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MANILA, Philippines—Oh dear. It seems that jocks and muscle heads may have hit their peak in high school. I remember the nerdy kid with the fanny pack and big pencil case that had a sharpener, calculator and different colored pens, the bunch of guys who constantly got teased but aced all the math and science tests. If only the cool guys knew back then that they were teasing their future bosses and future billionaires. The nerd has always been a strange character. Their awareness perhaps came to the forefront of consciousness in the cult classic Revenge of the Nerds movies, where nerdiness was the new cool… and girls liked it. Nerds aren’t the geeks or the dorks, although one could exhibit those characteristics. Indeed, a nerd is a strange combination of unusual smarts, those with a passion and fascination for strange things and a certain amount of hidden sexiness. Think of all the superheroes and their alter egos, Peter Parker, Tony Stark, maybe even Clark Kent ( but really who was ever fooled by those glasses?) Their turning into superheroes is a nerds dream come true. Yes, nerds are the new IT boys and it all comes to fruition in my newest favorite series, “Chuck.”Zachary Levi plays Chuck, a typical computer geek who opens an e-mail and downloads the US governments top secret computer into his brain called “the Intersect.” Chuck then becomes the most valuable asset to the government, using the flashes he gets from the computer to help bust the bad guys. He is joined by Yvonne Strahovski who plays Sarah, the agent sent to protect him. Chuck and Sarah team up as partners and adopt a cover as a couple—so believable that after a few episodes, you’ll be rooting for the sweetheart Chuck to get the girl for real. Thanks to my computer savvy series addicted friends, I heard about “Chuck” when it first aired in the States where it was instantly a big hit. I was fortunate enough to meet the stars of “Chuck” to realize how almost un-nerd like Zachary Levi is and how Yvonne Strahovski and I both like nerds.
Yvonne Strahovski is a native Australian who landed the part of leading lady agent Sarah Walker. She moved to LA to film the pilot of “Chuck” and success in the US television industry has followed ever since.
So how do you like starting a new life in LA? The life over there is so different, the way they think and the way they view other people is different. How difficult is that for you?
Yvonne Strahovski: I think the most difficult part was being on my own and not having close friend or family to rely on—you know, when you live around your friends and family, if you have trouble with your car, your dad helps you, or your friend helps you look for a place, but when you are there you are on your own. You make friends obviously with the show, and stuff, but it takes a lot of time to create friendships and relationships that are strong and where you have a mutual trust with the other person, so I guess it’s just establishing a home, establishing friends, getting a car, and doing everything by yourself. It’s a huge learning curve.
You do a lot of action sequences in the series. Are you a physical person? You look familiar with the moves, and all that.
Yvonne Strahovski: Absolutely. I grew up hiking. I did all the boy things. I was always very sporty. I always wanted my girlfriend to play sport with me at lunchtime at school and no-one ever wanted to, so I always hung out with the boys. I camp a lot, I rock climb, I do all sorts of stuff. So getting to do all the fight scenes is something that I love doing, and I grew up being a dancer. I was dancing from the age of 5 to 18, so the fight scenes are like choreography to me. I learn it look a dance. We have a fight coordinator on the show that trains me. We do kung-fu as well. I love to do my stunts by myself. There are certain things they won’t let me do, like drive the cars really fast. But all the fight scenes, and the things like that, I do myself.
How different is the Australian industry from the industry in the States?
Yvonne Strahovski: The industry in the States is much bigger. It’s like the Mecca of the industry. The Australians by nature are going to be more down to earth and we don’t have such a strong sense of the Hollywood glamour that there is in the States. Over there, there is a really strong presence with that glamour side of things. People have to dress nice—the paparazzi.
Do you feel pressure to dress up when you go out in LA?
Yvonne Strahovski: Just to look nice. I’m not going to go out in a daggy T-shirt, with coffee stains down my dress. So, no, you have to make an effort, I guess. But it’s just that whole glamour side, the paparazzi. You know, you go to restaurants and there’s photographers there every night waiting for celebrities to show up and take their pictures. You don’t find that here at all.
How does Hollywood perceive Australian talent—with Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, all the rebellious male Aussie stars.
Yvonne Strahovski: Australians are very well received in America. Even just as people, whether you’re an actor or not, everyone loves Australians. I have a bunch of Australian friends—you know, you’re in a restaurant and someone overhears that you’re Australian, so people come up to you and say, “Oh, you’re from Australia,” and you start talking for half an hour. It’s great. When I have meetings, people love that I’m Australian. I think Australians have been the flavor of the month for many years now in America. Do you read much of what the fans are saying online?
YVonne Strahovski: Sometimes. I know they like it.
Would you date somebody like Chuck in real life?
Yvonne Strahovski: Why not? What, you mean just because he’s nerdy? I like nerds. That will be the one headline.
