Watching Heroes

When Heroes premieres tonight, fans will finally get their first look at the much talked about villains of Level 5.  Included in that lot is The German, played by Ken Lally.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Ken about his work on Heroes over the weekend  (I’ve transcribed the interview for you here, but if you’d rather listen, a podcast is available at the end of the post).

I was reading a little bit about your background and I saw that your dad was a spy, and he basically had you in “spy-training” while you were growing up. So how do you go from spy-in-training to acting?

Yeah, I knew my dad was working in military intelligence when I was growing up. I knew that’s how he met my mother in Berlin during the Cold War. It feels kinda weird to say my dad was a spy but I’m very proud of him. He’s actually buried in Arlington National Cemetery. I didn’t know until after he died when he sent me a letter explaining how he had been recruited by the NSA and worked in China and Berlin and worked for COMINT which is apparently one of the highest levels in the NSA. After his death I found out a lot. I found a lot of documents – Chinese documents, permission to carry a weapon and travel between provinces and newspaper clippings from Berlin and stuff. To this day actually the circumstances of his death are somewhat unclear. He died in France on a so-called bicycling trip with several former East Germans…which is all kinda weird. It was a tough thing.

When I was a boy, he told my best friend and I that we were too memorable for what he called “wet work.” He wanted us to be Navy Seals instead because he said were just too memorable. When we’d walk into a room, people would remember us so he enrolled me in martial arts classes and the local police cadets and I learned “sweep and clear,” CQB techniques, weapons handling. Naturally, he was very happy that he played a lot of role playing games with us when I was a child because that taught me logistics, and combat techniques believe it or not, and how to plan and solve problems. Problem solving is what he liked. He told me the day I went up to him and asked him how to storm a castle was one of the proudest moments of his parental life.

When I went to enlist in the Seals, I was denied entry because I had a broken collar bone and had a seizure when I was 15 from jumping off a moving car and I told my pop that I was going to go into intel like him. I thought I would be an attaché or something like that in the service. He wasn’t disappointed. He just kind of said OK and went off.

Shortly after that I discovered Shakespeare and changed my major in college from political science and language to theater arts and I went to London and studied and went to New York and studied at the National Shakespeare Conservatory. Stunts just kind of became an inherent part of being a martial artist and a fighter. I’d been fighting since I was a boy. Fell into that when I came out to L.A., fighting at Benny “the Jet” Urquidez’s gym. He’s a legendary stuntman, five time world champion and Black Belt Hall of Fame member. Now I actually teach stunt fighting at the New York Film Academy. I still perform Shakespeare and movies and film. So that’s kind of the evolution from “spy-in-training” to actor.

That’s an interesting background, and kind of perfectly suited for what you’ve come into with Heroes.

Yeah it kind of seems to be.

So can you tell us a little bit about how you got the part on Heroes?

Yeah, I had the same agent for about 6 or 7 years and I signed with a new agent and about a week or two after I signed with her, I got a call for a guest starring part on Heroes. I went in and, I guess they wanted someone physically formidable, who could speak German, and it looks like that was me. I went in and got the part, had the call back, and I was thrilled to get the part. I love the show, absolutely hooked on it. And that was that.

It’s a great show. I’m a big fan, obviously.

I can’t turn it off. I have to get it on Netflix on DVD and when I have to turn it off to go do something it’s difficult.

There’s a lot of buzz about your character, The German, because he originated in the graphic novels, I think in June. Were you already working on the show at that time or did they cast you to fit what they had in the novel?

I think we were shooting in June. Yeah, I can’t answer that question. I’m unfamiliar with the graphic novel. I’ve been finding out because I’ve been active online a lot. I’m going to do a few comic cons. I’ve been finding out from Heroes fans that The German was a pretty integral part of the graphic novel so I’ll be curious to find out if they did model him after me or not.

In the Company profile on The German he’s described as a “6 foot tall German male with fair skin and blonde hair, 180 lbs., medium build…

That sounds like me.

Yeah, I don’t know which came first but it sounds like either you were the perfect fit for what they wanted or they based it on you.

