It’s time for the sixth conference call for Heroes. A week ago, press from around the world got the chance to talk to a few more stars of the show that we haven’t had the chance to talk to yet. One is the most infamous “cheerleader” around, while the other is a new “mysterious” addition to the cast.
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.
Hayden Panettiere (Claire)
Hayden Panettiere plays Claire a.k.a. “The Cheerleader”. Her power is that she can’t be injured. Before Heroes, she was probably best known for her role as Lizzie Spaulding on the daytime soap opera, The Guiding Light. She has also appeared on the show One Life to Live and movies Remember the Titans, Racing Stripes, and Joe Somebody. All of this before she even turns 18 this August.
Eric Roberts (Thompson)
Eric Roberts plays Thompson, an associate of H.R.G. and the one that recruits the “heroes” for Malcolm. He has a famous sister in Julia Roberts. He has appeared on the soap opera Another World and various movies including The Specialist, Runaway Train, Star 80, Best of the Best, and In Cold Blood. He will also appear in the upcoming Batman Begins sequel called The Dark Knight.
And now here are the highlights of what was said in this sixth conference call for Heroes…
Hayden, in the episode two weeks ago, five years ahead of time, it indicates that you have somewhat reconciled with your adoptive father. Even though that’s what could happen, can we expect something like that to actually come true?
Hayden Panettiere: Well, the story of that episode was what could happen if we don’t save New York City, only if the bomb explodes or something like that. I don’t even know the first episode of the next season, so I’m not positive about whether that will come to that sort of bad relationship. But anything is possible in this series. But as the story goes in that episode, it’s five years in the future and that will only happen if we don’t save New York City. So let’s hope we do something about that.
Hayden, how has the success of this show and the fact that you’re suddenly an iconic TV character, the cheerleader, affected your life, plus or minus?
HP: Let’s see. You know, plus, is it’s always great to be a good role model and especially to have people look up to you, and I’m big into charities and foundations. I have a handful that I’ve been working with. And as an icon to certain people whether it’d be the cheerleader or just me as a person, I hope that I can get them to maybe buck up a little bit and see what I’m doing with charities and maybe partake and participate in things like that and things that they believe in. To try and use my “celebrity” status for good
Of course, a lot of the media doesn’t want to hear about the good things and they just want to hear about the bad. But there’s only so much you could do about that.
The minus is you’re constantly being watched. You’re constantly being looked at to follow up your horse and people are constantly trying to knock you off and see if you got thrown off. At the end of the day, I am still a normal teenage girl who’s making mistakes still in her life in trying to find where I am as a person and going into an adult. It’s hard when you get that plus the pressure of trying to be a role model as well.
Hayden, there’s a big debate going around about whether Claire is in fact indestructible, whether she can be killed. What can you add to that discussion?
HP: I think that’s a question that was never really answered for me by anyone. I think that she is indestructible. She can jump off the highest building. She can go through the wood chopper and she’d be fine. But I do think that there is a reason why she was so scared when Sylar comes along. There’s a reason why Peter Petrelli had to face her. So I think in general, yes, she is indestructible, but there is one spot in the back of your head where if it gets destroyed, then I think we do have the ability to die.
Like the episode when Peter had the glass stuck in his head, he doesn’t come back alive until I pulled that glass out of his head. And the question remains how long could we leave the glass in there before we would no longer be able to regenerate?
How has the fan situation been for both of you guys? The show is such a major hit. Have you had any fond or weird encounters with fans of the show yet?
HP: Oh goodness. I usually just get screamed at like cheerleader. I’ve almost gotten into a couple of car accidents because I’ll be driving and people scream at me from their passing cars. That makes me jump, because I’m not quite used to it. But I haven’t had too many weird ones yet thankfully.
Eric Roberts: Every traffic light I’m stopped at, I get “oh you’re a bad guy, dude. We love the show. Are you bad? We can’t tell yet.” That’s every traffic light I’m stopped at that I hear something about Heroes.
HP: Yeah, yeah. But other than that I don’t think we’ve had any really weird crazed fans.
