Masi: You know, I've actually been very good about not going on the Internet, I only look at things that my publicist and my friends send me, although I did see this one thing that my publicist sent me, I went online and it said, "oh my god, Hiro Nakamura, I love him so much. I want to make him my pet. I want to lock him up, talk to him, kiss him, I want to make him literally my pet." You know what, as long as they feed me, I'm all for it.
(How becoming famous affected how people treat him) Masi: They treat me nicer. They don’t say, “Yo, Asian dude.” They say, “Hi Masi. We love your show.”
Masi (on being out in public): It is a great thing to have fans come up to you and say, 'Oh my God. We love your show. What is going to happen now?' Especially with the hiatus. It is pretty cool to go out, meet your fans and feel their passion for the show as we have for the show, as well. There was a guy walking by with a cell phone, he noticed me and turned his head and opened his mouth and dropped his cell phone, which I thought was a cool thing, because I had the power of a hot woman at that moment. I have had girls come up, hug me and kiss me and run away. I am like, 'Wow, don't run away.' It has been surreal. Last year at this time, I could be walking in to a Starbucks and people wouldn't look at me. Now I have to be well-groomed because people want to take pictures.
(More talks about his role as Hiro on Heroes.) Oka: Hiro is his only male son, who he expected to kind of be his heir to his company. So because of that, there's some expectations, and he kind of views Hiro's journey to be very childish and foolish, and he wants him to grow up. And Hiro's always kind of seen his father as an intimidating figure, and someone who he always has to live up to, and possibly sometimes limits who Hiro is as a person because of the expectations that his father has always had on him. So Hiro's always had to feel like he had to live up to certain expectations. And we'll see a little bit of that conflict, and the reason why his dad came to find Hiro in America.
Masi: I think Scrubs is brilliant. It's brilliant writing, and I owe a lot to those guys for my career. So if they ever want me back I'll gladly do it.
(Talks more about being the special effects guy) Oka: I'm always the hired gun who's brought in to fight fires. I do research and development on the technology and work with how to do a certain special effect. In Star Wars: Episode II, when Jango Fett is chasing Obi Wan Kenobi through an asteroid field, they needed a big asteroid to shatter into a million pieces, and I had to figure out how to do the fracturing, write the code and show an artist how to use it.
(Oka speaks about being the nice guy on Heroes.) Oka: Nice guys can be really cool. Don't necessarily go for the mysterious bad boy, you want a nice guy, give them a chance.
(Talks about doing drama.) Oka:Oh, yeah. I love drama, as well, don't get me wrong. As an actor, anything that can challenge you both comedically and dramatically is a lot of fun. If they want me to cry on cue, I will cry on cue...without using onions.
(Talks about his powers for the TV show Heroes.) Oka:Absolutely, This is like a dream come true. It's a two-fer first of all! Just having teleportation or chronokinesis is great, but to have both… that's like a two-for-one deal! I personally think that Hiro is just overpowered and he needs to be nursed a little. That's just me, but don't tell the writers that! I think that's so frickin' awesome. The great thing about it is that I know I'll be working with a lot of special effects stuff because of that, and that's always a joy for me, because I used to work at Industrial Light & Magic, so I know how it works on the backside, so now I get to see the front of it, so it's a cool mix.
(Talks about his culture mixing with America.) Oka:I also read a lot of Mangas and watched a lot of TV shows from Japan. I was kind of bummed out because growing up, all the kids were making fun of me. It was bad enough that I was a big math and science geek, but to have school on a sixth day while everyone else was playing and doing soccer and stuff. Mom! Can't I just not do anything, just watch Saturday morning cartoons? I remember pretending to be sick a lot to watch my Saturday Morning Arcade but in retrospect, I'm so thankful that my mom forced me to go, because I still feel connected to my culture, especially now, I get to use it in my acting.
(Oka chats about the screening of Heroes.) Oka:I got to see a little bit of it, but I guess the crowd reacted well. It was very cool, because I realize that Hiro is kind of representative of all the comic book geeks. I myself am a big Manga freak as well, so I was just happy that I could give it justice, and it seemed like a lot of the audience members did connect to the character, so that was very cool.
(On both his character "Hiro" and the show Heroes) Masi Oka: We were joking around that the show Heroes is actually about Hiro. Multiple Hiro-type heroes, and stuff. It's a great play on words, and it is funny. Hiro is probably more of the more comedic and cartoonish character out of all the characters that are in the scripts.
He graduated from Harvard-Westlake School on 1992.
Masi is a huge New York Rangers fan and is often seen cheering at the stands with his co-star and friend Milo Ventimiglia who plays "Peter Petrelli" on the hit show "Heroes."
Masi admitted that doing the "teleportation" face for his TV show Heroes actually gives him a headache!
As a kid, Masi Oka appeared on the cover of Time Magazine (August 1987) for an article entitled Those Asian-American Whiz Kids.
Masi attended the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con and even participated in a Q and A for Heroes.
Masi is fluent in English, German, Japanese, and Spanish.
Masi's hobbies include Kendo (Japanese sword fighting), playing video games, watching and writing romantic comedies, playing the piano, and singing.
He worked for Industrial Light & Magic,
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