io9.com caught up with Jack ‘Horn-Rimmed Glasses’ Coleman at a Beverly Hills lunch spot to find out exactly what’s going on with the show and his parenting skills.

This is a cool part, I don’t care how small it is, people are going to notice this guy.

I was going through some of the NBC press materials from just before the show launched, and you’re not even listed in the cast bios.

Oh, it’s crazy. There are still photos of the entire cast all over the place, and I’m not in them.

So your role was obviously meant to be minor, but has now grown to be one of the major characters on the show. At what stage during season one did you know that was happening?

Well, the funny thing is it was such a gradual progression. First of all, it was a guest spot on the pilot, that’s it. There was never a promise of any episodes beyond that. It was a small part, but reading the script I thought, “This is a cool part, I don’t care how small it is, people are going to notice this guy.” I knew there was something creepy and dynamic about him, and when he turns out to be Claire’s father in the end I remember thinking, “I don’t know how they ignore that. I don’t know how they don’t deal with that.”

As the episodes went on I think [show runner] Tim [Kring] and the writing staff just discovered this HRG guy was a good bridge between the characters and stories. They’re all just discovering and coming into their abilities, and you need to have somebody who’s further ahead in terms of knowing what they can do, and my character just fit the bill perfectly. Plus the creepy dynamic of having a guy who hunts “specials” who is actually stepfather to one of them is great. Is he really looking out for her or is he just harvesting? I think the moment when Tim decided HRG was going to be Claire’s father, I thought it was too juicy an opportunity not to take advantage of it.

Was he always just HRG in the scripts, or did he have a name at one point before we found out what it was?

read the whole interview at: www.io9.com