Audiences will recognize Zachary Levi’s boyish handsome looks from the popular series “Less than Perfect” as well as playing opposite Martin Lawrence in Big Momma’s House 2. His roles have leaned on the nerdy side of characters, but finally comes to his own in defining this year’s nerd hero of them all, Chuck Bartowski. How did you define the character?
Zachary Levi: In a lot of ways I just kind of defined him as me, I suppose I’m very much into video games and gadgets and technology, and stuff like that, and have spent a lot of my life very awkward with women, so, you know, all of that stuff kind of helps you to form an idea of who you think this guy is, you know. And I think I’m a pretty good dude too, and I try to bring that to Chuck. I think Chuck is a good guy, and he tries hard. When you first meet him in the first episode he’s not particularly excited about going to work at the Buy More every day, but he knows that it’s his job, and I think he’s the type of person that no matter what he’s doing he takes pride in that, you know, and he believes in customer service and keeping his customers happy and working hard, but still aspires for more and wants more out of life. So that’s why I feel like when this thing happens to him and he gets all this government information in his head, it’s scary and he doesn’t want it in a lot of ways knowing the danger that it brings upon his own life, but even more importantly his friends and his family. But then contrastly I feel like secretly it’s kind of thrilling to him. It’s actually given him a purpose greater than himself in life now. It’s kind of the thing that he always wanted that would, you know, bring some kind of excitement or greater scheme to his life. He doesn’t let on to that too much, but occasionally in, like, some missions or whatever, you see him kind of go, “Yeah, we’re going on a mission. Like, you know, this is kind of cool.” But, you know, always bumbling through it in some way.
How do you feel now—and you sound like in real life you are kind of a techie. There’s a lot of this sort of geek character coming out in TV now. Do you think that it’s a new appeal now, enough of the Brad Pitts?
Zachary Levi: Yes, enough of the Brad Pitts. I do actually. Well, I don’t know if there will ever be enough of the Brad Pitts. Even I want to go and watch Brad Pitt and Mr and Mrs Smith, and all that kind of stuff. Those are fun movies. But I think there are more Chucks in the world than there are Jason Bournes in the world. So it is easier for people to identify with that. There’s not a lot of super tough spy guys running around, or if there are we don’t know about them because they’re that good.
Are you afraid of being Chuck for the rest of your life?
Zachary Levi: That’s an excellent question. I’m not. I’ve thought about that before. Any time you get a television show you always wonder “Is this going to be the end all of my career?” You know what, if that is the case, then that is, I suppose, what god had in store. There are a lot of people—look at the cast of Seinfeld, for example. They’re pretty much—that’s what they’re going to be for the rest of their lives, I suppose. That is a really tough thing to wrap your head around as an actor, especially when you think you’ve got more to offer. But if they invested their money wisely, they don’t have to do anything for the rest of their lives anyway, I guess, and they can go and build their own theater and just do whatever plays they want to do.
Do you think you feel content with being a television star? From where I’m from in the Philippines we actually heard about “Chuck” way before it was aired. It’s not even airing, but it’s big.
Zachary Levi: Really?
There’s a big following. I heard about it, like the pilot episode at one my friend’s house. “You’ve got to see the show.” “Chuck,” the first season, just got out in the States.
Zachary Levi: Is Adam Baldwin big in the Philippines? How did that happen?
People know you guys there. There’s a certain group of people who do follow “Chuck.” It’s probably the same day—45 minutes after it airs in the States we’ve got it online, and there’s a big following, so you’re sort of like a big star there.
Zachary Levi: I’m coming to the Philippines. Let’s go.
What is it like working on the set? There are weird characters in the show, like Morgan, and all the people—do you meet people like that? Is that based on real people?
Zachary Levi: Yeah. I mean, don’t we all meet weird people? I suppose we all do, I mean we work with weird people. I mean working on set is—well, Josh Gomez, for example, who plays Morgan, he and I have become best friends. Before we even started shooting the pilot, when we were kind of getting to know everybody and rehearsing, and whatnot, we were all sitting at this lunch, and Josh and I were sitting next to each other, and somehow—I don’t know how it came up but the topic of video games came up. I think he kind of looked—I said something regarding video games or something, and I think he just kind of leaned over to me and people continued to talk, and he said, “You’re a gamer?” I just leaned back and I said “Oh, yeah, buddy.” So immediately—and weird—by the way. We don’t kid around. A lot of people will get online and whatnot and they’ll say, “How unrealistic is this? It’s just populated with beautiful girls and beautiful guys. I’m like, “Do you watch the show?” I mean, there are beautiful people on the show, but there are also a lot of odd people on the show, you know, so I think it keeps it more like a slice of life, I suppose. Tell everybody in the Philippines thanks for watching the show.
Lets face it, we all have a little bit of nerdiness inside of us. |
Michelle
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