don’t know what happened but somehow this got posted as an earlier post instead of a current post. oh well.

sorry - the mail bag is coming in typed form this time - mostly because it’s a bit quicker. i have about one million questions to answer so this felt a bit easier and more relaxed for holiday time.

I was just curious as to what your favorite things were to do while you lived in Austin.  Any favorite bar or club?  Restaurant?  Also, I know we’re getting a little old for it, but if you do go out on halloween, what costume would you wear, or would you go as Daphne?*

- Josh

yeah - it’s kind of hard to remember now because it’s been three years since i lived in austin. i like whiskey bar and red fez for going out. for music, i usually went to emo’s or wherever the band i wanted to see was playing. i also went to elysium a lot on sunday nights when they had 80s night. i hope someone from austin remembers that.

and i have been known to go as myself from different eras for halloween - high school brea is a favorite of mine. but i’ll probably steer clear of daphne since i already look like her…because i am her.

*i think this was actually sent at halloween. that’s how far behind i am in my email mail bag answer things.

I was wondering what you like to do on your time off when your not shooting Heroes or doing other work related stuff? Basically, what’s a fun day for Brea?

- Shane

a fun day for brea is working! i actually like my job.

but not working - it’s going to the movies or reading a book. i’m sort of boring.

where is your favorite place in the world for going on holiday and why???

- Brandon

portland, oregon because it’s where my mom lives.

In “I Am Become Death” there was the moment where dying Future!Daphne returned home and her back was all burned up. I was wondering, how extensive was the makeup process there?

- Dominique

pretty extensive especially considering you guys only got a quick glimpse of the burn wound. i was fitted for a back piece that was covered in burned-looking-skin a few weeks before (you’re going to have to ask a special effects person how all that stuff works). it took about three hours to put it on on the day of filming (that’s not including the wig and regular make-up process).

In one of the episodes of “Friday Night Lights” that you did, there’s a scene where you and Landry are talking about music, and you list off a bunch of metal bands, like Mayhem, Carcass, and I forget what else.  Anyway, I was wondering, did you really know about all of those bands, or was that just in the script?  I was a bit surprised that someone working on that show would know so much about those bands, so I was wondering if it was their doing or yours.

- Korey

writers are cool! so they know about those kind of things just like you and me. so a lot of it was written. i also threw some bands in there that i remembered from when i played in a hardcore band and some bands my friend brett told me to say. i tried to change it up every take (because FNL lets you improvise a bit) so i’m not sure who wrote the final bands. although i don’t think they used cattle decapitation - which was my idea.

Does the turtle in the show have a name?

- Morgan

i think it’s elvis but greg calls her shelly.
Assuming you have seen every episode of Heroes what is you  favorite episode?
- Reed
probably episode 6 of this season because i’m in it a lot!


Have you read any comics of super-speedsters, like the Flash, to prep for your Heroes role?
- Vincent
yep. i read a lot of Flash (i’m a fan of the Geoff Johns stuff mostly), Supreme Power, and some old X-Factor.


I wonder when you see a shot like in Sylar’s house in the future, when Claire is about to shoot Peter, and your character is speeding all around with motion trails behind you, etc…..what does a scene like that look like when you’re shooting it as far as what you’re literally doing on the set?
- Bo
well, it looks silly and complicated. the short scene where daphne and peter are fighting had to be filmed in two separate pieces. milo took all the punches without me being there so he could be going regular speed. then, separately from him, i went it and hit the air where he’d be so they could speed it up to make it look as though i was moving super fast and he was moving normally. kind of confusing and it feels very odd to just be running up and hitting where he would be. then, we had a moment where we moved the same speed right before i switched out with a stunt double who hit the wall for me when peter punches daphne. then, i get back in on the floor and lay there hurt. so that one part took about 4 or 5 hours, not including all the stuff leading up to it. that scene of everyone in the house took a whole day (a 14 hour day) to shoot. so, like i said, kind of complicated. we just have to trust the directors to know what they’re doing to make it look so awesome in the final product.

got such a great response, i filmed another one.

via video…

i’ve been threatening to do this for a while but i kept having trouble deciding which emails were appropriate to post. the disclaimer on the contact page has been there a while now so i feel like it’s okay. fyi - these are sort of just excerpts and not whole emails.

I love the photo of you with “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”  I’m a huge Shel Silverstein fan.  “Prayer of the Selfish Child” is one of my favorites.  Your expression makes it a remarkable photo.

(this is in the gallery page and i realize that’s technically not a question.) that’s from a movie i did called Corpse Run. i actually read “Where the Sidewalk Ends” out loud in that scene. it all takes place when one of the characters is moving out of his parents house and he’s going through all his childhood stuff. we even talk about his old pc and Oregon Trail (for those of you who remember that computer game from the 90s). it’s a great movie.

I have a question about the way you work on characters/what you see in scripts.
At what point in the script did you begin to realize what you could do with your character? When did you start to figure her out?

it’s sort of different depending on the project. for television, you get a script and you basically have one scene to make up an entire character. (that’s how episode one of heroes was for me - i only had that one script and one scene to figure out daphne.) for heroes, the writers and producers helped me a lot, but the character definitely evolves throughout the season as i got used to playing her and learned more about her.

by episode three, i thought i had the character figured out as far as who she was, but as i said, she keeps evolving. there are a lot of major changes in her life so i had to sort of ask myself how the character i’d already established would deal with new situations.

p.s. the mail bag may come in video form next week. you can send questions via email or video (just upload it on youtube) to info@breagrant.com.