08.21.08 Close Up: Chuck and Zac Levy (4:22) Close Up talks to TV series Chuck actors Zac Levi, who plays the title role about a computer store worker who inadvertently ends up working as a secret agent and his co-star, Aussie girl Yvonne Strahovski.

Source:TVNZ.co.nz

The days of keeping a low profile at industry events are all but over for Zachary Levi, star of the NBC action-comedy “Chuck.”

But, like just about everything else, the 27-year-old actor has a good sense of humor about it.

“When I was on `Less Than Perfect,’ I had the luxury of being able to sort of skim through the red carpet, take a couple of pics, do a few interviews then I’d be on the dance floor all night long,” he said recently. “But now I’ve got 10 red lights in my face which, by the way, I’m all about.”

That’s because on “Perfect,” which ran for four years on ABC, he was part of an ensemble cast that also included Sara Rue, Sherri Shepherd and Andy Dick. On “Chuck,” he’s the title character and there’s nowhere to hide.

It’s safe to say there is no other show on television like “Chuck,” which returns for its second season Sept. 29, Zach’s birthday. He plays Chuck Bartowski, a computer whiz whose life suddenly gets far more interesting - and complicated - when a college friend who is now a rogue CIA agent sends him an encoded e-mail with all of the world’s big spy secrets. It’s the only remaining copy and it gets imbedded into Chuck’s brain!

While he keeps his cover job at a computer store, Chuck is now a spy and the actor said we should expect to see him getting a little better at a role he was never trained for.

“He evolves a little bit,” he said. “I think he starts to find a little more confidence and a little more footing in this new world of being a spy. But he can’t get there too quick, otherwise there’s no way to go.”And the job at the store (he’s part of the Nerd Herd at his local Buy More store - a parody of Best Buy’s Geek Squad) is as important to the character as using his newfound knowledge to help the government thwart assassins and international terrorists.

“It really is the perfect cover job,” Zach said. “It really allows for so much of the comedy on the show, the other odd employees and the boss. Last season they were all sort of

episode-to-episode and it’s nice when you get to have these guys who you spend so much time with, to be shown a little love. They’re in the opening credits now.

“It’s a really beautiful thing.”

But it’s not just Nerd Herd members who will be getting some screen time in the new season.

“There’s lots of great guest stars: Michael Clarke Duncan, John Larroquette, Ben Savage, Nicole Richie. Tony Hale is doing a multi-episode arc, Jordana Brewster’s coming on for an arc. It’s very cool,” Zach said. “As an actor, it means the world to me that other actors that I respect look at the show and go, `Yeah, that’d be fun to do.’ I guess we’re doing something right.”

Zach is hoping for a nice, long run on the show and wouldn’t mind squeezing in a movie during the summer hiatus.

“One of the things that I love about this show is the action and I hope that if I do it long enough, film producers will think, `Hey! Maybe he can do an action movie?”‘ he said.

“I want to do everything. I want to do action movies, I want to do comedies, I want to do romantic comedies, I want to do drama. I just think the world that I get to work in is such an amazing place. I hope I get to do it for the rest of my life.”

Article found HERE

Zachary Levi made a statement about comedian Andy Dick’s recent legal troubles. Here are a few quotes from Zac:

“I love Andy,” Levi says. “There are people you meet in your life that, after you get to know them in your heart, you have a certain compassion for them in your heart and the things they have gone through in their life. And, it must be incredibly difficult.”

“Unfortunately, in Hollywood, you see people who are too loving and too giving and too vulnerable, and (other people) leech on to that,” Levi says.

“I feel like Andy has had a lot of those people in his life, and they don’t help him. They continue to keep him in a place that is not healthy.

“My heart and my love is with Andy always.”

Andy has been blessed with a great friend!

Read entire article HERE

8/8/2008
Posted by ColliderStaff

Written by Rachel
Now for Part Three of Chuck at Comic Con.

If you are just now joining this, check out what the creators of the show had to say about all the cool guest stars, what the characters are in for in season two, and how at least one of the writers keeps attempting to throw poor Chuck out of an airplane HERE, otherwise, here is the continuation of the cast and crew interviews.

