*Jack Coleman about working with Zach Quinto*
"I love working with Zach. He's a fantastic actor. Facile, quick, strong technique. He knows his way around a scene right away. Television does not provide the luxury of time, either to rehearse or to yack for hours about "your motivation." It's always a death race to make the day, especially on Heroes, which is so technically complicated. Zach has a take on a scene right away and his instincts are usually great. Except for those times he has tried to keep me off camera or take my lines. You gotta watch him on that.

Zach and I have worked together quite a bit over the last few seasons. I did not know his work (nor did he know mine -- the infamous "Landlady" notwithstanding) when I met him. We were about to start shooting "Homecoming" and he was to be seen for the first time. (If my memory is faulty, I expect one of you intrepid readers will point it out.)

As we talked in his trailer about the part of Sylar and the audition process, I could tell that he was going to be wonderful in the part. Rather than physically imposing and obvious, Zach has an intelligence that makes Sylar's love of his work creepy and yet funny ("Claire, that's disgusting"). He can also give you a compelling Portrait of Gabriel Gray, a poor, unfortunate soul desperately trying to find his way. You will see more of that side of his character this season."

{HRG files blog}




This is John from BuddyTV, and I'm talking to Jack Coleman, who plays Noah Bennett on Heroes. There's definitely a new direction for Noah in this season of Heroes. What was it like coming back after the strike and going into this new partnership with Sylar?

We were gone for so long it just seemed like forever, so when we came back it took a couple days to get the wheels working and the joints oiled. It was laid on me pretty early that HRG was going to be in partnership with somebody very different, and at first I thought it was going to be Claire. When it turned out to be Sylar I thought that was very cool. I was a little concerned about the transition from mortal enemies to cooperating on a mission together. That worried me a little bit to start out that way, but I think the fact that they have the two of us kind of scheming against each other even as we work together, I think that works well.


I think that's something the fans have been a little concerned with. Sylar is this serial killer villain from the first two seasons, and now he's just out and about. There's been a little explanation for why that's acceptable, but it's a bit of a leap. I'm wondering if you can talk about rationalizing letting Sylar out like that.

It is a big leap. I think the only way it works is if the audience can believe he is redeemable, or at least that there's a desire in him to be something other than a serial killer, I think through the idea that maybe he's found his family, or maybe he's found some sort of purpose. On the other hand, you see the first time he's out and about that it doesn't go so well. While he's very effective, he also happens to be overtaken by his hunger. I think it is a lot to ask of the audience to believe these mortal enemies are going to be cooperating with each other, but I also think as it goes on you see that they're really not cooperating with each other. The way I justify it for HRG is that Angela said he's going out there anyway, so it's your call whether or not it's under your tutelage. I think HRG has a big enough ego that he figures if anyone's going to be dealing with him it's going to be me. The old adage of keep your friends close and your enemies closer. That's how I justify it for my character, that the idea of him being out there is out of my hands, so I'm just going to keep it under my jurisdiction.


What is it like working with Zachary Quinto? This season there are a lot of changes and people acting with new people, and you really haven't had that many scenes with him before this year.

Actually, we started out together to a certain extent. Some of his big early scenes were with me in captivity, and the Noah Bennett-Sylar relationship was one of the first in season 1, if you go back to the stuff around "Homecoming" when he gets captured, then he gets out and comes to the Bennett house. We started out working together quite a bit, but then toward the end of season 1 and most of season 2 we didn't work together. So we're kind of back to our roots to a certain extent, and you'll see as the season goes on that this relationship is very complicated and ultimately not a happy one.

{BuddyTV interview}


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