MONDO EXTRAS

CR: Am I excited? First of all it's just so much fun to be working. It was strange to have to go away for so long and then to come back, but the energy is so great. Everyone is so excited about the new stories. And then over these months people have approached me again and again, asking when the show was coming back. When is it coming back? And then with this incredible support system that NBC is offering up, you know you can just feel the energy rising everywhere about what's going to happen.

TWoP: Were you able to do anything during the down time? Or were you just kind of waiting in limbo?

CR: I did a little work, mostly in limbo. It was just a nice time to be with family and friends and not much happened.

TWoP: Okay. Well now a lot is going to happen cause this whole new season is villains. I'm still trying to figure out who's good. Who's bad. It's all very up in the air.

CR: And it continues to be. It's like mercury, trying to pin any of these characters down sometimes. And there is a final settling halfway through this particular arc when you see sides being chosen. But even those seem to shift and change. Always from the very beginning of the show individual characters seem to teeter on that edge of good and evil. It's part of the excitement. It's part of the reflection of humanity I find in the show, that in life we all choose between doing good or evil on a daily basis. In the case of Heroes the fate of the world hangs in the balance, so it's a little more important.

TWoP: Is it hard for you as an actress not to know what's coming? Is Angela good? Is she bad? Is she in between somewhere? Is it hard to figure out how to play her?

CR: You know I have had a couple of times when I feel like I've gotten stuck. But as a long as I try to maintain the core humanity, the heart of Angela... It's so hard to say because she really, I believe her intent is to do good. Her intent is to protect her children. To love her children. But then she's willing to sacrifice them for a cause. She's willing to tell one brother to kill another brother. One thing that has happened this season is I have had the opportunity to find out what happened 18 months ago. I found out more about how she came to be the hard ass she is right now. You know she might not always have been quite like that. But she was always a part of the Company. That cabal. But something happened a couple of years ago that flipped a switch in her that caused her to go down one particular road. I got to find that out this year.

TWoP: Were you able to do anything during the down time? Or were you just kind of waiting in limbo?

CR: I did a little work, mostly in limbo. It was just a nice time to be with family and friends and not much happened.

TWoP: Okay. Well now a lot is going to happen cause this whole new season is villains. I'm still trying to figure out who's good. Who's bad. It's all very up in the air.

TWoP: Is it hard for you as an actress not to know what's coming? Is Angela good? Is she bad? Is she in between somewhere? Is it hard to figure out how to play her?

TWoP: That sounds exciting.

CR: But is it difficult to play this role where you find out something new about her every week, no... it's a challenge. I like playing puzzles, and this is like getting a separate piece of the puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle every week and trying to fit that one in and maybe that one doesn't fit with anything so we put it up near the sky for right now and you just play that scene for what it's worth. Tim Kring and the writers are so brilliant that ultimately that piece of sky will link with a tree down here in the left hand corner. So it's a great game. Does that make sense?

TWoP: It does. It sounds like a fun place to go to work.

CR: It is but very challenging. But they are wonderful people. All of them.

TWoP: Well you don't want to be bored.

CR: No. No. I'm not bored. Confused sometimes, but never bored. [Laughs]

TWoP: Well we're confused watching it sometimes, but it's still addictive.

CR: I'm confused watching. I read the scripts. I play the part, and then I watch an episode and I say, 'Whoa. Wait a minute. What happened back there?' But that's part of the great pleasure of the show.

TWoP: So they've been hinting and they sort of allude to it in the first half of the episode that you have some sort of power? Are we going to see that in action at all?

CR: Yes. In the first episode we find out that indeed, one of her powers at least, her power is to dream the future and that makes sense in retrospect because that was the first power that Peter manifested. And of course the first person he was ever near was his mom. I've read this on some of the blogs that people have said just that, and they guessed it right on. So we know she can dream the future. It's just a horrible power to have. Especially if you have nothing else. Peter at least has other powers to try and stop it. But then even he gets into massive trouble trying to stop evil.

TWoP: Right. It's not like Hiro who can jump to the future and then change things.

CR: We know that future Peter has come back to fix something. And he messed it all up. Made it even worse.

TWoP: Right. The scene with you in the hallway with future Peter? That was good TV. That a nice no-nonsense mom right there.

CR: She wants to get his attention. She gets his attention and in the second episode we have a couple of really good scenes too. It's two very high-powered people who are squaring off against one another and neither trusting the other that much? Oh I forgot the phrase. We're a good match for each other, future Peter and I.

TWoP: Both have stubborn personalities going on there.

CR: He gets it all from me.

TWoP: Well of course, that's what moms are for, to pass on the good and bad traits.

CR: Aw. You're sweet. Thank you.

TWoP: Are we going to see Angela and Claire together? I loved that dynamic.

CR: High possibility. I come into contact with many more characters this season that I ever have before. So much has been confined to the boys.