I think originally they wanted somebody a lot bigger. I think they wanted someone like a body-builder size, almost like an Arnold Schwarzenegger type. As a fighter I’m a little more athletic and lighter. I don’t know. I’d be interested to find out myself. I have a live event on the 29^th so I’ll ask them them.

Will we get to see your character during Monday night’s premiere.

Yes, you will. You will get to see me. It’s going to be fun. I’m kicking plenty of butt.

We know from the graphic novels that The German has the power to manipulate metal. He sounds similar to Magneto from X-Men. Can you tell us anything else about his power?

What I can tell you is that he is a little closer to metal than Magneto. Magneto just controls it. I can not only control it but I can…well I guess Magneto can sense and feel it…but I think I’m kind of “at one” with it, as a good way to describe it. But I guess Magneto did too. It would seem we are more similar than I thought. Thank you for letting me know. [laughs]

I know you are sworn to secrecy about things but can you tell me how many episodes you’ve been in so far?

I can’t tell you that but I can tell you I’m in more than one. There is a fairly large storyline that I’m a part of and if the writers choose to pursue it, you’ll see me in a lot more. But that’s all I can say.

I was reading an article this morning that said we might get to see the background of some of the villains. Are you one of those villains that we might get to see a little bit more about?

Indeed

Can you tell us who on the cast you might have worked with? Who “The German” might have faced off with?

Well, I don’t know if I can tell you that so I better stay away from the question.

Well I thought there might be a few here that you might not be able to answer. The cast all seem like really great people. They act like they have a lot of fun doing the show. I’ve heard they sometimes do practical jokes and things like that. Did you experience anything like that?

I hung out mostly with “the villains” and one of the main characters, one of the leads of the show…however, I can’t tell you who it was. He was a blast. I had so much fun working on the show. Everybody is like a family. It’s really like a tight-knit family. I mean they even have a band…Band from TV. Greg and Hayden are in it and Adrian. I mean it’s really like being part of a family. Practical jokes, I didn’t experience any.

The villains – we were hanging out. I hung out mostly with Jamie Hector [who plays Knox] and Blake Shields [who plays Flint]. We’ve actually become fast friends. I’m traveling to London for the comic-con, and maybe even San Jose this month, and hopefully a few more. I’m trying to talk Blake into coming with me, so we’re going to have a good time. I think Jamie might be there too. We hang out a lot outside. I’m a member at the Magic Castle here in Hollywood and Blake and I have hung out there a bunch of times and seen some shows. We’ve all become fast friends, and part of the family and I’m really proud of that.

In one of the USA Today interviews, I was describing our little group. Jamie Hector, I described as the “brains” of the operation. Blake, I described as “the party” and myself, I described as “the violence.”

You’ve mentioned your martial arts and stunt training. Did you get a chance to use any of that during your Heroes shoot?

I really did. My first night there, Greg Beeman and Lance Gilbert, who was the stunt coordinator, came up [and said] “we need to do this here” and “let’s have this happen here” and “we need a little fight scene here.” And I’m like, “OK great!” So me and Lance block up the fight scene, two different options. Like “oh we’ll do this there…blah blah blah” and he’s like “ah this is great.” So Greg comes over and he’s like “I love it!”…but we’re putting the camera on this angle so we’ve got to change a few things.” We’re like “no sweat, we’ll do it again.” We blocked out a whole new fight scene. I’m throwing Lance around, elbowing him in the face, kneeing him in the gut…and so we blocked that out and everybody was like “oh we love this, we love this.” Greg shoots it.

And on my second episode, I got another fight scene. We blocked it out like that. And uh, not Lance, but there was another Gilbert brother there (those guys are all over the set), blocked it out and it was really great. I got to coach one of the other actors who’s a martial artist but doesn’t do stunts…on how to make it look right for the camera and how to adjust his speed, because he was just too fast. The other actor was just a really skilled martial artist but was so fast, I was like, “Hey you gotta slow it down or the camera’s not gonna catch it.” So yeah, it did come in handy – the martial arts background and my stunt background.

