HEROES MAGAZINE
Issue 6
Bad Company
Considering he hasn't got any powers, it's a miracle that Noah Bennet has survived his time on Heroes so far (although he did have a bit of help from Claire's healing blood). We catch up with the busy actor to find out his thoughts on Mr. Horn-Rimmed Glasses...
Coleman credits his involvement with Heroes to several factors. "My friend Daniel Cerone, who's now a show-runner on Dirty Sexy Money, was talking about the new crop of pilots [in 2006] and said, 'The one I really like is Heroes.' Then it came to me with an audition for the part of 'Man in Horn-Rimmed Glasses' [originally conceived as a recurring character]. Although it wasn't the most auspicious-sounding [character] name, I just loved the mystery of it, the whole idea of playing this shadowy bad guy.
When I found out that I actually got the [part] and I was going to be in the first five episodes, I certainly wasn't thinking 'series regular.' And then right around the fifth or sixth episode, it started to become clear that [because] all the Heroes were just discovering their abilities, there needed to be someone who could paint the bigger picture of what was happening in this world. My character was going to be that guy, and then they really liked Hayden [Panettiere, who plays Bennet's adopted daughter, Claire] and me together, so they just started writing for me more and more."
Considering he hasn't got any powers, it's a miracle that Noah Bennet has survived his time on Heroes so far (although he did have a bit of help from Claire's healing blood). We catch up with the busy actor to find out his thoughts on Mr. Horn-Rimmed Glasses...
Coleman credits his involvement with Heroes to several factors. "My friend Daniel Cerone, who's now a show-runner on Dirty Sexy Money, was talking about the new crop of pilots [in 2006] and said, 'The one I really like is Heroes.' Then it came to me with an audition for the part of 'Man in Horn-Rimmed Glasses' [originally conceived as a recurring character]. Although it wasn't the most auspicious-sounding [character] name, I just loved the mystery of it, the whole idea of playing this shadowy bad guy.
When I found out that I actually got the [part] and I was going to be in the first five episodes, I certainly wasn't thinking 'series regular.' And then right around the fifth or sixth episode, it started to become clear that [because] all the Heroes were just discovering their abilities, there needed to be someone who could paint the bigger picture of what was happening in this world. My character was going to be that guy, and then they really liked Hayden [Panettiere, who plays Bennet's adopted daughter, Claire] and me together, so they just started writing for me more and more."
Bennet starts out more nefarious than he becomes as we get to know him. "I think the character was conceived pretty dark," Coleman acknowledges, "Somebody who was hunting these people and bagging and tagging them. While there are certainly some civil rights issues involved here, I think [the writers] were very careful that they didn't make my character too over-the-top villainous. [But] if you look at the first couple of episodes, that's how I played him - a guy who really enjoyed his work. In the second episode, [Claire says], 'You're my dad, and you'll always be my dad,' and we're having a real heart-to-heart. Then she walks away and I'm looking at the tape [that shows Claire's powers]. The audience doesn't know what my intentions are, they just know that I'm the guy who hunts these people and I know that she's one of them.
Allan Arkush directed that episode, and he pointed me in the direction right away. After Claire leaves the room, Allan said, 'Let's see the curtain come down. Let's see the loving father go away and the hard-boiled chaser of the special people come back.' In shows like this, you [usually] know within the first minute or so whether someone's a good guy or a bad guy. How do they treat people? What are their intentions? I think Adrian Pasdar's character [Nathan Petrelli] has that kind of slipperiness, too - he's a politician, so you never know what his intentions are. Basically, he loves his brother, but he's also kind of a prick to his brother," Coleman laughs, "but his brother, Peter, was clearly a Hero. Claire Bennet was clearly a Hero. Hiro Nakamura was clearly a Hero. [Bennet] was very hard to put your finger on."
• Read the full interview in issue 6 of Heroes: The Official Magazine - on newsstands September 16. For more information visit www.titanmagazines.com/heroes.
