ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: There were a lot of standout episodes last year, but ''Company Man'' — which focused largely in HRG and unpacked a lot of his history — is a lot of people's favorite. It was such a great showcase for you. What was your favorite part about doing that episode?
JACK COLEMAN: I loved the premise of the episode. They started with the idea that Matt [the mind-reader, played by Greg Grunberg] would come after me, believing HRG had something to do with how and why these ''heroes'' have these often awful powers. And I think the writers got the idea from the fans themselves. There were a lot of fans who were thinking ''How is HRG making them like that?'' — as opposed to the reality that I was just studying them. So when Hayden got shot in that episode, and Greg says, ''So, you've made her indestructible?'' — that was finally where I said, ''I haven't made her any way. You don't have all the facts.'' So, I love that the writers came at ''Company Man'' from the perspective of, ''Let's start with all the misconceptions that everybody has about him.'' It really made for a full character arc. But maybe my favorite moment in the episode was that little baby who reached up and started playing with my chin. And the [baby] had that little smile at the end when they're doing the close-up, and people thought that was CGI. Because now you don't trust anything you see. That baby actually did that with the smile. Might have been gas, I don't know, but we'll take it.

You have great chemistry with Hayden — was it easy for you to develop a rapport with her?
The scene that we did in the pilot where I come home and she comes running into my arms, we'd known each other for about 45 seconds when we shot that. I was the guest star. I come out of my trailer, we're about to shoot, she comes out with ''Daddy!'' I thought, ''Wow, this is a very open actor.'' I was really kind of blown away. Hayden has chemistry with everybody. She does. She's just invested in whoever she is looking at and acting with, and I think that's something that's really special about her. She's very savvy about the camera, but she's not giving it to the camera, she's giving it to the actor. We had a scene right before ''Company Man'' where, in the hospital, where she finally blows up and yells at me. We had to do a lot of coverage of her, and she's crying through the whole thing, for several hours, and it's exhausting. And we did all her coverage, and then the camera came around and shot me, and all the tears came, and she's off-camera. She really invests. It's funny, all of this talk in the media about her being another ''teenage starlet,'' wondering if she'll go the way of other young actresses — people need to pay attention to her work. Her work is really good. It'd be nice if people talked about that sometime instead of just where she's going, or who she's dating, and whether or not she's going to run off the rails. And by the way? I don't see that happening.

Want more Heroes? Check out today's EW TV Watch recap of the latest episode. And don't miss EW's Ultimate Heroes Fan Guide, where you can join with other members of the Heroes community to fill in new details of season 2.

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