Or you can check out Part Two, where Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin bicker with each other, talk about cool new fight moves, and tell how season two might involve some characters’ pasts coming back to haunt them. Check that all out HERE.

Now check out what Zachary Levi, who plays the star, Chuck Bartowski.

As soon as he sat down he and I promptly proved our Comic Con worth to each other and geeked out over our iPhones, pulling out our Lightsaber applications and having a duel over the table. We talked for a bit about how great the iPhone is, the differences between the original and the 3G, and the Lightsaber application and how it’s a must have. He even told us about an epic iSaber war between the background extras and cast and crew on set. Then, after proclaiming that Apple needs to start paying him if he talks anymore about the iPhone, we get down to business, namely…

Q: Chuck!

ZL: So Chuck, let’s talk about Chuck.

Q: So what’s new this season?

ZL: Oh gosh! Well, there is a really big horticulture scene . . . No, I’m kidding. You know, I wish I could say that . . . Well, there’s a lot of great guest stars, I’m sure you heard about most of them, Michael Clark Duncan, John Larroquette, Melinda Clark, Nicole Richie, Ben Savage. Tony Hale’s come on to do, like, three to five episodes, he’s a freaking genius. Jordana Brewster’s come on to play my ex-flame Jill, for like thirteen episodes, actually more, cause we talk about her in the first couple of the season, and it’s this whole, “infamous Jill,” “infamous Jill,” “infamous Jill,” and now we meet her! She’s so lovable, and it’s ridiculous! So that’s great, and she’s going to be in like three episodes, and we’re halfway through with her first one, and lots of really cool stuff. But aside from that . . . I don’t know how to say . . . It’s not really all that different, I mean, it’s the same, but in the best ways. I think, unfortunately a lot of television shows or movie sequels or video game sequels or whatever. The problem inherent with the success with your first iteration is you feel like you have to make the second iteration better, but you lose the heart of, you lose what made the first iteration so good. And what I’m happy about is that they haven’t done that, they have, like, re-launched Chuck 2.0 wear, like, all of a sudden everyone’s dressing a little differently and hairstyles are all sorta, you know, you pick up and you’re like “that’s the Chuck I knew and loved from the first season.” With like, little differences here and there. Yvonne’s character, Sarah, no longer works at the Weinerlicious, which is good because that was very Austro-Hungarian, it didn’t make very much sense. She works at this PinkBerry-kinda place called the OrangeOrange, which is all blue, which I find to be hysterical! With orange highlights of course, cause you have to work that in. And she’s got this cool, very much-more-functional-for-fight-scenes outfit, although I am sure a lot of the fanboys and girls would argue that, “no no, we loved the dress with the bustier, that was great!” So you know, little changes there, new set pieces I think people will dig.

Q: Are their any fun scenes at the Buy More?

ZL: Oh there are some great scenes at the Buy More! Tony Hale comes on as this guy who’s like Buy More Corporate, who comes in to, like, examine this delinquent branch of the Buy More. Cause that’s what we are. And he’s very, you know, put together and very, you know . . . At first he thinks . . . Cause everyone’s selling him “Oh Chuck’s the guy, Chuck’s the guy who really keeps things running.” So he thinks “Oh, I’ve found the one guy who can help me fix this place.” But I’m constantly running out to these spy missions, and he doesn’t know why, he thinks I’m a shmuck. And so then he’s like my nemesis, and that’s awesome. So there’s a lot of great stuff with that. We’ve got a couple scenes where we’re all just kinda lined up, like all of us, and he’s like Patton, walking up and down, telling us what’s up. And great spy scenes, you know, we’ve blown up a couple cars now and that’s always fun. That’s probably my favorite. It’s like “What can we blow up now?!” And some great wire-work. I think I get dropped off a building at least three times. We’re only at episode six and it’s like “I’ve dropped three times, how many times can I fall?” How many times? Trust me.

Read entire article over at Collider.com

Zachary Levi’s idea of the perfect date;

“I always thought it would be cool to take a girl to Catalina Island, but surprise her and take her there on a helicopter,” he said. “I’d have dinner waiting there for her. And we’d take a little drive in one of the golf carts they have there.”

The helicopter flight, Zachary pointed out, not only would be a faster way to get to Catalina, it would be a litmus test for the girl. If she’s bold enough to go for it, he figures, they have a shot at establishing a connection.

“She has to be adventurous, because another day could (consist of) bungee jumping or sky-diving or hopping on the motorcycle,” he said.

Read entire article over at www.ibabuzz.com

TV Series-interviews - Monday 4 August 2008

The star of “Chuck” tells us it’s not hard for him to play the geek..

Screenrush Series: Chuck is kind of comic paranoid show, because the threat on every street, round every corner, in every store. There’s a tension transformed in something comic.
Yes, almost definitely. Clearly, because the root of the show is action and comedy. I mean there’s a little bit of everything else with the drama and the romance and the mystery and that I think really fills it out and makes it a well rounded show. But, because the action and the comedy are the two biggest things that we hit and, you know, that are the root of the show, you’ve got endless possibilities with the bad guys coming out of the woodwork…

In the first episode obviously the threat is mainly my two protectors and then as they settle into their roles of protecting there are, oh I don’t want to ruin it for you, but basically any foreign country that’s got a bad guy is coming after me in some way shape or form. Or, they’re not necessarily coming after me but they are, there’s some kind of terrorist plot somewhere to assassinate somebody else or to blow something else up and because of the information that I have, I end up getting us all dragged into it to try and thwart their plans. So, whether they’re coming after me or we’re going after them there’s trouble around every corner and therefore I never feel safe or comfortable in my own home, in my own workplace, and you’re right, around every corner around every place. And what’s interesting about that is the Chuck that you meet in the pilot, that’s the last time you ever see him, because once he knows what’s happened to him, once he finds out that this is all the government secrets and that his life is forever changed. There’s never that kind of relaxed, happy-go-lucky Chuck. There’s no time to relax, you can’t relax anymore. And so, so much of the comedy is based on, so much of the comedy and the suspense and the action, whatnot is all based on that very kind of paranoia.

Chris Fedak (co-creator of the show) has said that you nearly won the part during the audition, just by saying “Don’t screw this up.” Is that true?
Yeah, I guess it is. I didn’t know that until later when, in fact, I think I might have read it in a publication. They didn’t tell me a lot of that stuff before I got the job or just after I got the job. It was all stuff I found out later, that came out later. The casting director, when I had gone for the first audition put me on tape, which is what Chris is talking about I think, and apparently he had called Josh Josh Schwartz, who was shooting the last episode of The O.C. at the time, and he said — and they had a hard time finding Chuck, apparently — and so the casting director called Josh and said “I found our Chuck, I’m sending the tape.” And then they watched the tape and, I don’t really remember it, but I guess I kind of murmered to myself “Alright, I hope I don’t screw this up,” before I even went into the scenes, and so they knew that “that’s our awkward Chuck right there.”

That was your best line?
Apparently. I’ll do it more often if it gets me jobs.

One of the funniest things about the show is that you look at some clichés of spy movies, or action movies, and you use a lot of music reminiscent of those genres…
Oh yeah, almost definitely. The composer we have for the show, and our music supervisor and everyone they’re very good, and Josh is also a big music buff as well, so a lot of the indie rock and whatnot will sort of work its way into the show. But the soundtrack to it definitely plays to that. It plays to the movies that Chris and Josh and the rest of the writers are all big fans of. Chris is a huge fan of Die Hard, Total Recall, all of the great action ’80s movies. And there’s also a great affinity for just plenty of other genre and pop culture stuff that ends up working its way into the show be it through the music or the dialogue…

There’s some stuff in the script, like in one episode, there are these two agents from the CIA and in the script — and they have no lines and so therefore, you never know their character names necessarily — but they’re Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson and so they’re Johnson and Johnson. And that’s a direct reference from Die Hard. But an audience might not ever know that those guys were ever named Johnson and Johnson. Only the people who read the scripts, the executives, the cast, the crew, whoever [know] and so it’s a little just treat for us to look at, and I love that they do that. In my acting I like to throw in a lot of homage to, either to other actors or characters or movies, or you know different things that have affected me or ment a lot for me, and so I’ll pepper them in from time to time and if somebody picks up on them they do or if they don’t they don’t, but to me it’s fun and creative to do that kind of stuff.

Read entire article over at screenrush.co.uk