EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Sarah Lancaster

ChuckTV.net recently had the opportunity to talk with Sarah Lancaster, aka Ellie Bartowski, about being the big sister, dating Captain Awesome, and helping Agent Walker find her inner girly-girl. Read on for the dish from the delightful Sarah Lancaster, exclusively here on ChuckTV.net.

CTV: I’m so excited that we get to talk to you. You’re our first interview.
SL: I’m very excited to do it. I was actually looking at the website a few days ago, I hadn’t seen it before. It’s really cool.

CTV: Thank you. Congratulations on the full season pick up!
SL: Oh gosh, we’re so excited! We’re thrilled! We were on set this week and they came down and made the announcement. It’s kind of bittersweet in a way, because we still have to shut down production with everything that’s going on with the Writer’s Guild, but we’re really, really thrilled to hopefully go back to work as soon as they resolve stuff.

CTV: So how do you get from Kansas to network television?
SL: Click your heels. (laughs)

CTV: Oh no! You did not just do that!
SL: I know, I fell into the trap! (laughs) No, my father’s job transferred him to Orange County when I was in grade school.

CTV: So you grew up around the business?
SL: Well, kind of. In Kansas it seemed so far away, but once we got to Orange County all of a sudden it becomes a possibility, you know? So I asked my parents if I could get headshots and find an agent and all that jazz and my mom started driving me up to L.A. for auditions and now here I am.

CTV: Did you know from an early age that you wanted to act?
SL: Well, I was a shy kid, I never did theater or anything like that, I was just painfully shy. But I loved watching movies and I loved watching TV. My brother wasn’t born until I was 9, so my early childhood was spent alone. I was a pretty solitary kid, so TV and movies were a big part of passing the time for me. I hadn’t really thought about [acting] until I got to California, then it just seemed like that might be a possibility. My parents were shocked because I was so painfully shy, they just couldn’t imagine how I would be able to walk into a room and audition for someone.

CTV: It’s different, though, when you’re up there saying someone else’s words.
SL: Yeah, definitely. Commercials didn’t take at all. I’m probably, like, the worst commercial auditioner ever! (laughs) I never booked a commercial. But give me a script with someone else’s words, and it’s fine, because it’s not me. No one’s judging what I have to say.

CTV: One of the things I like most about the show is the relationship between Chuck and Ellie. It’s rare to see siblings on TV who genuinely care about each other. You and Zac have a really great rapport in your scenes.
SL: It’s so great working with Zac. When I read for the role, Zac was in the room to read with me and we connected right away. He made me laugh and relax and we just got along really well. It’s weird but it actually feels like we’re brother & sister. I don’t get to see my baby brother very often, so it’s cool to have a fake brother on set. (laughs) But, yeah, Ellie and Chuck have had to kind of rely on each other for a long time, with their parents both gone. They are each other’s support.

CTV: It was interesting to hear, back in the “Mother’s Day” episode, more about the whereabouts of their parents. There is some speculation online that Momma Bartowski didn’t “leave”, she had to go “on a mission.”
SL: That would be really cool! I don’t know what that whole backstory is yet, I hope we get to explore it more this season. It would be awesome if spying turned out to be kind of the family business.

CTV: Do you think Chuck will ever move out?
SL: I hope not! I like having him there, and I think it’s important as far as the tension Chuck has between his two lives. If he moves out, it would be so much easier to keep everything a secret and remove a lot of that turmoil Chuck has about trying to balance the two.

CTV: The Ellie/Captain Awesome relationship…well, no, I should call him Devon. Ellie never calls him Captain Awesome, does she? She calls him Devon.
SL: Yeah, she does! (laughs) It’s “Devon”. Ellie and Devon, yes, the relationship is just moving right along and he’s just as perfect as he can be.

CTV: How hard is it to act opposite Ryan McPartlin when they keep putting him in, like, nothing? No clothes?
SL: I know! (laughs) You know, I’m almost immune to it now, which is kind of shocking because Ryan is really good-looking. Well, you’ve seen the show. But now it’s kind of like, oh yeah, that’s Ryan’s wardrobe. He’s always in shorts or naked or with leaves covering his bits. It’s kind of just another day at the office, you know. He’s a good sport about it, he really is.

