E-mail a friendMasi Oka
airdate April 27, 2007
With an improv background and a computer science degree, Masi Oka made sure he had career options. At age 12, the Tokyo, Japan native was featured on Time's cover for its story on "Asian-American Whiz Kids." After graduation, he worked for George Lucas' visual effects studio, ILM, before trying his hand at acting. Oka has appeared in TV series and films, including Without a Trace, Scrubs, Austin Powers in Goldmember and, in his first leading role, NBC's Heroes. He continues to consult with ILM.
Actor discusses his role on Heroes and making special effects for Star Wars(1:52).
Full Interview (10:46).
Masi Oka
Tavis: Masi Oka stars in what has become one of television's most talked about shows, "Heroes." The hit sci-fi series airs Monday nights at nine on NBC. This is the current issue of "Wired" magazine which features Masi on the front cover and, speaking of magazine covers, here he is at the age of twelve on a "Time" magazine cover called "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids." Guess he made good on the prediction of "Time" (laughter). More on that in a moment. First, though, here now a scene from NBC's "Heroes."
[Film Clip]
Tavis: Masi, nice to have you on the program.
Masi Oka: Thank you for inviting me.
Tavis: Glad to have you here. Not bad, huh?
Oka: Oh, it's awesome.
Tavis: The cover of "Wired." Are you a "Wired" reader?
Oka: I am a "Wired" reader and it's like such an honor to be part of that cover and their Rave Awards are just fantastic.
Tavis: For those who've not seen "Heroes," how would you explain it?
Oka: It's stories about ordinary people gaining extraordinary abilities. It's what happens when you wake up one morning and find out that, if you could read peoples' minds or bend time and space, what would you do with it? Would you be happy? Would you be sad? It's about a story of those people.
Tavis: How did you end up being a part of the series? I ask that only because, in reading about you, there was a point in your career where you actually thought about walking away from acting because of the lack of roles for Asian Americans and yet, here you are now, in one of the hit shows on television.
Oka: Yeah. I was definitely at the right place at the right time. This was actually going to be my last pilot season. I was going to go into more of a writer-producerial role. The first pilot I read was "Heroes" and they were looking for a Japanese American actor who could speak fluent Japanese and who had comedic timing, comedic background and ample American television experience. I'm thinking, "If not this, what else?" So at the right place at the right time. It was the first pilot I read, the first pilot I went in for and I was blessed with the opportunity to play the role.
Tavis: So if this had not happened with all that, you were like, "I'm done with this"?
Oka: Well, I would have still been in the show business, but probably in a different side, probably behind the scenes a lot more.
Tavis: You do that already, though, working with George Lucas, yes?
Oka: Yes, I work for Industrial Light and Magic.
Tavis: Tell me what you do with Lucas.
Oka: I work as a research and development technical director, which is pretty much a programmer. I come up with the techniques and I write the programs to create the effects and then I show it to the artist. Press this button, punch in this number and it goes pow, pow, pow, whatever it is.
Tavis: (Laughter) All right, so tell me something that we have seen at the movies that you were behind creating.
Oka: Well, for instance, like "Star Wars: Episode II" when Jango Fett and Obi-Wan were chasing each other. In the asteroid field production, they had a sequence where they had this big asteroid and they needed to blow it up. They said, "Hey, Masi, we need to blow this up in a million pieces fast, cheap and quick. We don't have the technology. Can you do it?" So, sure. You know, six months later, I give them the final product. They go, "Oh, cool." Boom, boom, boom, pow, pow, pow. That's pretty much what it is.
Tavis: (Laughter) I like that with the sound effects and all. So tell me how you found your way on the cover of "Time" magazine at age twelve.
Oka: Once again, right place, right time. It's one of those things. My friend's mother was the photographer for "Time" and they were looking for Asian American kids to be on the cover. I wasn't actually in the article. The people who were in the article were actually the smart ones. We just looked smart. So they were like, "Oh, you go to my son's school, so you're probably smart and you look smart. You look Asian. You fit the two criteria."
Tavis: (Laughter) Yeah, you look smart and you look Asian. Although I've heard that your IQ - I know what it is, but I'm not going to tell this on television, but I know it's pretty high.
Oka: I think I was a very good guesser.
Tavis: No, I was a good guesser. My IQ is not that high, though.
Oka: You see, I'd rather kind of lower everyone's expectations. I'd rather be kind of dumb and exceed peoples' expectations rather than like raise the bar and not be able to meet it, which is like constantly my life.
Tavis: The flip side of that, though, I would think, Masi, is being burdened by the intellect. You ever feel burdened? That is to say, the expectation on you from your parents and others is so great because they know your IQ is high?
Oka: Yeah, my mom definitely had a very high expectation of me, and myself as well. I've learned through the years that it's much easier to live if you lower your expectations.
Tavis: Let me go back earlier to something you said, which was funny. You made a joke about it, but we moved right past it. Let me come back seriously and try to wrestle with this. This notion of Asians being smart. I mean, that is a stereotype and every race gets stereotyped in certain ways. I guess if you're going to be stereotyped, being smart ain't the worst way to be stereotyped, but how do you navigate being an Asian and being stereotyped as expected to be smart because you are Asian?
