working on anything in terms of “extras” like extra interviews for a DVD crew or anything that you could see being included on the inevitable DVDs that are coming out for Season 1 of this show?

JC: Yeah, we’ve been doing all of the behind the scenes and it will be fascinating to see how the DVD set will be put together for the first season. There’s been plenty of stuff and interviews and behind the scenes stuff and also probably some scenes that didn’t make it, and just exploration of the first season. It will be fascinating to see as there is quite a bit to that.

Do you see a point in time where H.R.G. and Claire will almost be enemies? Is that somewhere where you think your character can go?

JC: Yes, my allegiances on the show are subject to change, so it certainly can happen. The relationship between H.R.G. and Claire has been very strained lately. There’s a crisis situation which brings it to a head, and then possibly some kind of at least temporary resolution, but I suspect that the relationship between Claire and H.R.G. is one of the core values and stories to the show. They’ve said so many lies to each other. But ultimately, I think they really do love each other and there’s a tremendous bond there, and I think that it’s one of the bedrocks that they build the story on. So in other words, I think ultimately I can’t imagine that they’re going to be at each other’s throats and trying to kill each other to that extent. I think it’s much more of a domestic issue than some sort of a superhero issue.

Does it bother you that you and very few other members of the cast don’t actually have a superpower? Do you feel like you’re missing out on the fun?

JC: My experience with prosthetics is that it is a lot more fun to watch than to do. It’s also kind of fun to be the kind of guy that has to rely on knowledge and anticipation to stay alive in this world. You may have noticed that up to this point, he’s been pretty much on top of things and it’s starting to unravel. I just never thought of it as, darn, I wish I could read people’s thoughts or fly or start fires or whatever. I just think of this guy as someone who really has to rely on his knowledge and understanding of the situation to survive. That stuff is every bit as much fun for me to play as getting burnt to a crisp and healing. That’s a lot of prosthetics and frankly, that’s not all that much fun.

Heroes has developed a lot of online material for fans. Do you follow a lot of the online stuff or do you sort of shy away from that community?

JC: No, I follow it to an extent. I’m a little bit of a luddite, so I’m not somebody who’s deep into the entire online culture of these shows. I do follow it a little bit and it is pretty fascinating to hear the theories and to see all the different ideas people have about what’s happening, and some of them are incredibly inventive and some of them are fairly accurate, and then, some are just way, way off. But you can be very wrong today and proven right six months from now because it’s a very fast-moving show.

Did you always wanted to be an actor while you were growing up or did you have other professions in mind?

JC: It’s funny, I wouldn’t say I always wanted to be an actor. No, I mean, I look at Hayden who has been doing this since she was 2 and there’s just never been any doubt in her mind. She has just pursued it at a very early age and I grew up on the East Coast and I wasn’t surrounded by Hollywood but I was always into theater and acting, and I did it all through school. Then, when I went to college at Duke, which at the time was a very small program there. It’s now actually quite big. Through my freshman year, I just decided that I was going to do some theater and decided this was really what I wanted to do, and I had done it seriously off and on through high school as well. But while I was in college, that’s when I made the decision, then I went to the National Theater Institute and then to New York.

It was not something from early childhood that I wanted to do. I was a jock and I loved playing sports, but I don’t think that I thought I was going to make it as a professional, though. I’m also the youngest of seven and all the other professions were taken by the time I came of age, so as a result I chose to look at the acting profession, I guess.

What makes a career as an actor so rewarding after all of this time, for you?

JC: Well, what’s happening right now is incredibly rewarding. I tell you part of it is just sort of refusing to go away. You have to believe in yourself, and you have to believe that you’re good and you just have to sort of refuse to go away. Eventually, they just might hire you out of exhaustion, but I just can’t stand the fact that you just keep showing up and so they end up hiring you. It’s very hard. This is the second really big hit television show that I’ve been on, but I have 20 years of work on television and most of it is forgettable. It’s just a way to stay alive and pay the bills and keep your insurance up and all of that kind of thing. Sometimes you get awards and sometimes you don’t. But something like this is really like lightning in a bottle. It’s very, very hard to come by and so I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity.

Do you prefer playing H.R.G as the “bad guy” or do you think that the good father you expect is more interesting?

JC: I think it’s both really interesting. If you’re just walking around, twirling your mustache and cackling like a villain, it’s just not that interesting and people get tired of it. It really is just a weird dichotomy of this guy who is on one hand doing things that are just so amoral, possibly more morally gray and possibly just amoral. And then on the other hand, comes home and loves his daughter. As twisted as he may be, his feelings for his daughter are genuine as they are for his entire family. So I think it’s the combination that makes it interesting.

What was the most challenging scene you had to do for Heroes so far?

