The Intersect

Vik Sahay recently spoke with Media Blvd Magazine’s Christina Radish about his career, his character, and his hopes for the future of Lester.

On the NBC television series Chuck, Vik Sahay stars as Lester Patel, frenemy and rival to Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) — a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the governments most vital secret agent. When Chuck opens an e-mail subliminally encoded with government secrets, he unwittingly downloads an entire server of sensitive data into his brain. Now, the fate of the world lies in the unlikely hands of a guy who works at a Buy More Electronics store. Instead of fighting computer viruses, Chuck must now confront assassins and international terrorists while juggling shifts at the Buy More and keeping his Nerd Herd co-workers from discovering his secret.

Prior to joining the action/comedy series, the Canadian-born actor appeared in many television movies and series, including Without a Trace and Las Vegas. Prior to making the move to Los Angeles, Sahay played the lead character in YTVs Radio Active, and spent two seasons on the hit Canadian television series This is Wonderland, which won a Gemini Award.

Sahay recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about what an amazing experience it is to work on Chuck.

MediaBlvd Magazine> How did you get into acting, and when did you know it was something you wanted to make a career out of?

Vik Sahay> I am from Canada. I was born in Ottawa, and I moved through Montreal and Toronto, and now Im in L.A. I dont really know how I got into acting. I have no idea, honestly. Nobody in my family did it. Nobody I knew did it. My family are all highly intellectual, high-achieving people. I did a play when I was a kid, and someone saw me in that play and put me in a TV show. It was almost like I was following a compulsion. I dont ever remember making a decision to be an actor. Thats the thing. I just woke up one day, in my second year of theater school, and thought, I guess I do this. Theres no moment, or nothing I saw, that made me go, I want to do that. I feel like I was just following an instinct to do it.

MediaBlvd> How did you originally get involved with Chuck? Was it just through the regular auditioning process?

Vik> Yeah, it was the gauntlet of the auditioning process. Id worked in Toronto, Canada, but when I got here, I was nobody. I was right at the bottom of the ladder, so I started at the beginning. Its a massive process here, compared to Canada, where you have an audition and maybe a callback. Here its a 5-piece mountain climb. They were like, Lets see him again, when Id already been there for five hours. And, there were more and more people in the room, so it was just overwhelming. The thing with Chuck was that I read for a different role. I read for Morgan, and it came down to me and Josh Gomez for it, and Josh got it. That was heartbreaking and brutal, and I wept. A couple of days later, they called and said, Do you want to play this other role?, so I flipped through the pilot going, Whos Lester? Oh, wonderful, theres one line. And then, people were like, You have to go and do it, so I said, Okay, of course. I shot the pilot and it was an insanely amazing experience with the cast, the improving, and just working on it. Then, it got picked up and slowly the role got bigger and bigger and, in the second season, I became a regular on the series.

MediaBlvd> For those who might not have seen the show yet, who is Lester and what is his relationship to Chuck Bartowski?

Vik> Lester is a guy who works at the Nerd Herd. I see him as an over-qualified, smug, socially immature, smart, covertly ambitious guy. His relationship to Chuck is that he feels there is an unrequited rivalry between him and Chuck. Some part of Lester envies Chuck so much that he hates him. What Lester wants is respect. He wants love. And, with Chuck, he sees how effortless it is for him. Thats the dynamic he has with Chuck.

MediaBlvd> Did you do any research at all into what its like to work at an electronics store like the Buy More? Have you gotten any feedback from the employees of those types of stores?

Vik> Yeah. I am an insane research guy. I was in Toronto when I got the call, so I went into the equivalent of Best Buy in Canada and interviewed a couple of those guys, who had no idea what the hell I was talking about and why I was interrupting their work day. I got a little insight into who these people are. Theyre in the service game, but they are incredibly intelligent. Theyre incredible wizards with computers. Theyre so advanced and so quick. In terms of feedback, its been, Yeah, I know a guy like Lester, and Im like, Oh, thats tragic for you. Ive even had to use the Geek Squad, and they think theyre the #1 fans of the show. Theyre finally represented.

MediaBlvd> How much fun do you have, playing this character? Do you get to do a lot of improv?

Vik> Yeah. The writers are so good that, even though I do a lot of improv, its just me riffing and wrapping myself around their ideas and their text. The cast is just this crackling, whip-smart group of people. Theyre the fasted cast in the game, so you cant help but start bouncing off these guys, in the middle of a scene, and try to crack each other up. If they dont call, Cut! right away, we are going to go on and on, back and forth, until someone loses it. Its a blast! There are days when Lesters actions make me nauseous, but thats all part of the fun of it.

MediaBlvd> Whats it been like to work with this ensemble of actors, specifically Zachary Levi?