Oka: It's interesting. It's an expectation. I mean, there are some truths just because of our education background. The systems in Asian tend to be a lot more strict and there's a higher expectation. The level in education in Japan, especially public education, seems to have a higher quality. But it comes more of like more discipline. The education system is a lot more stricter. They have a lot of hard work ethic.
You know, that's just a generalization. I mean, you see a lot of Caucasian folks who are really smart and a lot of Asian kids who aren't smart at all. So a stereotype does come from some truth, but it's only a sampling of it. Some of us kind of perpetuate that stereotype and some of us don't.
Tavis: Part of what we hear at least that is in part, again, behind the stereotype of Asians being smart is the parental expectation, the parental drive. You started talking to me earlier about your parents, but every time I read an article or I'm in a conversation about why the Asians who are smart, are smart, the reason for that is that the parents drive them to achieve in that way.
Oka: Without a doubt. I think that goes true with any kind of immigrants who's come from a different country or who came from not as a wealthy family. You know, they want their kids to succeed. So they came to America to fulfill their dreams, you know, to pursue their life and to have a better life for their children, for their next generation.
That's why I think there's a lot of parental expectation and a drive to kind of push their kids harder so they can achieve and have the American dream that everyone talks about. So I think if you're born here, you take it for granted and there's not as much of a stronger drive possibly.
Tavis: Speaking of stereotypes, though, you fit in in every way. You're smart, your IQ is high -
Oka: - and I'm a bad driver too.
Tavis: (Laughter) You said it, not me. You're a bad driver. And you're in the technology field. How did you find your way into that? Did like your Asian family push you into technology?
Oka: It's interesting because I do fit the stereotypes. My mom - you know, I was raised by a single mother. That's not too common in Asian families where parents are divorced. We came to America, you know, to throw away everything that's conservative in Japan. She took a lot of risks. It is kind of different, but I totally forgot the question now.
Tavis: Never mind. It doesn't matter.
Oka: (Laughter) Sorry.
Tavis: Because now I'm more fascinated by - I was asking whether your parents pushed you into technology.
Oka: Oh, yeah. No, no, no, definitely. It's something that I love doing. I love computers. I love like problem-solving. I've always loved problem-solving and the computers kind of help you do that. It's very cool.
Tavis: Tell me about your single mother now. I'm fascinated by that now because, again speaking of stereotypes, in my community certainly, we rail all the time against the fact that, while a single mother obviously can be a good parent, a single mother can certainly raise an over-achieving kid whether he's Asian or Black. I don't want to slam single mothers.
But there's always this conversation about why there are so many single parent families inside of Black America and increasingly in America, period. But you're right. You don't often hear about Asian single mothers. Tell me about your mother.
Oka: My mother is a very strong and unique person. I love her to death. She pretty much gave up everything to come to America and provide a better life for myself and I owe her everything. She's my superhero. My parents got divorced when I was one month old, so I've actually never met my biological father.
It was interesting because it was for the education system that I did take the IQ test and, as I said, I had a good day and I scored high. My mother felt that - in Japan, you know, the minimum is raised high, but there's also a ceiling as well. They don't try to, you know, let you blossom. If you show a certain aptitude for a specific gift or a skill, they don't try to nurture it versus America where they do that.
So my mother made a conscious choice that we're going to go to America where you can go to a school where they're going to let your scientific skills, your mathematical skills, blossom. That's why she actually took that trip and made that jump to come to America.
Tavis: It was a while in my own life before - I wrote about this in a book that I put out last year - it was a while in my own personal life before I got around to meeting my biological father. But I had thoughts from time to time about whether or not he knew of anything that I was doing, knew about me, and particularly at the point where you start having some successes and you start to achieve certain things. Do you have any way of knowing whether or not, since you've not met him, he's aware of what you're doing these days?
Oka: I have no idea. But I know, as growing up in my childhood, every time I mentioned my biological father, there were tears in my mother's eyes, so I made it a point to kind of maybe subconsciously block that out a little bit. I would love to meet him one of these days, but I'm not sure when or where or if I'm even prepared to do so.
Tavis: So tell me about where "Heroes" goes from here. You're happy with the character right now?
Oka: Oh, my God, it's amazing. What they have in store in the future is absolutely fantastic as well.
Tavis: But you're not going to tell me, though.
Oka: Oh, well, uh.
Tavis: (Laughter)
Oka: You know, I can say that the last episode is going to be bomb. I saw a rough cut of Episode 22, the penultimate episode. It's just like every episode just gets better and better and better and better. I can guarantee that we will deliver. It's a fantastic show. Even being on the show, I'm a big fan of it. Even knowing what's going to happen, when you see it on a screen, it's awesome! I can't wait to tell it, but I can't because I don't want to spoil it for anyone, you know.
Tavis: (Laughter) I'm sure you feel sufficiently teased now by Masi Oka, so much so that you start tuning in to "Heroes" on NBC. Masi, nice to have you on the program.
Oka: Thank you very much for inviting me.
Tavis: Good to see you. My pleasure.
Back to April 27, 2007