Saying Goodbye to Chuck...with Adam Baldwin and Chris Fedak
Lovable. Dangerous. Funny. Adam Baldwin.
Adam Baldwin is geek royalty. His IMDB profile reads like the playlist on a Nerd Herd computer drive. A two-time (three if you’re counting the movie) Joss Whedon alum – “Angel” and “Firefly,” the voice of countless video games, comic book adaptation cartoons and a Transformer on the new weekly series Transformers Prime (Cartoon Network), and of course, Colonel John Casey on the NBC hit series “Chuck.”
Just appearing on these shows would be enough of a case for his status as an icon in the pop culture world of sci-fi / action / what have you, but it’s Baldwin’s portrayal of each character that makes fans take notice. He might be holding a sniper rifle, or a sawed off shotgun, but something in his demeanor, and his delivery of his character’s lines, gives him a lovable, and goofy quality.
Tonight marks the end of Adam’s 5-year run on “Chuck,” a show that was constantly on the bubble, but a fan favorite since first airing in 2007. He and “Chuck” co-creator/writer Chris Fedak recently chatted with the media about what fans can expect from both John Casey and the series finale.
Adam on resolving the character of John Casey...
Well, there’s some resolution there with his relationships that come into play which I found very heart warming and dangerous at the same time. So I appreciate it, but that was the thing about Casey. The biggest challenge for Chris and the writers to keep him dangerous while at the same time being lovable and I think they walked that fine line.
You know, I kept asking well how do I play this guy down the line yet still maintaining within the realm of this romantic comedy. Basically, it was this dangerous romantic comedy that Casey had to walk this line. So it was nice to get the, you know, the personal aspects of his life really highlighted in the last couple of seasons. So I really appreciate it. I thought that was fun.
Adam on what he’ll take away from the series as it comes to a close...
Yes. What I take away from Chuck first of all, a five-year run on any show these days is a true blessing and to have been able to go through it with people who are nice and creative and funny and hardworking and just lovable. I mean, we’re gypsies really in this business -- we’re circus players -- and we travel from town to town it seems like and we travel from family to family on different projects. So to land on one for five years has been a joy and, you know, it’s sad to see it go. But at least we have those five years together and we appreciated it while it was happening. So I just feel blessed and honored to have been a part of it.
Adam on whether he will miss Casey more than any other character he’s played…
Well, I think it’s fair to say that while I will miss Casey, he was a fully developed character that got five whole seasons and 91 episodes to arc through. So again I go back to the sense of accomplishment with him. So I would say that while I will miss it, I won’t miss it as much as other characters that have been short circuited where I, you know, would have liked to explored further. So again it’s kind of an apples and oranges comparison. So yes and no.
Adam on being recognized…Jayne Cobb (“Firefly”) or John Casey?
It depends on if I’m holding my sniper rifle or not. Yes, it’s both really. It’s a mixture of both. I think that they’re standalones and, you know, Firefly is what it is. It didn’t last nearly as long so there’s a great testament to -- I can say this because this is a chuckle -- I mean obviously clearly Fedak is a superior writer to Joss Whedon. The show lasted longer.
Chris Fedak reacts to the Whedon comment…
That can only get me into trouble. There’s no way I can even handle that. That’s radioactive.
Chris on writing the season finale and how it differs from the other finales over the years (the show was in constant flux, any year could have been the last…)
Well hopefully I’ve gotten good at it. I think that, you know, there are a couple of things. I think that when - all the finales that we’ve kind of built therefore, you know, they were all, you know, kind of, you know, they were all - we were hoping to come back. And so we built them in such a way - we wrote them in such a way that, you know, they implied a big new season coming next year or in a few weeks.
And this time we knew that this was going to be our final episode, you know. When NBC picked this up, they were very clear that this was going to be a 13-episode run and, you know, that this would be our final season and, you know. So we built, you know, when we started working on the finale when we were writing it, it was much more of a kind of like this will be the final chapter. This will be the final moment of this show and we need to resolve, you know, these stories that we’ve been working on for five seasons now. And that the finale isn’t so much a finale just for Season 5, it’s a finale to five seasons of the show. So it’s definitely different.
