Our friends at Heroes site “The OWI” recently spoke with Jimmy Jean-Louis, aka The Haitian.

Here are highlights of the conversation:

What experiences from your life did you bring into the character? Obviously the ‘boy from the small village’ is a page right out of your life….
Yah because I am from Haiti I understand everything they are talking about. I also understand the spiritual factor of the Haitian. Because we are very spiritual down there. Not to mention the Voodoo belief that we all have, so I would say so, that it is normal that I completely believe that my character can actually erase people’s minds.

And when you go into a character with such a strong belief you play it fully, with no hesitation and that helps.

I never thought about the fact that you could go right into it and become the character.
Yah. And of course I am very happy they made it the Haitian because it gave me a chance to represent my country.

How did you go from living in a small Haitian village to modeling throughout Europe? Take us through that process.
I still don’t know how I ended up out here Dave, to be honest with you. I am telling you man, growing up in Haiti is so different from everything that I have done. I was out there, you know, playing in my little village, playing futbol or soccer as they say over here. Pretty much no shirt on, no shoes on.

Our ball used to be pieces of paper we would put together and wrap around the paper a plastic bag. That became our ball to play with. So that is the kind of child bringing that I had, of course we didn’t have electricity. Meaning by that no TV, no nothing. I didn’t know anything about those TV shows. From there ending up in Paris was a huge change, dramatic change for me as a person.

You went from no electricity to the city of lights.
Completely, completely. I didn’t understand what the hell was going on. But you know you learn to adapt, especially as a kid. I adapted to the lifestyle there. Then I started to understand what was going on. I started to make my own moves. My parents went back to Haiti, I was there by myself with my brother thats when I started to take control of my own life.

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Near the end of last season, our friends at BuddyTV sat down with Heroes actor Jimmy Jean-Louis.

While not as well known as Masi Oka or Zachary Quinto, Louis portrays a vital character on the show, simply known for now as The Haitian. Here’s what he had to say:

BuddyTV: The Haitian is such a presence on Heroes and the interesting thing is that for a lot of your episodes, he had no voice. Was that a big challenge for you as an actor?
Jimmy Jean-Louis: He had no voice but he had a big spirit. That’s what mattered. Yes of course it is a big challenge when you don’t get to say anything because it’s always harder to portray what you want to portray without the words. So it’s always a bigger challenge but because I understood the character and I am from Haiti and I connected pretty much with everything that I was asked to do so it wasn’t too hard.

BuddyTV: Definitely, definitely. He does have that huge screen presence. Did you know in the beginning that eventually you were going to be able to talk?
Louis: Yeah, yeah. I’d been told you know the way they hired me that at one point I will be talking, at one point I will be going off with Claire and that was about it. I don’t know what I’m going to be doing next but yes, I always knew it.

BuddyTV: Was the character a Haitian in the beginning? Did they tweak it towards your ethnicity?
Louis: Yeah, it was a funny process because originally I auditioned for the role of D.L. who is the husband and the father of the kid. I read for about three times for them and obviously they didn’t want to go with me. And then a few months down the line they called me back to read for the character that I’m doing now. But I wasn’t here. I was in Europe promoting another movie, so I couldn’t see them. And they decided to give it to me eventually without seeing me. But originally it was supposed to be a guy from New Zealand not from Haiti at all. So I guess because they hired me then the character became the Haitian because I am from Haiti.

BuddyTV: At this point the Haitian, his name has not been revealed is that right?
Louis: No, no we still don’t know. Even though he has a name, he has a name, but I think everybody sort of likes the Haitian so far, you know he has a lot of mystery with it so I don’t know how much longer we’re going to keep the Haitian but yeah, yeah, he really has a name.

BuddyTV: So at this point as far as you know it’s not going to be revealed to us?
Louis: I don’t know when, I don’t know when. And I don’t think I can reveal it to you either for the moment.

Follow our link to read the full interview with Jimmy Jean-Louis.