I think probably…at least half of the [jobs] I’ve gotten in my theatrical, film and TV career I’ve gotten because I can do action and they know they can put me in not only an action sequence and I can make it work for camera, but I can sell it as an actor. You’d be surprised how hard it is to sell action. Not every actor can do it which is why you don’t see some of the best actors making action movies.

Well, is there anything else you can reveal about your experience on Heroes?

I will be doing some appearances next month so a lot of it will have been aired by then, so I can answer more questions after stuff has aired. So if anybody sees me at a comic-con or a convention, feel free to ask and I’ll talk to you about anything that’s been going on. I’m pretty active online, and I have a webpage on MySpace I’m pretty active on. So once things have aired, I’ll be happy to talk about it with any of the Heroes fans.

Well Heroes fans are very rabid so they may take you up on that. Your inbox will be full all the time.

[laughs] That’s cool. No problem.

Are there any other projects you’re working on right now, that we might see you in?

Hopefully. Two of the members of the stunt team I’m on, Benny “The Jet” Uriquidez stunt team, are writing films for me. So hopefully we’ll get some of those up and running. I don’t play a German guy, I usually play like a tough cop or the bad guy. I play a lot of bad guys. I’m good at that I guess. Even in Shakespeare I play a lot of bad guys.

Well, the bad guys are always more fun I think, anyway.

Oh most definitely. I’d rather be the guy throwing somebody through a window, you know.

Yeah, on Heroes, my favorite character has always been Sylar and I love the villains so I’m really anxious to see all of you guys.

I can’t wait to see Zach [Quinto] in Star Trek. He’s a really perfect fit for Spock.

Are you a big Star Trek fan?

I have been in the past. But I haven’t had much time to watch much of it lately. I was actually in a couple of episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. I got killed by an alien. [laughs]

That was unfortunate.

Nah, it was cool. She was very pretty. [laughs]

Well, if you gotta go, I guess that’s the best way.

It was like a seduction death. I’m not as cool as Captain Kirk. He seduces them and lives. I got seduced and died. [laughs]

You mentioned some comic-cons you’re going to be at. Do you have the dates on those?

I’m trying desperately to make it up to the one in San Jose on October 3, 4 and 5. It’s such short notice. I’ve been in contact with the promoters there. It’s short notice for them. I’m scrambling desperately to get up there because I’ve never been and they’re really interested and seem really cool up there. I’d love to come up and chat with them because they’re big fans of the show. And I just signed a contract to go out to London for the MCM on October 25 and 26. And I’m in talks with other people to do some other stuff. What I really want to do is get Jamie and Blake out there too because I think that would be a lot of fun, not only to have my pals out there but I think it would be great for the fans to see the three of us together and maybe signing the same picture together. I think that would be very cool.

Well that’s about all the questions I had. Everyone’s very excited about the premiere and about seeing all the villains in action.

You know it’s funny, I’ll tell you one quick side note. You know all the billboards here in L.A., they have the logo, “Heroes Villains” and everybody has been calling me…my family, my aunt, my nephew, all my best friends… they’re like, “I saw you on the side of a bus today,” “I saw you on a billboard today on Wilshire.” I’m like, “No kidding!” So I go out driving around trying to find myself and it’s not me. It’s Jack Coleman. I’m like, “No that’s not me, It’s Jack.” Even on set, when we were shooting, people thought I was his stunt double or people thought I was him….and I went up to Jack at lunch one day and I was like, “You know man, everybody thinks I’m you.” And he stops and he goes, [imitates Jack Coleman] “Yeah, we could actually be brothers.” He’s a super cool cat. But it’s been funny, because I’ll get texts from family and friends. “Oh I just saw you on a billboard.” “Nope, not me.” [laughs]

In the blog community, we’ve read a lot of spoilers about the show, but there really hasn’t been a lot about the villains. We’ve seen a lot about the characters we already know. So you guys are still kind of a mystery to us.

Ah that’s good. That’s they way we like it.

I’m really anxious about the premiere. Anxious to see you and all the other guys in action and hopefully there’s a lot of buzz and you’ll get to bring The German back.

Cool, get to kick more behind.

I appreciate you taking the time to call. It’s really been a pleasure.

Thank you very much, Debbie…thanks for watching.

To listen to the interview - click Play: