Bell's a 'Hero'

Kristen Bell isn't just one of the newest stars of "Heroes," she's a "huge fan" of the show. The NBC series "was the water-cooler conversation at 'Veronica Mars' on set."

It wasn't like the actress best known as Veronica Mars was hurting for work. She's got a couple of movies coming out, and she had some talks with the producers of "Lost" about the possibility of joining the cast of that show.

But Bell "put feelers out there during ComicCon" (the sci-fi convention) to the producers of "Heroes" and "let them know what a fan I was of the show, I think with the secret hope that one day I could be part of it. It was the ultimate flattery when they said, 'We might have something for you to do."'

Bell comes aboard tonight (8 p.m., Ch. 5) as Elle, a character who wasn't created specifically with her in mind, said creator/executive producer Tim Kring. "But when you do cast an actor, especially one that you're familiar with their work and has as much personality as Kristen has, you try to tailor the character a little closer to who the actor is."

Not surprisingly, neither Kring nor Bell would get too specific about the character in a conference call with TV critics. They didn't reveal what her superpower is, "But it's a very cool power," Bell said.

Elle is looking for Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), and she has "a lot of information about Peter's past."

She also has ties to Clair (Hayden Panettiere, H.R.G. (Jack Coleman) and Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy). As it turns out, she was raised by The Company — the shadowy organization that's behind so many of the "Heroes" mysteries.

Elle does not have "the brightest and shiniest of intentions," Bell said, and "she has an inability to decipher between right and wrong."

"She's so conflicted and sort of comes across as such as vixen, it's so much fun to play with."

(After tonight, she won't return until Nov. 12.)

Bell didn't exactly step into the show cold. Not only has she watched every episode of "Heroes," she had longtime friendships with several cast members and writers.

"She was already kind of a part of the family by the time we cast her," Kring said.

Bell was 17 when she met Panettiere, who was an 8-year-old at the time. "She came to some plays I did in New York. I mean, she was a lovely little girl," Bell said. "And even then you could tell that there was something so alarmingly special about who she was and what she was going to be able to accomplish as a performer.