Season 2 Secret Activities with ‘Chuck’ stars Zachary Levi and Josh Gomez
By Troy Rogers
When we first heard of NBC’s Chuck, it didn’t take long to figure out that last season’s up and coming sitcom was ripe with geeky goodness. How many computer geeks haven’t sat in front of their monitors and at least once wondered what it would be like to be a government secret agent? Although Chuck couldn’t find a way to prevent the writers’ strike, albeit accidentally, actor Zachary Levi as the moonlighting electronics store worker has found his way back to the airwaves for a second season, which premieres on Monday, September 29 with the episode “Chuck vs the First Date”.
With Chuck about to return for his sophomore run, The Deadbolt’s Troy Rogers went undercover like Clarence Beaks from Trading Places and ran to an undisclosed phone to join a conference call with actors Zachary Levi and Josh Gomez as they talked to the press about the upcoming season of Chuck, working with Michael Clarke Duncan, and the secrets behind the use of Huey Lewis and the News.
THE DEADBOLT: Hi Zach. Hi Josh.
OSH GOMEZ: Hi.
ZACHARY LEVI: Hey man, how are you?
THE DEADBOLT: Not too bad. First of all, I was wondering what was it like to work with Michael Clarke Duncan?
ZACHARY LEVI: Oh, it was awesome, yeah. I mean, first episode back and we have a bona fide movie star. That’s really everything you can hope for. When you’re doing a television show you hope that you’re making a product that other actors and directors of a certain caliber watch and appreciate themselves – and say you, “Know what? I’d like to go play with those guys for an episode and hang out, and enjoy what they’re doing.”
And so it was really an honor that he decided to come and play in our sandbox. And he was a really sweet dude. I mean, kind of like Josh was talking about Adam, you know, how he’s just from the outside he’s very imposing and this strong, rough guy and then on the inside he’s a big teddy bear.
Michael kind of has that same thing. I mean, I don’t know him as well as I know Adam of course, but he seemed to be just really laid back, down to earth, had a good time shooting the episode and was easy to talk to and really professional, and very, very imposing. He is a large man.
THE DEADBOLT: Exactly. Actually, speaking of Adam, I noticed in this episode Casey seems to be warming up to Chuck because – it almost appeared like he was considering to disobey that direct order. Are we going to see more of that this season, like you guys getting closer?
LEVI: I definitely think so. I mean… “A” – I think that they want to show that Casey isn’t just a robot, you know. And we kind of touched a little bit upon that last season. And “B”, I think they want to show that Chuck – part of his charm I suppose is that no matter how irritating he may be to his handlers – particularly Adam Baldwin/John Casey – he’s like an infectious disease almost – a good infectious disease whichever that may be.
I can’t think of any good infectious diseases. But Casey has no choice but to just kind of embrace him and as many times as Casey has saved Chuck’s life, Chuck has also saved his and Sarah’s in return; albeit in some clumsy un-thought out way, but does. You know, still managed to get the job done in some way.
And Casey sees – he’s privy to my whole personal life and my sister, and my friends and knows that I’m a good dude just trying to do my best in the world. And I’ve been thrown into this situation completely outside of my own control. So you definitely see him hesitating on the orders that he’s given and I think he’s relieved that he doesn’t have to follow through with it, you know.
Other Conference Call Highlights:
Zachary Levi on how serious Adam Baldwin is on set or if they have fun with him:
“You know, Adam is – he is so dedicated to the character and shares many aspects with him. But I would also tell you that he’s – Adam’s probably the most – the biggest surprise because he can get sillier than almost anyone on set. He’ll do funny voices and joke around, and he’ll bust out some fully, Full Metal Jacket stories about – even just for example the – I can’t remember the actor’s name but the head of the squad when he gets shot by the sniper bullet and he’s sitting there dying. And ‘I can hack it, I can hack it.’
“Well, when the cameras weren’t rolling he’s – this is a guy sitting there, fake bleeding. He’s like, “Oh, I’ve been shot. I’m dying.” You know, like just really funny, great stuff and he’s such a veteran and been around the block numerous times. And I mean he’s our rock. Adam Baldwin is our rock.”
Josh Gomez and Zachary Levi on the Huey Lewis and the News music in the first couple of episodes:
JOSH GOMEZ: … I don’t know. Chris Fedak just got asked this question… He and Josh both grew up listening to – like they were huge fans or something like that and they…
ZACHARY LEVI: Yeah, I think it was something like they were both big fans of Huey Lewis and it’s – because the show lends itself so well to music and especially because if you look at what Josh did with The O.C. and breaking a lot of bands and new stuff, I think it’s important to also stick to really classic stuff, especially when we have so many references to classic films or actors, or music or what have you to weave that in. And I mean, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I mean, I watch Back to the Future and half of the reason I want to watch it is because of the Huey Lewis in it. And I think Chuck wishes he could be Marty McFly, you know. And so for that to be in the show is a great touch.
Levi and Gomez on their love of video games and whether they play off-set:
LEVI: No, you know, during the pilot we brought our Xbox to set and we were playing. I mean, McG would be like, “Guys, come on, we’re about to shoot.” So we’d run over and go do our shot and then we’d go back and start playing. But we had a little bit more time for the pilot. It was – now that we’re actually – you know, when you’re in the season you’ve got nine days to accomplish what you should have a month to do, I suppose.
You know, we’re making kind of a mini movie every week. So there’s not a tremendous amount of time to be playing videogames. But hopefully, you know, if we get a little bit more time and get some cool setups then we’ll, you know, we’ll be rocking out – doing some Gears of War II, you know, some…
GOMEZ: Make no mistake, when – we have these phones. When we’re done here today there will be headsets on and there will be game playing. We’re on hiatus. Believe me, the headsets will be back on and there will be game battles tonight. I kid you not, I assure you.
Tags:
Josh Gomez,
Zachary Levi
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