Interview:
Kristen Bell & Tim Kring Talk About Heroes'
New Hero
The October 22 episode of Heroes introduced
a new character, Elle, who is played by Kristen Bell of
Veronica Mars fame.
Last
week, Bell and Heroes creator Tim Kring participated
in a press junket where they discussed this new role.
We now have some highlights....
"I
watched it from its premiere episode," Kristen Bell
says, revealing that she's been a fan of the show from
the beginning. "I joked with the writers that Heroes
was the water cooler conversation at the Veronica
Mars set."
"I’ve certainly put feelers out there during
ComiCon and let them know what a fan I was of the show
I think with the secret hopes that one day I could be
a part of it. And then it was ultimate flattery when they
came forward and said 'we might have something for you
to do'," Bell reveals.
Getting
acquainted on the Heroes set was easy for Bell, who had
already had some social relationships with members of
the cast. "I sort of heard through the grapevine
what a great job it was, not just an excellent show, but
actually really fun to be a part of and an ensemble that
really supports each other," she says. "And
I think that, you know, to find that many good people
in one setting is really hard to find."
"Every time you join a different job or a different
show, it kind of feels like you’re changing schools.
It’s that kind of anxiety, like is everyone going
to like me? Is this going to be fun? Am I going to do
well? And the warmth that I was greeted with, it felt
like I was starting a school that all my friends already
went to," she continues.
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Kring
and Bell were both cagey at first when it came to
describing her character. With his permission, Bell
reveals a spark of information: "I have a lot
of information about Peter’s past," she
says.
"Her
name is Elle. I can’t reveal her secret powers.
You’ll have to watch. But it’s a very
cool power," she reveals. "She has ties
to HRG and to Claire. And there’s going to
be a very interesting dynamic I think, between her
and Claire as far as what is and what is not.
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"I
think there’s going to be a deeper relationship there
than people are expecting," Bell continues. "They’re
going to see some - maybe some parallels. She also has
ties to a little bit to Suresh. And she’s a little
messed up in the head which makes her really manipulative
and always out to get what she wants. She doesn’t
have many boundaries which I think is the really interesting
part of playing this character on this particular show
because the whole first season has been about these, you
know, fairly good-natured people in trying to embrace
these confusing abilities and being very conflicted as
to how they should be using them.
"Elle is not that way at all. She very much enjoys
her power and enjoys the emotional power it gives her
over other people," she says.
"One
thing that we will say is that we are tying this character’s
side to this Company that we have talked about for the
last year on the show that Claire’s father was involved
with," Tim Kring adds. "One of the ideas was
that this character, Elle’s character is actually
raised within the company. And it’s in some ways
a cautionary tale of what would happen to any of our characters
had they lived with their powers their whole life the
way Elle had."
An
interviewer asked Kristen Bell why she is so cool, and
this is what she had to say: "Oh
my goodness. I don’t think I’m that cool. I
just - I try to be nice and enjoy what I’m doing
I guess. I’ve been really lucky. I’ve been really,
really lucky and I stay grateful for that every moment.
And I think that that may - I hope that comes across cause
I love what I do and I want to keep doing it."
Tim
Kring points out that Kristen is also cool because she
gets to hang out with really cool people.
"I
do," Kristen agrees. "You know what? That’s
how I’m cool, because I have such cool friends. I
have the coolest friends ever."
Read
Part 2 of this interview!