Hayden, how much of this stuff surprises you? For example, Nathan turns out as Claire’s father. Did you see that coming at all or did they just drop that on you suddenly?
HP: I don’t know. I didn’t at all. I stopped guessing. We all kind of stopped guessing. We started guessing in the beginning like what would happen the next episode, but the show is completely unpredictable. The writing is really too unpredictable, and the writers like to leave us in the dark a lot of the times. So no, I had no idea, but I was very excited.
How interesting that was it for you to suddenly have all of these characters being thrown together in one area for one scene and so forth like we have seen in the last few episodes. What did you find interesting about being with so many of these people?
ER: Every week is like being thrown in the first day of school every year again. It’s like, hi guys, and you know some people and you don’t know half the people, but everybody is so happy to be there because everybody loves this show. And it’s one of the funniest casts you’ve ever worked with them in drama, because it’s not like we’re on a drama at all. But it’s like starting school every day. It’s like you know half the people and the other half are new and then so-and-so gets killed and you go “oh no, he’s dead? Oh I loved him.” But that’s what it’s like.
HP: Yeah, we’re all really super super close. There’s usually a lot of us who were on set at the same time. But they’re off doing different scenes. So just to stand there it wasn’t really that weird but it was fun. It’s a good cast. I sometimes question why we’re doing a drama and not a comedy.
ER: And Hayden is one of the most welcoming cast members out of everybody because when I got there, she and Greg Grunberg said “hi, do you know how long you’re going to live yet?” And we hang out and we talk trash. We have a great time.
HP: Oh Eric, you make me blush.
ER: She was very welcoming and very sweet to everybody.
HP: I don’t know about everybody.
ER: Well she was really nice to me every day when I was the new kid on the block. And it’s fun to see Hayden because she was just always cutting up and it’s not like doing a drama at all doing this show.
Hayden, so it wasn’t enough to save the cheerleader one time. This is an ongoing task for everyone to keep saving you. Because we thought you were saved and then we see in the future that maybe you’re not saved and you have to be continually saved. Is that kind of the feeling that you’re getting from this?
HP: Well not really. I mean, it was save the cheerleader in order to save the world in order to save New York City. In that episode five years in the future is only if we don’t save New York City. I don’t think it’s an ongoing thing. I think she’s pretty indestructible herself. But she needs saving. I don’t mind it. I don’t mind being the damsel in distress.
Hayden, tell us what Claire’s attitudes are towards her two fathers? Does she still fully love H.R.G. and how does she feel about Nathan?
HP: It is a lot of love hate going on here. H.R.G. is a guy that raised her. She still loves him more than anything. I think at this point, she can’t be so naïve and so after finding out this whole dark stuff that she didn’t know about him. She still loves him. But she has to question him more. H.R.G, in the beginning was kind a bad guy, but now its turning out tthat he’s chosen his daughter over his work. So that’s an interesting relationship.
And Nathan, I think she’s got kind of mixed feelings about Nathan. She wants to love him because he is her dad, but at the same time he didn’t raise her. I think she’s a pretty savvy girl. She knows that the election is worth more to him than his own daughter, which she might find questionable.
For both of you, where would you like to see your characters going? Hayden, do you want to do more of the stunts and stuff that we saw you do in the beginning of the season?
HP: You know, it keeps me entertained. So it’s fine. I love doing that stuff. She is the invincible one. I’m kind of getting jealous of Milo a little bit because he’s starting to shed more blood than me. And I’m kind of getting jealous. I think we have to keep in mind though that the series is about ordinary people who have extraordinary abilities who are still trying to keep in touch with their lives. She doesn’t want to turn into Kenny from South Park. Got to keep it fresh.
ER: And I hope that I recruit “heroes” to restore world peace. And that the girl who can change her look and stuff can become like Donald Rumsfeld and be in the Bush administration and staff.
Eric, how did you get involved in the show?
ER: They were casting for a character called Thompson who recruits the “heroes” and they had open auditions. I was sent in, and read for a couple of times. Then, they offered me the job. It was really neat.
Eric, you’re in a lot of scenes with Jack Coleman. What’s it like working with him?
