NEW 'HEROES' GUY REVEALED!
NOW, YOU SEE HIM. NOW, YOU CAN'T . . .
By DON KAPLAN
January 22, 2007 -- WHEN "Heroes" returns to night, the newest charac ter will be difficult to see - because he'll be the invisible man.
Claude, played by Christopher Eccleston, a British actor who also has appeared on the sci-fi series "Doctor Who," is named after Claude Raines, who played the original invisible man in the 1933 film.
"The first time I appear as Claude, I make a joke about that," Eccleston, told the fan Web site, herosite.net.
Unlike many of the other characters on "Heroes," who are just discovering their powers for year, Claude has been using his invisibility for years - to rob people.
He becomes something of a teacher, like Yoda, to, Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) and helps him learn how to handle his strange ability, to absorb the power of whomever he is with.
"I think it's reasonable to say that Claude belongs to a previous generation to our present heroes," Eccleston says. "He functions as a kind of paternal figure to Peter."
Eccleston says that producers approached him to appear on the show and offered him his choice of two roles. He picked the invisible man because the other option was playing a bad guy.
"I will say is that the first role was a villain, and I didn't want to play a villain. I think that it's somewhat of a cliche for European actors to play villains in American culture, and I didn't want to be part of that."
With about 12 million viewers each week, "Heroes" has turned out to be one of the surprise hits of the season, and a sorely needed addition to NBC's schedule.
The NBC show been on hiatus since early December and returns to face off tonight directly against another wildly popular serial drama, Fox's "24." "Heroes" follows the adventures of a group of people who suddenly discover that they have super powers and have a mission to save the world.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01222007...don_kaplan.htm
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