Kiki Sukezane – Heroes Reborn

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What was your first experience like tweeting about the show?

A) “Heroes Reborn” is the biggest show I’ve ever done. I tried not to see the negative comments. I tried to see only the positive ones or reactions. We are still shooting in Toronto. This whole experience is really new for me. I worked with a wonderful cast. I’m so honored to be here.

Q) Where do we pick up with “Heroes Reborn?”

A) It’s five years after the original “Heroes” story. My character is new. In the original “Heroes,” the story introduces the heroes – the humans with powers. For this show, it is more five years later and the humans with powers are called “Evos.”  This stands for “evolved humans.” Something happened similar to 9/11, which was because of Evos. Now, Evos don’t really have a place to live in the world. They are trying to hide and hide their powers because once humans find out they are evos it is not good. “Heroes Reborn” is a more dark story.

Q) How does your character Miko fit in?

A) She is a Japanese girl living in Tokyo and she is really unique. She is trying to track down her missing father. In the first episode, she meets Ren (Toru Uchikado) and he was looking for Miko. He finds her at her apartment and learns she is in a video game. Ren is a really popular video gamer and so he starts to help her from outside of the game. He plays the game and I fight enemies inside the game. It’s an interesting team. For shooting, we used motion capture so I put on lots of dots on my body and had a sword with dots on it. We did all of the fights and then it translates on screen. I also have a stunt double, Melanie, who is a really, really good fighter. She is a champion of Taekwondo. She helps me a lot with the motion capture fighting. I’ve also been training in Japanese samurai sword fighting for six years now. So, I use all the techniques in the sword fighting by myself.

Q) What was your audition like for the show?

A) I got booked maybe because of the sword fighting. I don’t have any other martial arts experience other than that. it’s called Tate-Do. I can do that, but I can’t do cartwheels or flipping.

Q) What did you find challenging about the role?

A) The action scenes were challenging. I’ve had experiences before in Japanese films, but this show is big. There are multiple cameras and so every scene I am learning a lot about how I look or if I kick a certain way with certain movements. For motion capture, I had a camera in front of my face so it was kind of hard to fight a hundred percent because I would hit my camera with my sword. I tried though! I tried to fight one hundred percent, but carefully so as not to hit my camera because it is pretty expensive. It is a really good learning place because this is new for me and it is a really good learning experience for me. I think I am getting better and better each time we shoot.

Q) What can you tease is in store in the future for Miko?

A) Ren and Miko are going to try to find my father together from now on. You will see what is going to happen. I have a lot of fighting scenes. Also, Miko is going to meet other characters like Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman), Quentin (Henry Zebrowski) and Tommy (Robbie Kay). I will also start speaking in English!

Q) Who is someone you would like to have a scene with or have more scenes with?

A) I love working with all of them. I want to act with Eve Harlow, who plays Taylor. She was not in Episode 1 or 2, but she will appear in later episodes. She is a really good actress. I really want to have a scene with her.

Q) What have you taken away from your experience on the show?

A) I have learned a lot – even fighting skills! I’m learning every time. Also, I learn about camera workings and English, for sure. If there is a scene in a car, we actually shot in a car with windows, but sometimes there is no doors and the back is all green. Then, how they move the car is with people from the crew shaking the car in the back. I learned that imagination is really important for actors, even if there are only green back-screens. We have to imagine all the environments on the green screen. Especially with motion capture, we all have to imagine we are in the beautiful grass field or in front of a castle.

Q) Where has been your favorite location to film the show?

A) I have been to Cambridge. It is a couple hours away from Toronto. There is a really, really old house (like 200 years old) and it looks really stylish. It looks really cool! We shot a scene there in front of the house. I had a big fighting scene there and that location was so beautiful, so clean and so cool. There were horses and beautiful mountains.

Q) What else would you like fans to know about the show?

A) The show is going to air in Japan, as well, in October. I’m so excited about that! I care about what the Japanese audience thinks because we speak Japanese and want to make sure we don’t make mistakes.