ER: We talk about everything but work at work, and we have a great relationship that’s absolutely high school silly. And we tell jokes all day. I mean, literally. Me, Jack and Greg Grunberg do nothing except tell jokes all day. I mean we act like kids all day long and I’m not just making this up. And Greg kind of leads the way, but Jack and myself follow. And we’re just kind of like the Three Stooges all day at work. It releases all the tension of having to be so dead serious on camera.
Eric, what are some of your favorite parts of playing Thompson?
ER: Well I’m almost proud to say that I recruit the “heroes”. And to be the guy, obviously, number two under Malcolm. But I’m one of the honchos and I have this ability to know who has powers. And if you can have the powers or at least know who does, you’re on the right team.
Hayden, what stories, besides your own, have you been a fan of and followed their progression?
HP: I’m a really big fan all of them, honestly. They’re just so completely different and it’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’re all stories that I’ve seen developed and I’ve seen grow. So to me they are all very interesting to me because I’ve seen them. So all of them just have these really different elements to them. They are very diverse. And they’re intertwining and they’re connecting and sort of coming together. So yeah, I can’t really choose.
Hayden, networks are always trying to hook younger viewers and as a younger person yourself, do you have time to watch much TV and if so, what do you watch? And for both of you, if you guys weren’t on Heroes, is it the type of show that you would watch?
HP: I think Heroes is an incredible show. I don’t really watch a lot of TV. The only show I actually watch is Heroes. But when I used to watch more TV I was more of a “Heroes-ish” kind of girl. I used to watch shows like Six Feet Under and I loved those types of shows. I mean personally Heroes is definitely a show I would watch, if I wasn’t on it.
ER: I don’t know if I’d be watching it or not, but I know that I’d be made to watch it because of my stepdaughter Morgan and my daughter Emma and my stepson Ethan, and they would all drive me to the TV room and say, “got to watch your show, dude.” And I’d be watching it.
Hayden, are we going to get to see Claire cut loose since she has this ability of not being hurt? She runs into building, saves people, etc. But do you guys in the last three episodes have one big knockdown drag-out fight where Claire gets to use her ability?
HP: I mean anything is possible on the show. I think at the moment we’re really concentrating on the human stories that are going on with the show. And the fact that there’s bigger and more heart pumping stories to concentrate and to deal with than on powers, because it’s not just about our powers. It’s about mankind. It’s about the world. It’s about helping it before it becomes completely destroyed like you saw in the episode a few weeks ago. If we don’t do this, the world will be completely changed. Everyone’s lives will be shipped and pointed in a different direction and for the most part, as you saw, it’s not for the good. So at the moment I think it’s about more than just our abilities. I think it’s about doing what’s right and we’re kind of meant to do. But I am indestructible and things happen all the time. So that part of me is definitely not over.
Of all the other characters on the show, if either one of you could take one of their super powers, what would it be and why? And you can’t choose Peter or Sylar because that’s kind of cheating.
HP: I would want the power to be anywhere I wanted to be. Like I would be at the meeting that I have to be at right now and then right after I’d be on a beach somewhere in a deserted island in the tropics.
ER: I would want Grunberg’s power to be able to read minds.
HP: Oh God, I would hate to know what people are thinking.
ER: I want that power. I mean, I always want know what everybody’s thinking.
HP: You could never have a relationship. It would go down the drain.
ER: Well I would like to think that my wife is so blatantly honest. I know everything anyway so it wouldn’t change anything even though it’s probably not true, I know.
HP: You’re funny.
ER: I know.
Hayden, what it’s been like for you to have all these great scenes with Jack but also have an interesting dynamic with Adrian to play out as well?
HP: I love it. I’m so looking forward to working with every single person on the show. You know, there are so many actors that are on the show that I just haven’t gotten the chance to work with that I have kind of worked closely with them because I’m with then all the time. I’m just dying to work with them to see that connection and see what we pull out each other. But yeah, I’m dying to work with everyone and Adrian was definitely one of the people I was dying to work with.
Hayden, what’s the bond between Claire and Peter Petrelli, other than the fact that obviously he saved your life?
