Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

How was it that you were cast as Mr Thompson?

Well the casting people, creators and producers of Heroes had wanted
to find a spot for me and it came up, so they found a spot and they had
 me in to audition.

Oh so was the part created for you?

I don’t know that it was actually created for me. I think it was written very ambiguously and they just read a bunch of people and they decided where they wanted to go with it from there. I think; that’s only an opinion.

Had you seen Heroes before you were Cast?

Honestly, I had never seen it before, but my step son Keaton Simons had seen every episode so I called him up, he has an album coming out. So I rang him up and I said ‘Keaton I’ve got a part in Heroes’ and he was like ‘Wow! And he went on and on and told me all these stories, he flooded my brain’.

Mr Thomson is a bit of a baddie but also a bit of a goodie, what side do you think he falls on?

Well as an actor I would choose him the goodies side of course, even though the baddies are more fun to play, but I love the ambiguity of the character, I love the fact that he can’t really be nailed down.

Yeah in the show they call him morally grey.

Yeah there he is morally grey, he is not black, he is not white, he is grey, there you go.

Was it interesting to play a part which was open in that direction?

You know, I’ve played a lot of, to talk in colours as a metaphor, I’ve played a lot of black guys that were really evil and a few white guys but the fun guys are the grey guys because they’re like you and me.

Are you aware that Mr Thomson has a son in the graphic novels?

I had heard that, I had heard that yeah.

And they’ve named him ‘Eric Thomson’ after you.

Oh really, after me? You know, someone told me that and now that you bring it up I was very flattered by that. The first time someone told me they named their child after me I almost cried. So that’s very faltering that they named that character after me.

You of course came back to Heroes for the episode ‘Villains’ this season. Did you know you might be coming back when you got killed off?

No I didn’t know but I was very happy to get the call to come back. There was one period where there were big ‘Heroes/Villains’ posters outside all the movie theatres and it was a real thrill for me just to, as the movie geek which I am, to go to the movies to see that ‘Dark Night’ and ‘Heroes/Villains’ are right next to each other on the wall is normally fun for me.

Was it good coming back to all your friends from the set after a couple of years?

I love that group so much, there such good guys, all of them. Greg and I are the closest but everybody’s a great guy on that show.

You got to work with Christopher Eccleston who played Doctor Who, in which you played the Master; did you two have a lot to talk about?

Yeah, what a great guy. We talked fast for a couple of days. [laughter].