The German
On June 26th, 2009 we conducted an interview with talented actor Ken Lally, who portrayed the mysterious level five escapee, “The German.” Thanks to all the readers and fans who submitted their questions in the blog, via email or twitter!
First of all, thank you Ken for being so accessible to the fans on twitter, facebook and myspace.
Ken: Oh it’s my pleasure! Im a sci-fi fan myself, so I really like to meet others of similar ilk. I try to keep facebook for my personal friends and myspace as more of a website, so please contact me on twitter, if you want to!
Did you watch Heroes before you appeared on the show?
Ken: Oh HELL YEAH! couldnt turn it off! It really speaks to the inherent ‘Joseph Campbell-esque’ symbolism in our humanity–its simple and brilliant at the same time. Uncanny.
How did you get the part of “The German”? Can you tell us more about your audition?
Ken: There were some ‘modelly’ looking guys, some BIG, older German guys, and me. I was happy to see that there was no one else there like me, that was a good sign. Alan Arkush was at my second audition and I got the part after that.
Like “The Haitian,” your character is addressed by his nationality. His real name remains a mystery to the viewers. Was “The German” ever given an official name? If not, do you have any idea of the actual name of your character?
Ken: Other than me being the son of Dr. Zimmerman, no. Coincidentally, my Mother’s maiden name is Zimmerman, funny huh?
It is strongly suggested in the TV show that Ali Larter’s characters are also of German heritage. What is your relationship to the triplets? Are you all siblings?
Ken: Yes, Ali Larter and I are brother/sister.
In episode “One of Us, One of Them” Dr. Zimmerman explains to Tracy that he “created” her. Were you also “created” by Dr. Zimmerman? Is you ability “synthetic”?
Ken: I dont know, I suspect that, since Dr. Zimmerman was a Nazi scientist, that she and I are some sort of ‘master-race’ creation, perhaps cloned to be his children in his early experiments during WWII. It seems that plot was abandoned when the show lost a couple of the producers, or so I was told by friends who are still on the show.
Besides the nazi abandoned plot line. Is there anything you wish your character could have done during it’s short run on Heroes?
Ken: I would have liked a battle royale, between one of my cloned Sisters and I. It would have been very biblical, epic even. I would have also liked to have explored the character’s brutality more; as a former stunt performer and current stunt fighting instructor and choreographer, I think I could have created some really interesting and shocking violence that the show has never seen before.
Can you tell us more about this picture?
Zimmerman Family
Ken: We took a bunch of pictures that day, even brought in some of my childhood snapshots for Dr. Zimmerman’s mantle; im not sure if they were visible or even used, but there were quite a few interesting photos taken that day. They planned on photoshopping many of the entire families individual photos together to create a long history for the Zimmerman family.
Before we finish, do you want to share with all your fans other projects in which you are currently working?
Ken: You can try and kill me in Resident Evil 5, I play Albert Wesker. I do voices in Red Faction: Guerilla and World of Warcraft. I have a few more fun gaming titles coming out this year that I will mo-cap and/or do voices for, so keep your eyes peeled on my twitter or myspace. I’m in negotiations for a new film called Alluvial, its a psychological/horror/thriller thing with an awesome director and production team. So hopefully that too will come to fruition. There really is a bunch of fun things happening in my career right now, so I have very high hopes! Thanks for asking.
Thank you so much for your time Ken. Your character is unfortunately dead but Heroes’ story telling is not linear. A flashback about the origins of Niki, Tracy and Barbara could easily bring you back to the show! We hope to see more of your work in the future.
Ken: Yeah, its funny, the day they shot my death, the production team said ‘dont worry Ken, we have a ‘wall of death’, filled with snapshots from characters who have died. AT LEAST half of them have come back to life. No one dies in sci-fi’. I thought that was funny.
Don’t forget to follow @KenLally on Twitter and make sure you check his website on MySpace.
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the nazi storylines are way too sci-fi for heroes. they need more drama or a good balance like season 1. I wish dr zimmerman and the german come back at some point maybe with a different plot. i dont like the whole idea of german = nazis. hollywood stereotype
Could have hurt the ratings in Germany and Austria
The ratings in Germany are already abysmal. XD
I would have liked to have seen more of “the German” as well as his backstory on screen.
I hope we will see Ken soon. I think that if he is related to Tracy, he will be back when they explore her past. We have seen the past of Hiro, Angela, Noah Bennet… Tracy/Niki should be naturally next. The German and Niki Sander’s origins are interlaced.
If you account for episode “1961″ Zimmerman was already in America so the entire nazi thing is impossible to bring back. However, he clearly stated he created Tracy. That is canon. I want to see some magnetic powers in Heroes. Sylar needs competition.
Yeah. The German already is a stereotype anyway, with some gratuitous badly pronounced German… but going down the nazi road would have been perfectly ridiculous and so incredibly lame.
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