Heroes star Hayden Panettiere got on the line with journalists from across the country this morning, and BuddyTV was among them. Hayden gave us informative and articulate insights into her approach to the character of Claire, the transformations awaiting the character in Heroes Season 2, Europe, Friendship, and blood, lots of blood.
Hayden will be touring Europe as part of the Heroes world tour meant to promote the show in foreign markets. The highlights of the tour will be London and Paris. No one dared to ask what the impact of the trip would mean for her onscreen alter ego, but since Heroes second season is now in full production, you can expect that the tour means we’ll be having some Claire-lite episodes early in season 2 of Heroes.
To the question of whether we would be seeing the same old Claire, Hayden was conspicuously cagey. Even though promo shots have already circulated showing Claire in her spiffy new cheerleader gear, Hayden seemed to indicate there was a bit more behind that then we might expect. Don’t bank on a Claire season one redux. In fact, Panettiere said that if anything season 2 was about playing against the blond cheerleader / homecoming queen stereotypes she fit into so easily with Heroes season 1.
One thing that fans of the Claire Bear might be surprised to hear is that Hayden would secretly love to play a villain. “In the show, anything is possible. You never know what is going to happen. I doubt it, but anything is possible.” Hayden said.
During the conference, Hayden was actually watching the yet to be released Heroes DVD box set and marveling over the sheer number of extras involved in the set. The set, which is due for release on August 28, is being touted as one of the most fan friendly sets in the history of television, saturated with more commentaries and extras than even the most hard core sets can claim as standard.
Hayden also revealed that there were times during season one where the cast and crew had no idea if what they producing was going to sink or swim. “I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I’ve never been on a show from beginning to end, especially one like this. You never really know regardless of how good a show, or how good the actors are, whether it will catch on.” Hayden said. “We started thinking, it’s either on the air and doing very well. Or we’re just doing this for shits and giggles, and it’s never airing.”
When my turn to speak to Ms. Panettiere, I couldn’t help but steer the conversation towards one of my favorite topics. Blood and guts. As far as gore on TV goes, Heroes had the market cornered last year and much of it centered around our beloved Cheerleader. What was it like to work with all those prosthetics? “It was Sticky.” Hayden said. “It’s basically corn syrup, and red dye, and you can imagine what that does to your body after ten hours of working. It was most fun when me and Milo got to do it together, and got to get sticky together. Then you have directors like Greg Beeman who like to go overboard with the blood. I just remember seeing him with that blood bottle in his hand and looking at me like he was going to attack.”
As far as the gore went with season 1, can we expect to see Heroes continue to push the envelope in season two? “Well of course. That’s her ability, and the longer she has it and the farther it goes, the less she is conscious of it, the less she notices that she can’t do certain things. Trust me, you will see plenty of blood. Plenty of snaps, pops, and crackles.”
Heroes returns September 24.
Source: Buddy TV