Vik> Zach is a nightmare to work with. No. Hes an amazing guy! Hes an incredibly intelligent actor and person, and so generous. He is our leader, in that sense. Hes funny, and he can do the dramatic stuff. We talk, all the time, about acting. Being new to the city and the world of American television, hes been a great source of information and guidance. And, more than all of that, hes just phenomenally talented. To get to do scenes with him is the thing. All of the popularity of the show, and getting to do all the other stuff, is the cherry on the cake of literally just going to work with that ensemble and Zach. Thats everything. I feel very, very lucky. There are so many shows and, as an actor, you cast your net wide. You try to be discerning and you want to say no to things, but you think, Okay, if something comes, Ill probably take it. Thats why I feel so fortunate that the thing that has come to me, and has been picked up, is this show where, every week, I look through the script going, Oh, my God! This is what were doing? Not to say anything about all the other shows, but on a procedural drama, youre like, Okay, whats the crime this week? When I read the script for the pilot of Chuck, I was like, This is the show I want on!

MediaBlvd> What has been the most enjoyable thing about doing this series, and what has been the most difficult aspect of it?

Vik> Very little is difficult. The only pseudo-difficult thing about it is wanting to be as brilliant as everybody else. You want to be awesome, and thats difficult, but thats the pleasurable kind of work. And, the most enjoyable thing is just going in and being able to ping-pong off the cast. When we get to do scenes altogether, and theres three or four or five of us in a scene, were howling and laughing and barely making it through takes, one-upping each other.

MediaBlvd> Did you enjoy Lesters brief stint as the Buy More assistant manager? Were you surprised he didnt last longer?

Vik> No, it didnt surprise me at all. One of the things about Lester is that he fancies himself a rock star and a superstar. He believes he deserves to be top dog, in every situation. Youll see later in the season when, once again, hes given something that puts him in a position where hes granted that. Theyre like, Okay, you think youre this? Here you go. And, he just doesnt have the nervous system to back it up. He doesnt have the goods. Who he thinks he is and who he is, often come crashing into each other. My image for him, initially, was that hes like a kid who puts on a Stetson thats too big for him, and he struts forward and falls on his face, repeatedly, in front of everybody. So, when he was given this Assistant Managership, I thought, This is going to end badly.

MediaBlvd> How different is your character now from what you originally thought he would be, when you started the show, or is he pretty close to who you thought youd be playing?

Vik> When I first got the pilot, there was not a lot there. What happened was that McG, who directed the pilot, was very encouraging about me improving, so I improved my relationship with Chuck. I dont know where it came from and why I made that choice, I just instinctively went with a rivalry with Chuck, as opposed to being another one of his buddies. When I started thinking about why he would do the things that he did, it was because he wanted to be in that position. As far as Im concerned, my approach as an actor, is that the show is called Lester, so everything that happens is from his point of view. And, one of the things that was happening was that this guy named Chuck was loved by everybody, and is kind of the leader in the Buy More. I just started improving on those scenes, and they started writing to it and for it, so thats how its come about. There has been some surprises, only because the writers are so great, but I feel like Im playing the same guy that we began with, just with more development.

MediaBlvd> Since you have given so much thought to your character, is there anything youd like to see Lester go through or have to deal with, before the show is finished?

Love! I want him to feel love. Everything and anything. I love playing him. I love being on the show. Its always just about wanting more to do and more to go after. Every once in awhile, you get clues from the writers, as to what theyre thinking, and you wrap yourself around that, as far as what this character is going through or who he is. And then, sometimes, in the editing, those things get cut, so youre playing an energy in other scenes thats based on something thats not there anymore. There was one moment, in the Thanksgiving episode, that was cut where Lester says, You know, Ive never been to a Thanksgiving. My parents were always too busy jet-setting between Mumbai and Tel Aviv. And, they had to cut that part. Hes this half-Jewish, half-Indian character, and thats brilliant. Id love to see his family dynamic exposed and explored.

MediaBlvd> Whats it been like to have Tony Hale on the show? How has he been to work with?

Vik> Just average. It made no difference. No. A year and a half ago, I was sitting in my Toronto apartment, watching Arrested Development going, Oh, man, that guy is such a genius! With Chuck, suddenly Im working with those people that I watched and admired on TV, and Tony Hale was one of those people. Hes so funny and so quirky, and hes got such an incredible angle on things. He threw a grenade of energy into the Buy More gang. Its been amazing!

MediaBlvd> If you had your choice, are there types of roles or specific genres that youd like to work in, that you havent gotten the chance to yet?

Vik> Before I did Chuck, I shot this really gritty, deep, dark drama. It was a Canadian film that we shot in India, called Amal, and it took everything of me. I did this scene where I was bawling and I was on the ground, on the streets in India, and I got up and brushed the dust off. And then, two months later, I was on this crackling comedy, on a set at Warner Bros., in California. But, I love that! Its got a culture shock to it. What I really want is good and varied work, and Id love to work with the greats. I love playing Lester and, if in between playing Lester, I get to do something else too, thats the goal. Thats the dream.