MeeVee Exclusive: An Interview with "Chuck" star Zachary Levi

"What do I have to complain about? I get to be Chuck in a show called 'Chuck.' That's ridiculous!" said Zachary Levi. 

Levi played the scheming Kip on ABC's "Less Than Perfect" and co-starred in "Big Momma's House 2" as an FBI neophyte. But on NBC's "Chuck," debuting Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 8 ET, he's the main attraction. What's that like?

"Oh, man, I don't know," he moaned happily on the phone with MeeVee. "It's definitely different, and there are definitely things that are much more of a challenge, but I look at this as the biggest blessing I've received."

Levi stars as Chuck Bartkowski, a twentysomething underachiever in the giant Buy More store's Nerd Herd (think Best Buy and the Geek Squad). He's depressed and still mooning over a college girlfriend. But then he gets a mystery email from his old college roommate with a mind-expanding attachment - a psychedelic photomontage that downloads a database of CIA and NSA secrets into Chuck's brain.

Now besides his Nerd Herd sidekick (Joshua Gomez), his constant companions are a beautiful CIA assassin (Yvonne Strahovski) who seems to be falling for him, and an NSA killer (Adam Baldwin) who loathes him on sight. They'd just as soon kill each other, or him, but Chuck's new mental database tells him there's a bomb to defuse first…

"I could say I'm Chuck. I think I'm definitely more Chuck than I'm not," Levi said. "I think that Chuck is an affable guy. He's charismatic but he's also got deep-rooted insecurities when it comes to girls and just succeeding in life. He's stumped a bit in some of those areas. But he means well and wants to be a good guy and be good at his job, and he does care about his job and his customers. 

"And then all of a sudden he finds himself as an ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation, with all of the government's secrets in his head," Levi said. "He doesn't want 'em there. But he's called upon in this moment to stand up and be a hero for who knows how long - hopefully the next seven to 10 years." 

Levi says the relatable everyman hero is key to "Chuck's" appeal, along with the show's blend of action and comedy. "I won't say it's a whole new genre but … to do an action-comedy on television and pull that off every week seems to be a pretty new concept," he said. "We're finding our voice, and it's incredible." 

The action stuff is fun, he said. 

"What's so funny is, 'Big Momma's House' was a good little training ground for this," he said. "My character, though he was an FBI agent, he was still kinda nerdy and awkward, and I only got to fire one shot in the movie. I was dearly hoping I'd get to shoot some more. 

"On 'Chuck,'it's so frustrating because the writers have vowed to not put a gun in Chck's hands through the whole first season … I want to shoot a gun so bad! You grow up as a little kid palying war with your buddies throwing dirt clods and yelling bang! And this is like a dream! The first episode I get to fly around in a helicopter - it was incredible! And in the second episode, I can't give away too much, I'll just say there's Uzis firing right next to my head! It's ridiculous! 

"And yet, though I'm in the midst of all this, I never get to shoot a gun! It's frustrating, I will tell you," he said, laughing. 

Shooting started July 19, and when we spoke he was onto episode four and getting a flavor for what the stories would be like after the pilot. 

"One of biggest strengths of the show is you have the entire world of espionage to draw on, like any movie you see, any television show you see, the characters you can create … and not just the spies but the missions, dismantlying a bomb or stopping a carjack or whatever. And then it's a matter of marrying this fish-out-of-water story to it." 

And Chuck is keeping his job? "Oh yeah, it's the perfect cover." 

The writers will balance weekly spy adventures with the mysterious backstory of Chuck's old friend. 

"You're going to have a procedural show in there where you can tune in and have a mission of the week…and every sixth episode is going to be a mythology show," Levi said. 

"Of the shows I love, number one is probably 'Lost.' I'm addicted to that show, I can't wait for it to come back on, it's so good," Levi said. But it's also all mythology all the time, so it's hard to pick up "Lost" in the middle, he said, and that has kept some possible viewers away. No one will feel like they’ve missed the boat when they tune in "Chuck," he said. 

Of the much-noted similarities between "Chuck" and CW's "Reaper," he said, "I feel like we're very different shows and I wish them well," especially now that the two shows aren't going head to head on the schedule. 

For Levi, in fact, the opportunity that "Chuck" hands him is every bit as dangerous and potentially rewarding as the secrets handed his character. 

"The money and the power and the fame and all of the things that come with Hollywood, they can twist up real quick," he said. "It's a gift that you're given. To be able to go and just love on your crew and your cast and your fans, it really makes a huge difference, when you kind of keep it in perspective and know that - I mean, I don’t deserve this, are you kidding me?" he said with a laugh. "I don't deserve this at all."

Comments

[Liz]

Nice interview! I hope you don't mind that I linked to this interview on my ChuckTV.net site. This is going to be a great show to watch!