Heroes update: Hayden Panattiere kisses a girl, Masi Oka gets bromantic
"I kissed a girl and I liked it..." sang Heroes star Hayden Panettiere during a recent press call to talk about the new fourth season of the NBC sci-fi drama.
Panettiere plays teenage Claire, who has the power to regenerate her body even after limbs are severed or her head is peeled back to expose her brain by the evil Sylar (Zachary Quinto). During the new season, Claire embarks on a new relationship with her new college roommate, Gretchen (played by Madeline Zima).
"[Claire] has a roommate," Panettiere explained, "who is the biggest relationship in this season thus far because she has finally got what Zach - her friend Zach (Thomas Dekker) in the first season - which was a confidante and somebody who she can tell her secrets to, who knew, who would be there for her and who she could trust. And she hasn’t had anyone like that since then."
A little flirting
Panettiere continued, "Then this new character, Gretchen, who becomes my roommate, comes along and she becomes that person for me. And it’s a very interesting relationship because there’s a little bit of a flirting with the whole ’are we friends?’ ’Are we more?’ Like ’Do I have feelings for you in that way?’ So, that’s the relationship so far, and where exactly it’s going I have no idea."
Panettiere’s co-star, Masi Oka, who plays the entertaining Hiro Nakamura, also talked about the upcoming drama for his character’s relationship with his on-screen BFF, Ando (James Kyson Lee). "I think the bromance is there. Unfortunately it’s going to get broken up because Ando goes and gets married, so."
However, despite the fact that Ando marries Hiro’s sister, Oka explained that the relationship is important to the show and to the faithful viewers. "I think it’s important to have that duo. The kind of relationship progresses from being like a friend, like partners, like brothers in a sense and literally they become brothers, at least brothers in law for real. And, of course, it was like [Hiro] was going through his own trauma dealing with a terminal illness. You have that great happy news and it’s all about Hiro kind of trying to kind of...in some sense he’s sacrificing himself to make sure other peoples’ lives are happy at his own expense."
