The hot new NBC action comedy Chuck stars plenty of funny guys, from Zachary Levi to Josh Gomez to Adam Baldwin. But for some viewers, the highlight is the sexy, butt-kicking CIA agent Sarah Walker, played by Australian Yvonne Strahovski. The statuesque blonde is excellent at hiding her secrets from Chuck, the hapless nerd who suddenly becomes a valuable asset to the government when all its secrets are downloaded into his brain.
While at a Chuck premiere party held in Las Vegas, BuddyTV had the opportunity to sit down with Yvonne and talk about how she got the role on Chuck, how she handles an American accent, and what she thinks of her character’s relationship with Chuck. Below you will find a transcript as well as the mp3 audio file of the interview.
Hi, this is David Niu from BuddyTV.com, we’re here with Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck at PURE in Las Vegas. Yvonne, thanks for taking time to talk with all your fans here at Buddy TV.
Thank you.
OK, so first of all this is your first big American role. Can you tell us how that happened, how that came about?
Well, I put down an audition tape from Sydney, and I sent it out here among a few other auditions that I’d done. I came here just and bought a plane ticket for three months just to try out, and it was virtually on day three when I got the phone call to say, “We’re gonna have a meeting with you, come in, we like your work.” And then by the end of the week I had the job.
Wow, that’s very quick.
Yes.
And there’s a lot of action scenes. Do you do those yourself, and do you enjoy doing those?
Yeah, I do them all myself and I love doing them, it’s one of my favorite parts of the job. We do fight scenes pretty much every episode, and we run them with the stunt coordinator and the fight coordinator beforehand, and we go over them before we shoot them. So they’re awesome, I love them.
Great. And then, so I take it that you’re Polish, but you grew up in Australia. And now you’re on an American show, but the accent is flawless. Do you have to work on that, or does it come very naturally for you?
Well at the moment, it’s coming pretty naturally, because I’ve been here for what, almost eight months now. And I’m surrounded by it a lot, so it’s not hard for me to speak like that. Maybe initially when I was shooting the pilot I had to concentrate a little bit more, but now it’s fine.
And what was your first reaction when you’re reading the script, and you found out your character would be working undercover at Wienerlicious?
You know, I didn’t know that, I never read that. Was just sprung on me, so just have to accept it, really.
OK, and then your character and Chuck have an interesting relationship. Where do you see that evolving over the course of the season?
Well, it’s an interesting dynamic because they have to have a very professional working relationship, because Sarah is assigned to protect Chuck from the secrets in his head. But ultimately they do have a little attraction for each other, so I’m not sure how long they can keep that under the belt. But we’ll have to leave it up to the writers to see where they go with that, and how far they go.
OK, so now we’re gonna do some quick thoughts with Yvonne. Alright, favorite table game?
Favorite table game, as in gambling? OK, I’ve never gambled in my life. Solitaire on the computer.
That’s a good place to start. How about favorite drink?
At the moment, vodka Red Bull.
Very nice. Favorite actor?
Meryl Streep.
Aside from Chuck, what is your favorite new fall TV show coming out?
Oh man, I don’t know, I have no idea. There’s so many to choose from and I haven’t seen all the pilots, so I don’t know, I have to pass on that question.
OK, last one. Gambling, seeing a Celine Dion concert, or seeing the Thunder from Down Under?
I’d have to go with Thunder Down Under. Go with the Aussies.
Right, great. Well thank you for your time, on behalf of all your fans at BuddyTV. And we look forward to the success of Chuck, and your continued personal success in your career.
Thank you very much.
-Interview conducted by David Niu, BuddyTV Editor-in-Chief
(Images courtesy of David Niu)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