HP: Well he’s my uncle. Uncle Peter, well I don’t know. That’s sort of weird. I think it’s kind of interesting, watching the show you’ve seen these people who discovered this ability, most of them want to push it aside. They don’t want to do anything with it. They want to be normal. They want to go on with their lives. But they’ve all found themselves not ignoring it. Not just going on with their lives, but embracing it and having kind of a sixth sense and knowing what they have to do with it. Knowing what they have to use it for. So I think in a lot of ways, it’s kind of the same thing. When they met, it was kind of a weird sixth sense that they just knew each other and they knew that they felt safe around each other and felt they belonged in a way. Other than that, I have no idea. They can do anything in the world. So at the moment, he’s my uncle and we have this bond because we’ve kind of had this sixth sense about each other.
Hayden, can you tell us a bit about what’s going on with your singing career and how you balance that with the show?
HP: Hopefully, I will be releasing an album in August and how do I balance it? Actually, that’s why I’m on my way to go write a song right now with Matthew Wilder. How do I balance it? I don’t want to sound weird, but you I just kind of do. It’s not a question of can you do this or can you do that. You have to do it. It’s difficult trying to be a normal human being and balancing work and personal life and school which thank God I’m done with. But it’s time management. I’ve got some incredible people working with me on my schedule and stuff. So they make it pretty easy.
Eric, you were talking about how you went to this open casting call for the show, but did you have a sense of how successful the show was? Did you have a sense of all the buzz around it?
ER: Well I was very ignorant. I just gotten back from overseas making a movie and I’ve been over there for many months and I just gotten back and I was tired. They told me to go audition for the show. It’s a big hit show, Eric, come audition for it. And I said, “No, I’m too tired.” And they got a bunch of phone calls to my lawyer, my daughter, my stepdaughter all saying, “You idiot. This is a great show. You got to go audition with this show.” So I went in and I auditioned and I was lucky enough to get it, but I didn’t know until I was on the set that it’s kind of a paid vacation because all these people have such fun everyday and they’re so nice to everybody. It’s just a great group and it’s like being on a sitcom set, even though it’s a drama, that everybody cuts up all day.
Hayden, how do you feel about the fact that you’ve brought cheerleading to a even bigger level than it was at? How do you feel about that? Are you getting calls from cheerleaders all over the country?
HP: It’s fun. It’s very cool. I definitely found a new found respect for cheerleading after doing Bring It On: All or Nothing. I’m kind of the cheerleader in real life, and that could be fun for them to incorporate at some point because I can do a backflip. I’m very proud of it. But it’s awesome. I think the reason why they made Claire the cheerleader is because you needed her to be a normal teenage girl. You needed her to be down to earth in a way because our powers are so farfetched that you needed to ground it and by making her the cheerleader, it made her very relatable to teenagers. And I think she has become a really amazing role model and I think our show has become a really great metaphor for people. So I’m proud of it.
Hayden, do you have any plans to go to any postsecondary education?
HP: I do plan on continuing to learn. I believe in learning. I believe in expanding your mind. Do I see a whole four-year college in my future? I’m not sure. I’m more interested in really going in and taking classes and learning about things that I’m really excited to learn about. Things that really interest me like psychology or anthropology. Things I really want to learn about, but I do have an interest in going back and taking my basics. If I wasn’t on the show, I would 100% be going to a four-year college. It’s always been a dream of mine to go to college. But yes, I do plan on continuing to learn.
How long do you guys think the show can keep it fresh and keep audiences interested before it goes still?
ER: I think it’s got a shelf life for about a decade.
HP: I think it’s got a lot of longevity to it.
ER: It really could go on forever. That’s what I’m seeing.
HP: Yeah. When I started the show I was like, how are they going to continue this? This is an awesome episode, awesome pilot, but how are they going to continue this through an entire season. But they have. They’ve done it incredibly, and I have all the faith in the world in our writers and Tim Kring, our creator, who kind of have big pictures for all the potential upcoming seasons.
Hayden, has there been any talk of you getting a boyfriend in the upcoming maybe few episodes or really next season?
