September 19, 2008 - Those not wishing to know anything about the new season of Heroes should be aware that some spoilers follow.Brea Grant made an impression on just a couple of episodes of Friday Night Lights last season, and now she's coming to NBC's Heroes to add some more super-powered mayhem to the life of Hiro. Grant plays Daphne, the show's first speedster character, who finds that running super fast is an obstacle when you meet someone who can freeze time.
Recently, on a set visit to Heroes, we watched as Grant filmed a scene in which she, another newcomer named Knox (The Wire's Jamie Hector) and none other than a dark haired, gun wielding Claire (Hayden Panettiere) face off with Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) and Sylar (Zachary Quinto). What in the world is going on? Well, it's another trip to the future you see, and things are very different for the characters than from the norm.
During a break in filming, we spoke to Grant about joining Heroes, which returns with new episodes on Monday.
Q: It looks like it's a little funky to film these scenes where you actually run, based on what we were just watching.
Grant: Only when I'm in heels. [Laughs] I have trouble taking the sharp corners in heels. I'm not much of a heels girl. But normally I'm a much better runner, I will say. The heels throw me a bit.
Q: You have a little pin with a DNA symbol it looks like?
Grant: I do. It's the future company I work for. Pinehurst Labs.
- NBC
Brea Grant as Daphne, with Masi Oka in Heroes
Q: Masi Oka says you're kind of his Joker initially.
Grant: Totally.
Q: Can you talk about the dynamic between the two of you?
Grant: It's cool, because he can stop time, but because I'm so fast, I can move within in his time stopped world. And so, we sort of cancel each other's powers out, if that makes sense. I can run around in his stopped world and he can't do anything about it, but I can't run at super speed. So, it's a good dynamic between the two of us. And he's constantly the good guy, whereas I'm more a bad guy.
Q: So you're one of the villains?
Grant: Yeah.
Q: Is that fun for you?
Grant: It is. It's always more fun being the villain, right?
Q: What's her motivation?
Grant: That's like an acting question. [Laughs]
Q: Why is she bad?
Grant: I wouldn't say, deep down, she's a terrible person or anything. She's no Sylar, but she's a thief. That's the way she starts the season, but her character has many turns throughout the season.
Q: Do we see a lot of shades? Is she a little more ambivalent?
Grant: She's getting run through the ringer. She's seeing a lot of things she hadn't seen before. Up until this point, she was a thief and then this is sort of the point where she begins her journey to maybe become something else. We'll see.
Q: In this future segment, you're with a bunch of different characters. Is that in the flash-forward only or are you starting to mingle with a lot of the other characters, besides Hiro?
Grant: Actually, I've talked to a lot of the other people on Heroes and they all say, "It took me two seasons to meet everybody," but I've been really fortunate. I get to have scenes with a lot of different people, for various reasons, just because my character… she runs around a lot, you know? She's fast! [Laughs]
Q: You have a scene with Malcolm McDowell, right?
Grant: I get to work with Malcolm McDowell, which is amazing. He's so cool and has a million stories and also he's the ultimate in bad guys. He's just so evil! [Laughs] So yeah, that's cool. I get to work with those people, which is amazing.
Q: Is that a flashback scene, or…?
Grant: [spoiler]It's in a present scene, actually. [spoiler]
Q: This is a really tight knit cast and crew. What was it like being the new kid on the block?
Grant: There was a lot of initiations I had to go through… [Laughs]
Q: Hazings?
Grant: Hazings, yeah. I got waterboarded. No, they've been really cool. It's amazing. They're so nice and so willing to work with you. Not just the cast, but the crew. Everyone has been very, very cool and willing to listen to ideas and help me out and stuff.
Q: What was your reaction when you found out you'd be on the show?
Grant: I think I layed down and cried or something like that. I was in shock. It was very, very exciting. I was a huge fan, so it was very, very exciting.
Q: Have you been watching the show from the beginning, or did you go back and re-watch episodes?
Grant: I watched most of it from the beginning and then I went back and re-watched everything before I started filming actually, because you can watch it all on NBC.com.
Q: Nice plug!
Grant: [Laughs]
Q: Can you talk about the scene you're filming today?
Grant: This is episode four, and this is a flash-forward. Lines have been drawn and I've obviously moved over to a different side and teamed with some other people who are sort of questionable, like Knox. And at this point Claire's a little [questionable]… It's a standoff. It's a classic western standoff between good guys and bad guys, or grey people and grey people.
Q: Is it fun to get to play someone with a superpower?
Grant: It is. You get to play a lot more, because you can envision these things that you do that you wouldn't normally act in real life. I definitely don't act on the show the way I am in real life. Things are very different when you have a superpower I guess.
Q: Did you have to figure out the physicality of how you were going to do the super speed stuff?
Grant: Yeah. They've helped a lot. The producers have really helped and been very hands on, and the writers, in helping me talk about the physicality. As well as there's just a practical element of it – I have to run in a certain way and stop really quickly and stop on a dime and stuff like that.
Q: It sounds like your character has a clear arc from the beginning towards at least the middle of the season, which you're approaching now in production. You're filming out of order though, so is it a challenge to get in the mindset of where she is at any particular point?
Grant: It is, but we film mostly in order, so it's mostly been an arc. I've kind of known for awhile what's gonna happen to my character, so at least I can plan ahead in my mind how things are going to end up.
Q: You said it's fun to play the villain, but would you like to see her experiment with being good?
Grant: Yeah, because I think in the end, she's sort of an innocent. She's been a thief for a long time and she's been on her own and had to take care of herself and now all of the sudden, she's facing these people who have these much bigger issues at stake and that's going to change the way she reacts to things, where she's dealing with lives instead of paintings or something she stole. Have you read the online comic? The Daphne comic on NBC.com? You get the background on her and it's when she steals the Mona Lisa.
Q: How much info were you given? Did you get a general idea of her back story?
Grant: More as I went along. Starting with a few things and then more as we went along. I think they had a much stronger idea of the character when I came in than even I did. And now gradually, I think I'm getting the hang of it.
Q: Your character has a wedding ring.
Grant: Oh yeah!
Q: Is that from the future or all the time?
Grant: It's the future. Presently, she's an independent, single girl. [Laughs]
Q: You're already appeared in the online comic. Would you like to see yourself as an action figure?
Grant: Oh, I would love it. Yeah – And [the toy] runs real fast!
The two-hour Heroes: Season 3 premiere airs Monday, September 22nd at 9:00pm ET/PT.