L-R: Chuck's Scott Krinsky (as Jeff) and Vik Sahay (as Lester). Photo by Justin Lubin and copyright of NBC.
WHEN it comes to TV "odd couples," NBC's Chuck has its very own - Jeffrey "Jeff" Barnes and Lester Patel. The two best friends are employed at Buy More and members of the Nerd Herd, specializing in Apple products. While not "officially" spies like Chuck (Zachary Levi), the two often find themselves unknowingly caught up in their co-workers espionage capers. Outside of work, Lester is the lead singer and Jeff is the keyboardist, composer, rhythm section, sound technician and former manager of the two-man band Jeffster!
A couple of weeks ago, actors Vik Sahay and Scott Krinsky, who play Lester and Jeff, respectively, chatted with myself and other journalist about their work on Chuck and their self-proclaimed "odd couple" status. The following is an edited version of that Q & A. Enjoy!
You're both really great comedy guys, and that kind of brings me to a couple questions I have for you. First one - we don't really know what it's like making these shows, and I was curious about your shooting schedule and the time it takes for you guys on an episode, especially one where your characters have a lot to do.
SCOTT KRINSKY -The episodes are scheduled for 7 1/2 days per episode. So we usually work about on average about two days per episode.
VIK SEHAY - Sometimes it can be two or three days, especially if we have, as you mentioned, a heavy episode for our characters. And even then, because a lot of our stuff happens sometimes in one location we'll shoot five or six scenes in one day.
I know you've been to Comic Con and as Jeffster, but I was curious if either of you are science fiction fans?
SK - Yes, I love it. I love all the Sci-Fi movies. I grew up on Star Wars and Dune, and I also love movies like Jeff Bridges' Starman.
VS - For me, everything always boils down to acting and stories. So when people ask me about genres I tend not to say I like this or I don't like that. That said, the films that Scott has mentioned are just pure favorites. But, you know, I can find as much fault as well as great things in the Sci-Fi genre as I can with drama or comedy. So for me it always boils down to the acting; I watch the acting and that's where my heart lies.
Going back to that first question a little bit. In some ways you guys have the best of all worlds. You've got steady jobs, steady paychecks, and you only work two days or so an episode. Obviously you can’t schedule a long movie in-between. I was wondering what you do with your other days?
VS - You're right, you're right. We can't do long movies or other television series, obviously, but the rest of the time for me is spent creating projects. I’m working on a couple of independent films. I myself am not a writer, but I'm working with writers and we’re in development, so that's going on. I box as well, so I do a lot of that. I read novels constantly, too. I just finished Jonathan Franzen's latest novel Freedom which is amazing by the way, and now I’m reading Philip Roth's latest Nemesis. So that's kind of how I spend my time.
I should mention, too, that while we my only shoot for two days an episode, we’re often on hold for the other days. Also, sometimes we don't get to a certain scene because the day goes long, which means we're on call for the next day and have to go back in. So it's not like we’re walking around with all kinds of immense amounts of free time, although it might seem like that. But the rest of the time for me is, again, spent working out, creating my own projects and reading a lot. But yes, you're right, it's a pretty fortunate life.
SK -I love doing stand-up and alternative comedy shows. Sometimes what I do isn't exactly stand-up but more like storytelling nights. And I like to surf, too, and do some yoga. I go to a lot of movies and read, but, like Vik said, sometimes the schedule changes and things come up during production. So it's not like you can leave town or anything. So you kind of always feel like you're working even when you're not working because something could come up tomorrow and you have to go in to work. A lot of things can come up last minute. But it is great to have time off sometimes, and I said, I love going to movies. I just saw the latest Woody Allen film, Let Me In, which is the remake of the vampire thriller from Sweden. So yes, we do sort of have the best of both worlds right now and I feel really fortunate.
Vik, you mentioned you box; do you do it competitively or just for fun?
VS - Well, I would never say that I box competitively, but I box more than you would just normally for a workout. I do spar and stuff like that which I'm not exactly allowed to do during the season when we’re filming because of insurance purposes.
But, you know, to expand on that a little bit, and this might sound a little wonky, but I've been boxing for a long time now, and I also played tennis for a long time, and I've kind of always found a great parallel or kindred spiritness between boxing, tennis, and acting. By that I mean there’s kind of a solo preparation that goes into all of these things. There’s the roadwork/the research, the training of the body and prepping of the script. From there, you kind of come up with a game plan to hook your body and mind up as best you can. You trust yourself. You come up with where you want to go to and you try to plan for the unknown. And then when the bell rings or the first ball is served or the director calls, "Action," you kind of let go of all the work and you start operating on instinct and you're receiving, you know, punches or a tennis ball or another actors' line and you're playing in the moment.
So when I'm boxing I kind of feel very connected to my actor, which is why I feel like it's a great thing to do when I'm not shooting.
Chuck has had a ton of really good guest stars including recently Robert Englund. I'm just curious, what it was like having him around on set and working with him? Also, has there been particular favorite actor of yours either to work with or just because they're somebody you've sort of admired or like their work and got the chance to meet them?
SK - We didn't really get to work with Robert Englund, but we did get to meet him briefly. It's really exciting to have people like him on-set, especially as I grew up watching the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. So it's always a real thrill and great to have people like that who want to come be on our show. Again, though, sometimes we don't always get to work with all these wonderful guest stars because they're part of the spy plot.