Adam on what he’s got going on after the show ends…
Well, we’re working on that. When you’re on a show for five years and then it ends, then you got to find another job so we’re in the process of looking and finding. It’s the beginning of pilot season. Hopefully we’ll land one of those. If not, there’s other things but it’s right now in the period we like to call being at liberty...or you know, I’ll never work again. The actor’s lament, I’ll never work in this town again.
Adam on what surprised him about John Casey over the course of the show…
Gee. That he has emotional ties to - I mean when Mckenna Melvin came on to play Alex, I think is when it really sparked with me. I kept bugging Chris, you know, is Casey ever going to meet his mom, you know, what’s his back story. And Chris can tell how they found Mckenna, I’m sure it’s just an audition process.
But there was a certain spark with her that really it rekindled my love for the character himself because I was looking forward to sitting down with her and just - she’s just very inspirational to me. She’s a smart young woman. My daughter -- I have a daughter who’s not much younger than she is -- and it just was a joy to play that and that plus my evolving relationship with Morgan was just a pleasure to work with him as well. They’re all so fun, but when you see the height discrepancy between me and them on camera, it’s just hilarious.
Adam on the atmosphere as they filmed the final scenes…
There were a lot of tears, a lot of emotion. I didn’t cry, but I watched a lot of other of the younger people cry being a cold-hearted bastard that I am. It was uplifting and bittersweet and yet it was a sense of accomplishment because we had against all odds persevered and been lucky enough and had the good graces of the network and the sponsors to keep us going, you know. And Chris can tell you the back story more than I can, but that was the sense on the set day in and day out was just that, you know, we made it five years when we didn’t even think we were going to make it past the first season let alone get picked up as a pilot. So while there were a lot of tears, they were tears of accomplishment and of a job well done.
Chris’s take on the final scenes…
I agree with everything that Adam just said and I would also say that the tears were a real disaster. There was people crying at every, you know, for everything. You know, people would type into a computer, it would be the last time they were typing into a computer and they would start crying. So it was an emotional shoot. Thankfully we had the rock that is Adam Baldwin who doesn’t have emotions and we were able to do some scenes without constant crying.
Chris and Adam on why the show was so popular…
Chris: I think that the Chuck show is about, you know, I think the Chuck show spoke to people. I think it’s about an every man who steps up to the plate and decide to be a hero. But, you know, he still remained, you know, a good guy. Still remained, you know, the Chuck Bartowski that people feel in love with in Season 1.
And I think the other thing about the show is that it’s about a family. It’s about a group of people who come together and they kind of flow in the family unit. And all of my favorite TV shows growing up were kind of about that. And I just can’t imagine a better family than this group from Casey to Chuck to Morgan to Sarah, to everyone involved in it. So I think that, you know, it was a lot of things for people to kind of lock onto and to kind of fall in love with.
Adam: Let me jump in on that. I just want to if I could button that. My manager said to me at the very beginning of the show when we were worried about being picked up and what not he says, “Look, the show’s called Chuck. If they fall in love with the guy who’s playing Chuck, you’ll continue. If they don’t, they won’t.” And they did. So that’s a big - I mean that’s one of the main reasons why Zach Levi is such a great guy is that he was able to capture that audience and make them fall in love with him hard enough to stick around. And so this is my I love Zachary Levi speech in case you didn’t know.
Chris on the finale and what to expect…
Well, I think that the finale is definitely an answer to a lot of the character stories that we’ve been building for five seasons. So thinking about the two characters that have changed the most, I mean outside of Chuck or Sarah and Casey. And so everyone in this finale is going to be forced to make a decision in regard to what their future is going to hold and, you know, what have they learned over the past five seasons of the show. And so that’s a, you know, these are - the finale answers those questions. It’s about, you know, where we’re going to finally land with these characters and, you know, what they’ve discovered.
I think that if you look at the finale if it’s two hours, the first hour is very much about Season Five and then the second hour is very much about the show as a whole.
So there you have it. The “Chuck” series finale will have everything fans have come to love about the show and more. It will be the send-off we’re all hoping for. Adam Baldwin may or may not ever be on your small screen again (chances are he’ll be somewhere, we promise), and these guys truly enjoyed their time on the series.
“Chuck” will air its 2-hour series finale on NBC tonight at 8PM.
Visit www.nbc.com/chuck for more.