Masi Oka: Super Hiro

[Hero]

The Telegraph has a pretty in-depth article with Masi, and the following's just an excerpt:

Masi Oka - Super Hiro

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 18/04/2008

In 'Heroes', Masi Oka is an office worker who bends time and space. In real life, he's a computer genius who creates special effects for Georges Lucas and Clooney. He could be the biggest geek on earth. He's certainly the most popular, finds Horatia Harrod

The first time that Masi Oka became the face of Asian America was in 1987, when, aged 12, he appeared on the cover of Time, small and blue-shirted, a rucksack slung awkwardly over his shoulder. He's dwarfed by the headline above him: 'Those Asian-American WHIZ KIDS'. He happened to show it to one person and now it's become part of his story (see also: his very high IQ; the fact he still drives a 2000 Honda Accord). But the funny thing is that although he was a clever child who went to a school for the gifted, he was there mainly because his mother knew the photographer.

Masi Oka: 'Being a geek is to be human... it means you’re passionate'

The second time Oka became the face of Asian America was in 2006, and this time it was less down to luck (although in his self-deprecating way he insists that it was) and more the result of a leap of faith he took six years earlier when he decided to become an actor. The pay-off was huge: a lead role in the NBC series Heroes, the big-budget, ratings-dominating show about ordinary people all over the world discovering that they have superpowers, which airs from Australia to Japan to Germany to South Africa, and whose second season begins this week on BBC2.

What's more, Hiro Nakamura, the time-freezing, time-travelling character Oka plays, has become the fans' favourite, an unlikely sex symbol and object of affection, even more so than the nubile cheerleader Hayden Panettiere and the conventionally handsome Milo Ventimiglia. Oka's internet fan sites show that he hits the part of the brain normally only stimulated by newborn babies and sleepy kittens: they are a babble of delighted gurglings about how 'cute' and 'adorable' he is. None of this was part of Plan A, but, as he tells me as we sit in a garden in Silverlake, Los Angeles, 'I always like to surprise.'...


...Of course he isn't Hiro. Oka may share his basic optimism, but he's more serious and less anarchic than Hiro. When we meet he's tired after a late night/early morning reshoot of some scenes from Get Smart, the spoof starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway which is out in August. In the LA apartment where he lives by himself, he's been working hard on writing, too: things he can't discuss because they're being negotiated over (but one is a science fiction series, and he's making forays into romantic comedy, for which he has an unexpected passion). He even does occasional work for ILM. In other words, he doesn't always have time to be as silly as Hiro. Besides, his appearance is low-key: he flattens down the hair that's been shocked into a little quiff by the groomer as soon as the photo shoot is over, and his spectacles and understated outfit make him look fairly nondescript.

He does get recognised all the time, though. 'I have people who recognise me from my back. I mean there's the whole stereotype that all Asians look alike, but people just pinpoint me out of nowhere.' He loves his fans, and can even get a bit gooey about them: 'People from all over the country and all over the world, with different religious backgrounds, with different cultural backgrounds, different economic status, political beliefs: so many diverse people watch our show, and it's just so wonderful to know that we were able to inspire them in some way.' Sometimes, though, he finds the attention, the lack of respect for his privacy, difficult to deal with. With friends, too, it can be hard. 'It's like the theory of relativity in many ways,' he tells me with a typically scientific flourish, 'because they've changed towards me, they see me change.'

Oka is very conscious of the way people see him, and it's clear that he really isn't a fan of labels. He resisted the uniformity of being stuck in one job, and he's an intriguing mix of Japanese - he greets and bids me farewell with the hint of a bow - and American, his speech sprinkled with California-isms - 'woah' and 'like' and even a 'dude' or two.

But the label that continues to attach itself to him, a hangover from school that has got worse because of the character he plays in Heroes, is 'geek'. He's not annoyed when I bring it up, but perhaps slightly fatigued. 'This has been like my mantra: to be a geek is to be human, because being a geek means that you're passionate about something. And I'd rather be passionate about one thing than be apathetic about everything.'

Perhaps the geek doth protest too much, because part of Oka's appeal is that despite the Grammy and Emmy nominations, there's still a lot of the sweet little guy from the Time cover in him. He's not arrogant, or complacent, and he's sincere when he tells me the most important thing he has in common with Hiro: 'The biggest thing, you know, is that he gets to live his dream of being a superhero, which is something he's dreamt of being all his life, and I get to live the dream of being on a great show, working with so many people and touching so many lives.'

I think it's cool to learn more about Masi - you don't really get much about him.