David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. Zachary Levi: Up on "Chuck"
Zachary Levi seems like a stand-up fellow. After our interview, he told me to keep his phone number and call back if I ever need a quote on anything. (Though here’s betting it was the phone of a friend he’s punking or one of those disposable cell phones.)
Levi’s the star of “Chuck,” which is one of the favorite new shows of pretty much everyone who’s weighed in so far. “Chuck,” as you likely well know by now, concerns an underachiever who gets a government database downloaded into his brain and now is either the CIA’s best weapon or biggest liability.
So to further perpetuate its front-runner status, I wrote a little story about the guy (no direct link available, but click here, then click on the Fall-TV preview image of Kristin Chenoweth and you’ll get some cool little animations, the story (“Five to Watch”) and the rest of the Fall TV package, including reviews. Or if that seems like too much work (did I mention the animations? The one for “Resistance is Futile” is very cool), you can just read the pertinent information after the jump) and had some material left over in which he explains some minutiae about the show and divulges a spoiler or two that he probably wasn’t supposed to.
On just what’s going on in Chuck’s head: “Ultimately, what’s happened is he’s absorbed a U.S.-government sanctioned ‘Intersect’ computer. ‘Intersect’ takes all the information from all the different branches of government and puts it together, and has its own logic processor. It puts pieces of information together for the government.
“In the pilot, ‘Intersect’ found out the bomb schematics from one computer database, knew the general was speaking at the hotel, found the blueprints from the hotel and information from the NSA about the Serbian demolitions expert. ‘Intersect’ put those pieces together and formulated equations into their meaning something – there’s a bomb in the hotel meant to blow up the general. And that’s what’s in Chuck’s brain.”
On Chuck’s unrequited relationship with Sarah (Yvonne Strzechowski), the CIA agent charged with protecting him (and does so by faking a relationship with him): “Chuck and Sarah’s relationship is thrilling and very frustrating for Chuck. In the pilot, he thinks he’s met this girl who’s into him, but then he finds out she’s not. He feels good about himself for a little while, now he’s more concerned with having to stay safe. Ultimately, he’ll have say, ‘Forget this, there’s nothing between us, I’m not gonna get to kiss you.’
“By episode 7 or 8 he kind of has a fake breakup from their fake relationship, and that plays into tension of that fake relationship and has her wondering whether she has some feelings for Chuck.”
Plus, Levi says, Chuck’ll later discover that she dated his college arch-nemesis who stole his girlfriend and eventually got him cut loose from Stanford. Also, episode six will be a flashback episode taking place during Chuck’s college days.
On how the show will divide its time between Chuck saving the world and working at big-box store Buy More: “It’s pretty equal – although, it seems that he’s saving the world in Buy More as he's saving the world outside Buy More. The bad guys and spies are making their way closer to his home. There aren’t a lot of ho-hum Buy More scenes – which is not to say that there are any ho-hum Buy More scenes – but there are plenty of moments in the Buy More where you’re still feeling like his life is threatened, not just when he’s out on a mission.”
Zachary Levi, who plays the title character in NBC’s new action-comedy series “Chuck,” describes the show quite nicely when he calls it “‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ meets ‘The Bourne Identity.’”
Levi’s character is a bit of an underachiever, reduced to working as a member of the tech-savvy “Nerd Herd” at a big-box store called Buy More. When the government’s intelligence database is downloaded into his cerebral cortex (hey, it could happen to anyone), he’s considered a security risk, and the CIA dispatches operatives to seek his cooperation on cases – or eliminate him. Naturally, he chooses the former scenario.
“It’s a little bit of a leap,” Levi drolly notes of his show’s concept, “but then, it is an action comedy.”
As Chuck, Levi is wryly and winningly shambling, a guy who knows he’s way in over his head but also realizes there’s not much he can do about it so he can only go with the flow. For that reason, the Daily News has named Levi one of five actors to watch as they strive to make this their breakout season.
“That’s been the thing about finding our feet in this show,” Levi says in an interview. “In the beginning, you need to find the rhythm and the style. Sometimes, anyone can forget what we need to achieve, and the first thing we need to remember in any scene, whether it’s dramatic or has heart, is this is an action comedy. That’s what you need to do, and if you can bring both at the same time, even better. No matter scary it gets.”
Levi enjoys channeling his inner geek. “I always play fight scenes with a lot of fear, in Chuck’s ‘Duh … duh’ way,” he says. “He’s not cool in any way, shape or form. He’s never had a gun to his head; he’s not a super spy. This is all really scary, awkward, what-the-hell-is-going-on kind of stuff. If he’s too cool in this thing, we’re missing the point – he’s a fish out of water, an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances. Those two worlds colliding is where the fun exists.”
So don’t expect Chuck to morph into Jason Bourne anytime soon. “The writers have sworn to not put a gun in Chuck’s hand for the whole first season, so I’m screwed there,” Levi says. “He gets to carry the gun eventually. First time he has a gun, maybe he hits a guy, maybe he doesn’t – probably, it’ll go off by accident.”
From the pilot on, the producers have invited Levi to do a lot of improvising within scenes.
“Within every actor, there’s that writer as well – I’m constantly looking at lines and asking, ‘Is there something more we can do to take it to another level?’” he admits. “Between every take, I’m constantly thinking of what can we do to up it even more. Sometimes what I come up with works, sometimes it falls on its face.” One thing the producers kept was a take in which Levi’s Chuck takes some defensive pride in being a member of the Nerd Herd.
Indeed, at one point in the conversation, Levi went off on a little bit of a wonky tangent, delivering a little soliloquy about the technology of today (what is the iPhone, he pointed out, but a rough draft of the computer screens moved about by hand in the sci-fi film “Minority Report?”), and what technology will look like and how it will affect society in the future (laptops for all in schools means the end of note-taking!).
Hey – this guy really is Chuck!
“Sorry about that; got a little carried away,” he says sheepishly.
But lest you peg Levi as too Chuckian, be aware he’s capable of channeling his inner macho stud, as well.
“I look forward to the day I get a role to play the cool guy who carries the gun,” he admits. “When I was a kid, I’d play war with my buddies, and we’d throw dirt clods as hand grenades and roll away from the blasts and be cool. So when you’re on a show with so much action, sure, eventually want to be the cool guy. Eventually, he’ll get more and more comfortable in this.”
But while he’s waiting for that to happen, Levi says, “I’d love to do an action movie where I’m the cool guy taking out bad guys.”
- “Chuck:” 8 p.m. Mondays on NBC Channel 4; premieres Sept. 24.