HP: There has been. It’s possibly in the future. They won’t promise me anything, and I haven’t heard or seen anything from this upcoming season. So I can’t tell you what exactly is going to happen, but yes, there is potential.
I think people want to see her being a normal teenage girl. They want to see her have boyfriend. They want to see the human being side of her which is what normal teenage girls do. They date. They like boys. They kiss boys.
Hayden, how you feel like you identify with Claire?
HP: I really feel like I’ve really grown up with her in a way because the show is not like a movie where you have to do this huge character arch within two hours. It’s a show that we’ve been working on for the past year and in this past year has held a lot of growth for me as a person. I think I kind of brought that into her. She turned out being more naïve and more of a young girl, more of a little girl in the beginning and she has now found her footing a little bit and becoming less naïve and more of a strong human being, strong girl who’s not scared to stand out for herself.
What is it like being on a hit TV show like this, but still trying to live your teenager life at the same time, along with being part of a celebrity couple with Stephen Colletti of Laguna Beach?
HP: What’s it like? It’s difficult, but at the same time it’s sort of like having any other relationship and being in the spotlight is difficult because we try not to take pictures. We try not to talk about it much because I feel like when you put something like that out there, then you give people the right to formulate their own opinions about you. You give people the right to judge. So if you don’t put it out there, if you keep it to yourself, then they have nothing to judge.
ER: Can I say something about how Hayden handles fame? I first heard about Hayden from my daughter Emma, when they were working together, and it was all very positive and very normal. And then I meet Hayden and she’s the most charming, welcoming normal person on that set and that’s really a fact. It’s just so much fun to meet somebody aso young who’s a grownup with a sense of humor and she is all that.
HP: He makes me blush every time.
Hayden, you probably had an initial perspective on playing Claire when you first shot the pilot. How you think your portrayal of her has evolved and changed over time?
HP: Well for all of our characters, I think it’s been a learning process for us. I think we came in with one script and had to discover our characters, had to develop them and make them our own and really use what we kind of bring to the table as actors. But she’s evolved from being a very naïve, very young girl who is simply interested in dating the quarterback of the football team. She’s a normal girl doing what normal girls do. And she discovered this and doesn’t want any part of it. She wants to on with her normal life, but over time, she realizes that she has to use this for better and she’s learned that she can’t be so naïve and she can’t trust people as much and she needs to really find her footing and stand her ground and she’s really grown by the end of the season into a very strong but still sweet young lady. And she’ll continue to grow. So we’ll see what happens to her this next season.
NBC has obviously had pretty low ratings over the past couple of years. How do you think that benefited the show as far as you guys being able to take creative risks, maybe break out from the pack and mostly maybe having the network be a little more patient with your growth?
ER: Well that’s the creator’s question, but they allowed some new more freedom because they had more room to try thing. I mean it allowed everybody just to take chances and they made a great show out of it.
HP: At the same time, it could go both ways. It could go with we have had pretty low ratings so what do we have to lose? Or it could have gone, we really have high hopes in this and don’t throw it up and we got to make sure, it’s really on track and we really want to get this right because this could be it. Fortunately for us this hasn’t been bad at all. They’ve been the most amazing group of people to work with and it’s really a million people, all of the writers, all the directors, all the actors, putting their heads together just creating and being artistic with each one of our arts. So it’s been incredible.
There’s so much information to grasp that it’s so difficult to make a really good pilot that binds everything together that you really need the audience to know. There are certain things that you have to put in it, whether they’re boring or not, you have to make people aware that there’s no way around it. So the fact that they made it entertaining was a good thing. But when we got pass that, the ratings got better, the actors became more comfortable, they found so much more chemistry with each other and confidence in the characters that they’ve developed. And so I think everyone just really bumped it up and that we saw halfway through this season that everyone just took it up.
I’ve seen amazing shows become underrated and get kicked off the network before its time. I don’t know whether it’s the time, whether it doesn’t work with people’s schedules, but somehow along the way they didn’t grab the viewers that they should have. So it’s kind of a master of luck in a lot of ways and publicity too that Heroes has become such a “hit” show.
– Heroes airs on NBC on Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
– Heroes airs on the Global network on Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
