Picketing with the Heroes Cast!

Strike Report

We just got back from Mutant Enemy Day, and we were posting our experiences and pictures and I came across some pictures of friends of mine who took pictures with some of the actors from Heroes.  I started thinking how cool it would be to go to a similar strike march with the heroes creators/stars and show my support for them too.  Then I found it.  Heroes Strike.

 

 

SPOILER ALERT.  IF you have not seen the second season of Heroes....well something must be wrong with you.

So I went.  My husband could not get it off work on such short notice so I packed up my son, Ronan and we just went.  The first obstacle was parking.  That sounds easier than it was, but I wont bore you with those details.  We walked over to the main gate and saw a girl named Anita whom we had met at a previous Veronica Mars Convention.  I told her that we had just driven in from Utah, and someone nearby overheard us and cut in.  "Utah?  Thats a beautiful place.  I spent some time in ST. George on my way up to filming in Park City...."  as he was talking I noticed he was familiar.  But it took me a few seconds to figure it out.  "Are you Fred Savage?"  "Sure Am"  note Fred Savage initiatied a conversation with me.  ... cool.

We then signed in and made sure we were at the right gate for the Heroes cast Writer's Strike picketing.

Anita and I pretty much spent the day together taking pictures for each other and such.  We crossed over to the picket line and joined in a song about the writers strike set to the tune "Santa Claus is coming to town."  I don't remember the words but you know something like ... "You better watch out...." etc...

We walked around the picket line a few times than crossed back to the pavilion, and there I saw Greg Grunberg coming down the block.  "Hey Greg, I didn't know you were going to be here" I said as if we were long time friends.  He smiled, and Ronan said "what part do you play?"  "I can read  your mind" Greg said.  "So then you know my question for Heroes?" Ronan said.  Luckily he followed up by asking it. "How does Hiro teleport?"  Greg told him he would have to ask Hiro.  So the rest of the day Ronan kept asking all the writers "is Hiro here yet?"  We walked across the street with Greg and met some of the writers.  Adam Armus was there, Nora Kay Foster was especially friendly, I even met the legendary Jeph Loeb.  Ronan talked to all of them telling them  he writes comic books, and he has created many of his own superheroes and he is a genius and a scientist and hes gonna make things when he grows up.  They all were very attentive and supportive and a couple of them even remarked that he is a future member of WGA.  The writers I met were all really nice people and they can't wait to get back to work.

After a few more times around we saw Sendhil Ramamurty (Mohinder) and a woman walking across the street towards us.  I did not recognize the woman at first, but Ronan did.  "Thats the black eye girl."  Sure enough it was Dania Ramirez (Maya).  They were happy to pose with us and I told Dania that Ronan is afraid of her characters power.  He immediatly piped in, "No Im not".  Dania took off her sunglasses and widened her eyes at him and he backed up a little.  Throughout the day whenever she would walk past him in the picket line she lowered her glasses and made with the eyes, and he backed up a little, then stopped himself and said, "Im not afraid!". 

 We also got to meet Dana Davis who plays Monica, Ronan said it is so cool that she(Monica) can copy anything she sees. Dana is so tiny, we were excited to meet her because she had been on one of our favorite shows Veronica Mars.

Ronan kept asking everyone "why did you make Heroes?" and they told him he would have to ask Tim.  It was a bit of a relief when we finally met Tim Kring, creator of Heroes.  Ronan asked his question and Tim thought about it and said, "I wanted someone to save the world."  Ronan and I were able to tell Tim how Heroes is one of our favorite shows and we were honored to be picketing along side our favorite Heroes.

A number of times throughout the day the stars and/or writers would line up on the grass for group photos.   This one time some guy kept saying "This isn't good the suits are gonna come out, they are gonna tell us to get on the street and get off their grass."  He just kept saying it.  We stayed on the grass for quite some time and the "suits" never came out.  Lots of people brought pictures and things and expected autographs.  The stars and writers alike seemed to have no problem providing them.  In fact they were giving out comic books of Heroes.  Ronan took his around and got as many signatures as he could on it.  (This was his own idea, I didn't even know he was doing it till later on.)

Ali Larter was there with throngs of people hanging around.  Ronan said "hey are you the girl that never gets hurt?" and she smiled and said no I am the one with Strong powers.  I tried to remind Ronan who she was, "Remember she has a son named Micah, and she has two personalities?"  "Three" Anita corrected me.  Ali hinted that there may have been more, but we may never know since her character seemingly died in a fiery explosion.  I really expected Ali to be a bit stand offish, but she was not at all.  She stayed up the night before the event making homemade fudge and cookies to share with us. She greeted everyone with a smile, she is awesome!

