TV Guide Chats with Vik Sahay

TV Guide recently sat down with Chuck‘s Vik Sahay, the man behind Buy More’s short-lived assistant manager, Lester. Check out what Vik has to say about the “very special” Thanksgiving episode, what’s coming up for Lester, and the part Vik originally auditioned for:

On NBC’s Chuck (Mondays at 8 pm/ET), the land of “BuyMoria” is inhabited by several colorful denizens, creatures of all manner of maturity, intelligence and resolve. Vik Sahay — who, interestingly, originally went after the role of Chuck’s BFF, Morgan — shares with us here a peek inside Lester’s world. Plus: What’s this about a “very special” Thanksgiving episode of the action-comedy?!

TVGuide.com: What’s it like working there at the Buy More set?
Vik Sahay: Honestly, to me, the fact that somebody built and put that thing together is pretty amazing. But the best part is that I get to work with the actors I do on that set. It’s often group scenes, you’re where the comedy of the show basically comes from, and you bounce off some of, I think, the hottest actors going right now.

TVGuide.com: Plus you get to surf the ‘Net and check your email between takes.
Sahay: Yeah, that’s almost the most important thing.

TVGuide.com: Did you enjoy Lester’s brief stint as assistant manager?
Sahay: It was a nightmare, for both me and Lester. [Laughs] You’ve got poor Lester fancying himself a rock star, and yet, ultimately, he doesn’t have the nervous system to back it up. He got what he wished for and it crumbled badly.

TVGuide.com: How is Tony Hale as the new boss?
Sahay: I’m a Canadian kid, and literally a year and a half ago I was sitting in Toronto watching Arrested Development, going, “That guy’s a genius.” And now suddenly I’m face-to-face with the guy. To be on the set with Tony Hale is the pinnacle.

TVGuide.com: Do you think Lester has any friends outside of the Buy More crew?
Sahay: I think he has very few. He’s a guy whose smugness and social awkwardness and social immaturity finds him wanting to be admired and loved so much that he’s very, very off-putting. In Jeff he has found someone who has a kind of kinship with. They’re social misfits who fit together in a way.

TVGuide.com: When they spied Chuck on his first date with Jill, were they out on an offsite install or out cruising to pick up chicks?
Sahay: I think they were at some low-end dive trying to pick up chicks and were on their way home because yet again it did not work out. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Next week, Lester, Jeff and Morgan are put in charge of guarding the store the night before “Black Friday.” Does the evening go without incident?
Sahay: It’s a very, very sweet episode, actually. It goes without incident in the broader sense, but it goes with huge incident in the interior world of the characters. You see what their expectations and viewpoints on life are, really, how they were raised…..

TVGuide.com: You’re making it sound like an ABC Afterschool Special. “On a very special episode of Chuck….”
Sahay: Well, that’s how I’m going to sell it! [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Who do you wish you got to work with more — Zachary Levi or Yvonne Strahovski?
Sahay: What the hell kind of question is that? Obviously Yvonne!

TVGuide.com: I asked her the same question a few weeks ago, and she wishes she got to work with the Buy More crew.
Sahay: Is that what she said?

TVGuide.com: She had a semi-fond recollection of when Lester asked Sarah out on a date.
Sahay: We had a fun time. She should get to do more comedic scenes, because she’s a funny, funny girl. An amazing actor. And Zach, he’s the man. That guy can do anything.

TVGuide.com: If somebody wanted to see the complete opposite of Lester, which other role of yours should they check out?
Sahay: Oh, that’s a really good question…. I would say to check out a movie that just got released in Canada, called Amal. That’s a deep, dark, brooding character. [Sahay plays the spoiled and very unhappy son of a wealthy man who leaves his fortune to a rickshaw driver.]

TVGuide.com: Before we go, one final tease about what’s ahead for Lester.
Sahay: We’re going to have situations where you again see Lester be granted status and a spotlight, and then see how he handles it. He’s being confronted with himself more and more. It’s a burning, slow reveal of who this guy is and how he handles himself in circumstances he thinks he wants to be in.