TWoP: That big apartment.

CR: Yeah. And now Angela...Angela...she...

Heroes' Helpful Publicist David Gardner: I think in November she comes into contact with a great number of people.

CR: I don't want to get into trouble.

Gardner: It's OK. So in episode 2...

CR: I take over the Company. And just because of that I come into contact with a lot of people. My power grows exponentially. And that doesn't mean that I'm any more effective than I have been because with power does not come control necessarily.

TWoP: So that answers my are you worried you're going to get killed off soon question.

CR: Well... in fact the people that have headed up the Company are all dead ultimately. So it's not a great position to be in.

TWoP: Everybody seems to come back. Death is sort of relative on the show.

CR: Exactly. Ambiguous death.

TWoP: So. Lots of more cool clothes for you this season?

CR: I love my clothes. We're getting even cooler. A lot of black. Not a lot of pink and yellow in Angela's wardrobe. They do a great job.

TWoP: Tough girls don't wear pink.

CR: Not in my world anyway. Black. Black and white. A little bit of brown thrown in. That's pretty much your palate.

TWoP: So you've done a ton of shows. I was just looking at your bio. It's enormous. Why do you think all of a sudden this show really caught on and your character has really caught on?

CR: All thanks goes to [creator] Tim Kring. I mean he's just so wonderful and writes this wonderful character. I did a show for him a couple of seasons ago, Crossing Jordan, and in it I played a very high-powered mother who doesn't want to see the corpse of her son. whom she disowned some years prior. He was a drug addict. And then she collapses at the end of the show. I always felt that those qualities in that particular role fed into this particular character. Tim and I have never had that conversation but I'm thinking perhaps that might have made me eligible for consideration for Angela.

TWoP: He kept you in his mind.

CR: I am always amazed that any given actor is working on any given day. 'Cause the chances of getting cast are so small. Or especially in a pilot, let alone the pilot getting picked up. Letting alone the pilot actually taking on. And then the chances of it becoming a big hit go up exponentially. I'm just overwhelmed by this experience and I'm just savoring every single day.

Gardner: There's two big surprises you might want to speak to if you're speaking to fans for week two. Obviously the villains escape, Sylar is captured. And this show does two pretty surprising things. Just to fill you in basically, Ms. Petrelli pretty much, as it turns out, Sylar attacks Elle and as [Co-Executive Producer] Jeff Loeb says: It's probably not a good idea to cut into a woman made of lightning. Elle explodes. Shuts down the grid. Releases the villains. And subsequently, Ms. Petrelli says that her resources are no longer needed.

TWoP: So how does one shut her down?

CR: You don't shut her down. You just send her away. And I set my sights on my son... Sylar.

TWoP: Wait. What? Okay.

CR: Okay? That's the cliffhanger of episode 2. I send Elle away. And she goes away saying what do I do? I'm looking at Sylar and saying just get away. Go away. And I go in. Sylar has been caught. He's just powerless and lying there strapped in, and I welcome him into my family. And I inform him that he is indeed my son. Then she's bending down and saying he has to be strong for what's to come. Now that leads you into episode three, where we discover how Angela is going to prepare Sylar for whatever she has planned. Saving the world once again. Mama Petrelli is always working.

TWoP: I knew she was a mastermind.

CR: She's insane...No she's not insane. She just has a lot of plans. Many of which have fallen to naught. But she's got yet another wonderful plan to control the chaos of this life. But think about it. She's going to control chaos and defeat evil with one of the most potently evil characters on the show. So what is on her mind? How is she going to do that? And if indeed she can get him all revved up and capable back with some powers of his own, how is she going to reign in the insanity that is Sylar.

TWoP: He killed his last mother. Now I'm worried.

CR: Yeah. Exactly. So how does she plan to take care of this. Will it be with love. Will it be with some scientific method or does she get a babysitter? Is there someone from the show we can get to babysit Sylar? There are all these potentials.

TWoP: Oh my god.

CR: I know. I'm glad to hear you excited. The insanity continues. How do you control evil with evil?

TWoP: I was going to ask the stupid question of what power would you like Angela to have. But it sounds like it doesn't matter cause she'll just find someone to do stuff for her.

CR: That's an excellent...excellent point. Power yes. You know poor old Angela. I don't know if it would be for the betterment of the world but her people management skills are really low. And that's so devastating to see what's going to happen and not have some way of really controlling except by trying to manipulate people. But maybe this time it will work.

TWoP: I've never been sure if she's good or evil. Sometimes the Company's good. Sometimes the Company is bad.

CR: Exactly. That's what volume 3 is all about. The roller coaster of good and evil and that treacherous life we all live.

TWoP: So unless you have anything you want to add, again I'm sort of in shock here...

CR: That's the way we should leave it.

TWoP: I thank you so much. I'm really, really looking forward to the rest of the season.

CR: I'm so glad. Lovely to have met you.