Then Jack Coleman (Noah Bennett) showed up.  He came up and hugged everybody.  From the moment I saw him come up I thought he was the most personable person I'd ever met.  He is so full of energy and he is so much better looking in person.  Seriously he would give Milo a run for his money.  Ronan asked him how he had his eye shot out and grew it back, and he said thats all computer generated.  We told him we were very happy he wasn't dead.  I can't wait for Heroes to come back on the air to see what they do with Jack and Ali's and Adrian's characters.

Then all the actors posed for some more press group shots. 

Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli) was one of many actors who commented on Utah.  It seemed to really impress people that we would come such a long way, while we were the ones who were impressed that they would come out to meet with us fans.  She told us she has a daughter in Orem, and she loves St George.  In fact anyone who talked about ST George seemed to think it was a wonderful place to settle down.

Then Masi arrived, (much to the relief of the other actors.  :) )   Ronan finally got to ask Hiro his question.  "How do you teleport?"  He said, he focuses on wherever he wants to go and "how does he freeze time"  you have to let the temperature down to freeze time.  A silly answer, but it pacified Ronan.

Tim Kring grabbed a bullhorn and made an announcement.  He had taken a WGA picket sign and had all the writers and actors in attendance sign it. (THIS ITEM CURRENTLY FOR SALE).  He felt it should go to whoever had come the greatest distance.  He nominated me and Ronan and asked if anyone came from further.  A voice out of the crowd piped up and said "I came from Phillidelphia."  "Oh?" Tim said in surprise looking through the crowd until he realized the source of the voice was Jack Coleman.  "Shutup Jack" he said good naturedly and Jack smiled.  "No," Jack said, "you are right.  Give it to Monique and Ronan."   (He Remembered our names!)  They thanked us for coming but it was such a huge gift for us, we were so surprised and honored and will never forget this day, or that moment! Ronan figured he didn't need the sign he made so he gave it to Masi.  Masi ended up giving it to Tim, and Tim was proudly holding Ronan's sign for the rest of the day.  In fact Tim even called my husband up at work to tell him about it.  (well I made the call but Tim did the talking).  Poor hubby had no warning and had to sneak out of the office for a few seconds just to talk.)  The sign was simple.  A large piece of construction paper with the word Heroes fans support the writers pained on it in red, and a the words Fans4Writers taped on the bottom.  They were happy to have members of Fans4Writers there, they had heard much about us and are appreciative of our efforts. We also got to meet Co-executive producer and writer Jesse Alexander, he has a son Ronan's age named Simon who reminds all the other writers and cast of Ronan, so that made Ronan feel special. :)

It was now time to start the picketing line.  All the stars were in the circle and about 80 fans. During the strike there were a number of songs and chants.  Ronan's favorite was "Hey Hey Ho Ho the Studios cant write this show"   after Masi came the carolling folks had the whole cast and writers that had come to the picket line sing 2 of their special strike songs, I cannot wait to see this YouTube video.  Ronan asked anyone and everyone when Peter(Milo)was coming.  When he had to go to the bathroom, he was concerned.  "I hope I dont miss Peter Patrelli while Im gone".  When we got back, still no Milo, but Kristen Bell was there.  There was a throng of people around her, so we were content to wait patiently but Jeph Loeb interrupted and said "Kristen, these are the guys from Utah".  Jeph explained what the picket sign was and she was happy to add her singature to it.  We told her how we had loved Veronica Mars and we were thrilled to see her on Heroes now.  (We told Tim that also).

Jim Bernstein was there also.  He is a writer for American Dad, and Family Guy, but he wasn't there as a writer.  He was there as a fan.  Heroes is one of his favorite shows and he was clamoring for pictures and poses with the stars just like the rest of us.  His opinion of the writers strike is that the studios will back down, but not for a matter of months. 

Many times we were pulled out for interviews for various reasons, so I expect to see both of us on YouTube sometime soon.  Nora Kay Foster was probably our favorite writer.  She was really nice and introducted us to everyone.  Ronan kept saying "Im a genius, and I am an inventor, and I have super powers, I can talk to animals."  She said, Jesse Alexander has a son named Simon who is a lot like you Ronan.  She really made him feel welcome and did not make fun of his ideas.  She was there from the very beginning and when it was time for us to leave, she wished us a safe journey home. The Heroes Picket line had lasted 3 hours, it felt like forever and at the same time it was over soooooo fast.

 

Words cannot describe what a marvelous day it turned out to be, picketing with so many of the Heroes cast and writers at the strike, being acknowledged by them, and just being able to lend our small voice to the huge battle.  I truly hope and pray the studios will listen to the writers the actors and the fans. These people deserve job security and to be paid for the great work they do for us all.

More Heroes Cast and writers Pics from the Strike picket lines.