Adam Baldwin is a very familiar face to fans of great TV and movies. His long and varied resume boasts great roles such as Jayne in cult favorites Firefly (and its movie follow-up Serenity) and the evil villain Marcus Hamilton in Angel. He played Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket, and was in HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon, as well as appearing in the last two season of The X-Files.
These days, Adam Baldwin is starring in NBC’s Chuck, which premieres tonight at 8pm. He spoke to BuddyTV today about his role as a secret agent, Zachary Levi’s behind the scenes antics and his favorite TV shows.
Hey everybody, this is Debbie at BuddyTV, and I am talking with Adam Baldwin, who plays Major John Casey on NBC’s new show, Chuck, which premieres tonight at 8. Hi Adam!
How you doing? Nice to see you, Debbie.
You too! I have to say, I’m a huge fan of yours. I loved Firefly and Serenity, and you’ve done a ton of other genres on TV and in the movies. What have you enjoyed doing the most?
Well I think I would have to say, right now, what I’m been enjoying the most is doing Chuck. So… but in the past, I would, because I try to appreciate what I’m doing right now, as much as I can, and that’s what we’re doing. But in the past, I would say, Firefly and Serenity are very, very near and dear to my heart, and we were very sorry to see it go, and then Full Metal Jacket, and Independence Day, and The Patriot, and… let’s see, My Bodyguard.
Yeah, I’ve enjoyed you in a lot of those too. So let’s talk about Chuck. Can you tell me about your role on the show?
I play Major John Casey, who’s detached from the NSA to protect Chuck, who is a computer nerd who has government secrets from a supercomputer downloaded into his brain.
You play the secret agent, ultimately you have this undercover role as being part of the Nerd Herd with Chuck, right?
Yeah, I join up in that and put on one of the green shirts.
So would you say you’re more Nerd Herd or more secret agent?
More secret agent. I tried to reluctantly put on the Buy More uniform. I love the idea of a store called Buy More. When you buy more, you save more, and when you save more, you buy more. The salesmen’s motto which is the thing printed on the store, on the set that we have there, says “When you sell more, you smile more, and when you smile more, you sell more. It all starts at Buy More.” So, it’s very Orwellian.
And there’s a good mix of action and comedy on Chuck. What do you like doing more?
I really like the comedy part. The action is fun to do, but the comedy is where you get your brain and creativity involved. Following along with Zach Levi who plays Chuck, makes it all the more fun because we’re the most entertaining, fun guys you’ll ever know or watch.
Yeah, it looks that way on screen. Off-camera, is there any wacky hijinx going on?
I don’t know about wacky hijinx but occasionally you’ll get Zach breaking into a crooner version of “Fly Me to the Moon,” or beatboxing, or moonwalking, dancing, there’s some krumping that goes on. It’s pretty wacky.
Do you ever join in that?
I try to just be a watcher.
So what about the other members of the cast? What are they like to work with?
Well, Yvonne Strahovski plays Sarah, she’s the CIA agent. She is stunningly beautiful. She’s an Australian native and relative newcomer. She’s very flexible. And very funny and free-wheeling, great part for her.
We have Josh Gomez, who play’s Chuck’s nerdy Buy More pal. They do games together. And Sarah Lancaster plays his sister, she’s another beauty, who’s very caring and loving towards Chuck, tries to mother him at times, that’s a funny relationship.
Cool. You said Yvonne plays a CIA agent, and you play an NSA agent. So can you just explain the difference? Are you guys rivals or do you work together to protect Chuck? What’s going on there?
We’re somewhat cooperative rivals, the NSA (National Security Agency) and the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) are obviously trying to work together to stop the bad guys from doing bad things. But, there’s some friendly competition that goes on here and there. Not sure who to trust or what’s really going on, because we do deal with rogue CIA agent who was Chuck’s former roommate who starts off the whole thing by stealing the computer’s secrets and sending them to Chuck in an e-mail. So, a lot of not knowing what’s going on.
Right. And so, do you watch TV? What shows are you looking forward to watching this season?
Well, besides Chuck, I’m looking forward very much to watching the next season of Heroes, and Journeyman – I haven’t seen that yet, but my friend Moon Bloodgood is on that. And, she was on a show last year with me called Day Break, and the new season of Weeds, and Entourage, and of course, South Park and Family Guy.
Right. Do you watch shows that you act in? Is it fun to do that?
Sure. Yeah, I try to watch it and make sure that it’s all coming out in the wash, any adjustments. And plus, this show’s just fun to watch. I love the pilot and it holds up. I’ve watched it probably five or six times, and it holds up.
Yeah, I’ve watched it twice myself. What do you like to do outside of work?
Mountain bike, bowling, baseball, Frisbee, that sort of thing.
-Interview conducted by Debbie Chang
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
