Masi Oka is quickly becoming one of my favourite TV actors. Mostly because of the role he plays in Heroes on NBC. If you havent seen this show yet, you need to. John gets all gushy about Battlestar Galactica, but for me its HEROES. I even got John watching it too. Now Oka is stretching out into movie roles.
The film is inspired by the true story of a group of men who learned the art of card counting and won millions of dollars gambling. Oka is in talks to play a supporting role.
The Columbia Pictures project is based on Ben Mezrich’s best-seller “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.”
The only part that discourages me is that Oka is getting a supporting role in this movie. Hopefully he will play one of the 6 students, as this guy deserves much screen time.
The thing that makes Masi Oka so appealing to me is that he is a big geek. Just like me. But he is living the geeks biggest dream. He was on the cover of Time magazine under the headline “Those Asian-American Whiz Kids,” He was a CGI Animator at Industrial Light and Magic and worked on “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and the recent “Star Wars” trilogy. Then he gets into acting and gets nominated for a Golden Globe for his role on Heroes.
His charcter Hiro quotes Star Trek and Xmen Comics, and appeals to the underdog in all of us. He even gets to carry a sword. He is so cool.