VS - When we met Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger, it was amazing to see such a gentle being who portrayed that kind of a character. For me, in terms of favorites it comes down to acting more than celebrity. When you have actors like Linda Hamilton and Timothy Dalton, and going back the John Larroquette’s and people like that, that's when my heartbeat quickens because they've done some great work as actors. So that's really where the thrill is for me.
Obviously you guys have been doing Chuck for four years now. You started out kind of just as the background characters and now you’re involved in the main plot and doing all these things, including spy missions like we recently saw. What has it been like for you guys taking that journey with these characters, especially when they first told you that you were going to be a band. You must be a little surprised with how it's all turned out.
VS - It has been an absolute thrill ride and an interesting exploration of these two characters for me, personally. We've kind of emerged through this band and as this twosome as like the "odd couple," and I guess the word "odd" can be applied in many different ways to us. But in my mind we’re kind of following a long line of mismatched duos in entertainment, from Neil Simon's The Odd Couple to Cheech and Chong to Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Scott likes to say we're [Laverne and Shirley's] Lenny and Squiggy, though I’m not especially well-versed with that. But, yes, Mork and Mindy, Batman and Robin, Beauty and the Beast. Please forgive, though, my perhaps romanticized theatrical background heart -- and I've not even said this ever to Scott -- but I really see our characters as Vladimir and Estragon from Waiting for Godot.
I feel that, yes, we've become a bigger part of the show, but at the same time our characters kind of exist in their own void, in their own world, their own show, if you will. And it just feels like they’re occupying time while waiting for something to save them, for some kind of divine intervention. And to pass the time in that kind of existential void, I feel like they attach themselves to the minutia of their lives with life and death and passion and panache.
And to build a bridge to the Halloween episode -- and I'm not sure really how much I should say here -- but suffice it to say that Jeff and Lester are asked to take care of a certain aspect of Halloween for the store. They put everything they have into it, and the actor in me kind of always asks, "Why? Why do we care? Why are we doing this? What's our motivation? Are we afraid of being fired? Not really. Do we care about the store? Not really? Are we trying to impress somebody?"
Maybe Lester has that in mind. However, the real answer seems to always be just because it takes up their day. In the same way that Vladimir and Estragon play word games and hat games while waiting for Godot, so too does it feel like our Chuck characters are occupying their time. It's almost like we've created a bubble around ourselves. In a previous question we were asked about guest-stars and we said we don't interact much. In fact, we have our own circle of a world with our own tree that is perhaps growing leaves like in Godot.
And so it's been kind of an amazing journey in terms of creating this separate world for Lester and Jeff, for me anyway. I’ve silenced everybody into tears, haven't I? I apologize for that diatribe, but that's how I see these two characters, as kind of Vladimir and Estragon waiting for something.
If you guys ever got a spinoff series of your own, what would you want it to be about?
SK - I always thought it would be really interesting to take our characters and their work at Buy More and make it like a modern day telling of The Odd Couple with Jeff and Lester because they are so different, such opposites. I think it would be a lot of fun seeing them living together as roommates and seeing what sort of keeps them together along with their job pursuits. There's a lot of comedy to be mined out of that. And I think it would be a lot of fun to sort of...
VS -Maybe, Scotty, it could be like The Odd Couple but on the road doing gigs as Jeffster!
SK - Yes, that could be that could be great, too.
VS - The Odd Couple only in a van doing these tours. I don't know who would be Felix, though? Are either of us particularly that organized? I don't know. We'd have to find different opposites, of which there are many.
We've seen a bit of Jeff's past in "Chuck versus Tom Sawyer." Vik, what are your thoughts on your character of Lester outside of Buy More and maybe his family life, his history?
VS -Well, I have a huge notebook filled with his history and his family life, much of which I don't want to talk too much about. I will say that I think Lester comes from a very well-to -do family that were jetsetters and traveled the world. The influence on him was one of neglect and trying to win love and trying to prove himself. I really see him as a guy whose insides are broken and there’s a pursuit of trying to prove himself to his mother. Hence, he goes about things in an overly heavy handed way. Lester tries too hard. He pushes too hard. If only he would kind of just settle down a bit, then maybe you could see that he's actually got a very delicate inside, a very soft or breakable heart. And that's where I see his kind of snarkiness, jackassidness, nastiness and anger coming from - all that is part of a shell that's covering a place in him that’s very, very wounded.
I actually find it kind of exhausting to play him in a true sense because he's got this engine of rage that I have to "turn on" before I come into work and build up and then keep going for however long we’re shooting. Sometimes it's days in a row and an anger that I myself don't actually have. So that's where I think he's coming from. You know, without getting into too many of the specifics in my notebook - I think that he's got an incident or a few incidents in his past where there was a void or something missed in his upbringing. And he's kind of trying to scream at the world and say, "Look at me, look at me," you know? He's almost raging now at a world that he sees as hating him.
As noted above, photo by Justin Lubin and copyright of NBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Vik Sahay sounds very very deep. And boxing, too! He's going to have a stellar career, you can feel it.
Posted by: Jim | 11/07/2010 at 08:07 PM