CTV: It’s kind of odd they’re putting the guy in those outfits.
SL: Yeah, I know, for a while I was kind of smug, you know, lounging around in my scrubs all the time and not worrying about what I had to wear. I made some comment about that and one of the writers said, “Oh, I guess you haven’t read the Halloween episode yet.” Then I was like, “ACK!” So, that was my payback for being comfortable.

CTV: Speaking of scrubs, we got to see Dr. Ellie in action a couple of episodes ago, in “Chuck vs. the Truth”, which was awesome. Will we see more of that?
SL: I hope so, I thought that was fun, letting her show what she’s made of like that.

CTV: I have to ask you about working with Adam Baldwin.
SL: Oh gosh, he’s so great! He brings so much to his character. I just love watching him work. He can make what’s on the page so different than what you’d expect, it’s just awesome.

CTV: So do you guys do a lot of improv?
SL: Yes, we do. In fact, McG really encourages it. I was intimidated at first, going in there with Zac and Joshua and Adam who are so funny and quick, but eventually you start to get the hang of it. It’s fun to watch the episodes when they air and see what they left in.

CTV: Yeah, I guess it’s a surprise to you guys when you watch the final project, even though you were there when it was made.
SL: Yeah, and it’s been a lot of fun sort of working on that skill. You know, I’d been doing all these dramas, I’d just finished [‘What About Brian’], so it’s been awesome to work on a lighter show, something that is totally different.

CTV: How was the transition from ‘Brian’ and its drama to ‘Chuck’ and its “dramedy”?
SL: Oh, it was great. I’d been looking for something different and this script just had everything I was looking for. It wasn’t like anything I’d read before and I was so excited about working on the show. It’s an awesome job.

CTV: Awesome?
SL: (laughs) I know! We’re all hyper-aware of that word now. Everything on set is “awesome”.

CTV: Let’s talk about the Ellie/Morgan relationship. What in the world is going on there?
SL: With Morgan? Oh, I think he has a little crush on Ellie.

CTV: More than a crush, I’d say! I was watching the Thanksgiving episode and how Anna reacted to Ellie. What was Ellie thinking about Anna? How did you “act” those scenes?
SL: Um, confused! I mean, for one thing Ellie was confused about Anna. You know, Morgan has a girlfriend? What? And then for her to act like that towards Ellie, I think Ellie was just confused by the whole thing. She has Awesome, why would Anna think she’d dump him and go after Morgan? I love working with Joshua, though. He’s so funny.

CTV: We haven’t really seen much interaction between Ellie and Sarah (the character).
SL: Yeah, that’s a shame, huh? I think Ellie should sort of take Sarah under her wing, take her out for a girls’ night or a spa day or something. I think Sarah is so involved with the CIA, you know, work is her whole life, that she never really learned how to be a girl. She doesn’t really have girlfriends that she can hang out with. I think Ellie could help her with that.

CTV: Good point. To be a girly-girl myself for a minute, you can kind of see that in their wardrobes: Ellie’s is kind of bohemian and free-flowing, while Sarah’s is all structured and no-frills.
SL: You’re right. And you know, we’re all a little bit like our characters, and Yvonne is like Sarah in that way. We were on set early on and she kept looking at my feet, then finally she started asking me about where I went to get a pedicure, and how long does a pedicure last, and what all was involved. It turned out, she’d never had a pedicure! You know, she comes from Australia and she’s this adventuress, she’s just not into the girly stuff. I hooked her up, though. She knows all about that stuff now. (laughs)

CTV: So what’s next for Ellie? If you were writing for her, what would you have her do?
SL: Oh, good question. I’d like to learn more about their parents and what happened there, but, you know, the writers are so good at coming up with stuff that we could never think of, I think I’ll leave it to them.

CTV: I guess those are all the questions I have for now. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. It’s been just delightful to visit with you.
SL: Oh, my pleasure. I look forward to visiting the site again and seeing what’s going on over there.