The Intersect

The Globe and Mail’s R.M. Vaughan sat down recently with Vik Sahay to discuss his roles on Chuck and in Rainn Wilson’s new film, The Rocker, which opened in theaters on August 20th. The Q&A portion of the article is after the jump. Vik comes across as charming and humble… all the things that ‘Herd’ nerd Lester is not, which is a testament to his acting abilities!

Chuck must be the weirdest TV premise since Manimal. Let me get this straight: The hero, Chuck, has all the U.S. government’s secrets lodged in his brain, by accident?

As an actor you can’t get caught in the larger themes and premises - you gotta jump inside the character’s bones and go from that kind of subjective POV. But the hardest thing is when people ask me what the show’s about. Then, I’m like, well … this guy, he has secrets implanted in his brain … yeah.

Okay, I get that part. But in the show the CIA is protecting Chuck. Wouldn’t they just shoot him?

They need him! Because he’s the only person who has all the information.

But the whole tension of the series is that the government is rebuilding the database, so once they do that, they will need to kill him. But of course they’re starting to like him, so that’s the dilemma, the human element.

The Rocker looks like a cross between a Jack Black movie and a Will Ferrell movie.

Hee-hee! No, it’s totally a Rainn Wilson movie [the film's star] - I mean, when I was on set, watching him work, I thought, this is sooo perfect for him. The film is all Rainn Wilson and his bizarre-o, quirky madness.

Is comedy going through an infantile period? All the leading comic actors seem determined to behave like nine-year-olds on screen.

I suppose so, because it’s kind of a rough time in the world, especially in the States. It’s funny being a Canadian here and watching the different factions of belief about what’s going on. But I don’t know … I don’t know how to answer that question. Maybe there’s a sense of people wanting to stop thinking, to feel sweetness and laugh at silliness.

Bollywood is based on that - although it’s changing too, becoming more realistic - because the people watching the films in India are having hard lives, most of them, and they don’t want to go and see themselves reflected up there, they want to see colour and flash and innocent romance and laughs.

Is Bollywood open to South Asian actors from outside India?

You can work it, but it’s very competitive. Going there just because you’re brown-skinned doesn’t mean you’re going to get a job. You gotta be able not only to speak the language fluently, but to sing and dance.

C’mon, you’ve been on television since you were a baby - you can’t sing and dance? It wasn’t drilled into you?

Interesting! I don’t know why you assume that. I’ve never been asked to sing or dance, and not as a kid. It wasn’t that kind of TV that I was on. But my mom teaches dance, so I did learn a little bit…. I suppose I could pick up choreography.

South Asian actors often get cast as scientists, doctors, computer geeks - never the dad, never the fireman. Is this a stereotype problem?

It’s something that I’ve always, always tried to break out of. But it’s not a horrible stereotype, to be the smartest person in the room!

But I don’t care what I’m playing, I just want a deeper characterization. I don’t like perfunctory characters. That’s the uphill battle.

I’ll play the doctor, as long as we can follow him home and learn about his life.

Do you get a lot of ‘terrorist No. 3′ scripts?

I personally don’t - because when you look like a little girl, it doesn’t matter what colour you are, they’re not going to buy you as a terrorist! Not me!

You just did a film with Jake Busey. You can tell me - how crazy is he?

You know what?

I went into that movie with all of those Busey expectations and I have to say, and I’m not kidding, I’m not spinning, he was the gentlest, nicest guy - almost disappointingly so! He didn’t slap me once!