JC: Well, probably the scene in Japanese I had to do. I just recently did an entire scene in Japanese, and that was challenging. That took quite a bit of time for me to memorize and get comfortable enough that I could do it. There are some scenes that are physically strenuous, but I don’t think there was one that caused me quite as much angst as when I got he script and I saw that I was doing a page and a half in Japanese. That got my attention very quickly.

If you could have an extraordinary ability, which one would you choose to have and would you use it to help people?

JC: Who’s to say that I would use it to help people? That’s a Pollyanna way to view the world. Seriously, there’s sort of the visceral thrill of flying which I don’t think anything can beat. And then there’s the ability to turn invisible but I was kind of invisible also in the 90s so that didn’t work out that well. We all search on this show for a really snappy wonderful answer to that question. And so maybe my special ability would be to come up with a really, really great answer to that question. I’m still working on it.

When did you know that you were becoming a regular on the show and do you know what prompted that because it didn’t look like H.R.G. was starting out to become as integral as he has become?

JC: Well, it’s interesting because it’s one of those things that sort of gradually got built up. I don’t think there was ever a knowledge or intention that this is what was going to happen. I think it came slowly. Episode 1-11 was my first episode as a series regular. But I started to get the idea that maybe this is going to happen a few episodes beforehand. I think a lot of it was just that this character serves so many different stories and can be a catalyst and can drive stories in a way for people who are sort of struggling to get a hold of their abilities. You need an antagonist, you need somebody who’s driving them into a crisis. So there was that, and then I think there was also just a fact that they liked the chemistry with Hayden and me, and I think they liked how they had a really nice sort of emotional resonance, which added to the creepiness of what H.R.G. was doing during his day job. I think it just made sense to keep him around for a little while.

You said speaking Japanese is the single most difficult thing you’ve done, what’s the most physically challenging thing that they have let you do as opposed to your double?

JC: Well, I will say without any trace of embarrassment that my interest in doing stunts is limited. I’m an athlete and I like doing things that are handy. I’m not interested in high falls and being set on fire. Recently we just worked in fire and that was fairly hairy, and so it’s fun to do that stuff, but I have no interest in being a stuntman. People who say they do all their own stunts are either lying or putting the production in jeopardy, so I’m taking work away from stunt people which I also don’t like to do. But I would say that the most dangerous thing I’ve done on this thing so far is just being around fire.

When you get home from set, what are the other shows that might be on your TiVo when it’s time to relax?

JC: The shows that are on my TiVo? Well, The Office is on my TiVo, Extras is on my TiVo, Dexter is on my TiVo. I’m thinking of Season Passes. I am a fan of Studio 60 and I love the writing and I love the acting on that show. There are others that I watch sporadically like My Name is Earl and I actually gravitate oddly enough more toward the comedies than towards dramas, but a lot of the HBO shows I like. For my money the more interesting writing goes on television than in movies in general with some obvious exceptions but I think most movies tend to be so effect-heavy that none of the story comes out sometimes.

There have been rumors, spoilers, that Claire will be spending a lot less time in her home in Odessa, Texas. Also, given the mother seems to be collapsing in herself and your son hasn’t appeared for a while, are we to assume that by end of this season those two characters will not have as active of a presence on the show? Could it become just you and Claire?

JC: I can honestly say I really do not know the fate of Sandra and Lyle. Sandra being my wife played by the wonderful Ashley Crow and Lyle is Randall Bentley. I don’t know actually what’s going to happen with them, but I don’t think they’re going to completely disappear at the moment, but I don’t know.

Did you anticipate that the viewers will latch on as dramatically as they have?

JC: Well, I don’t think anybody anticipated that it was going to be like this, but I think everybody had an idea that the show had real promise. So, the fact that it has stuck around an audience does not surprise me. The fact that it has become this kind of runaway train is quite surprising, not because of the show. The show is amazing and deserves it in my opinion, but you never know. Look at all the shows that were so highly touted, and don’t catch on. It’s just such crap shoot, you really don’t know what you’re going to get.

Since we know you’ve got a second season, what might we expect for any cliffhangers involving your character and where you see your character going into Season 2?

JC: Okay. We’re filming. We’re about to start filming Episode 1-20. I have no idea what’s happening in Episode 1-21, so I’m not trying to be a killjoy when I say I have no absolutely idea about what’s going to happen next season. I do think that there are some relatively profound changes heading toward H.R.G. but I don’t know that they’re going to continue or what’s going to happen into the next season.

Do you have an idea if the mission might change soon then?

JC: Oh, I think the mission will definitely change. The question is for how long and at what cost? It’s certainly not going to be the same kind of “bagging and tagging” that we’ve seen H.R.G. do with Matt and some of the others. I think that it’s going to be a very different kind of mission that he’s on pretty soon.