Adam Baldwin: “I’m No Leonardo Dicaprio”

The New York Times has a profile of Adam Baldwin in which he talks about the process of learning to act and coming into his own, plus what he brought to the role of Casey:

“I did learn a lot of technical stuff, how to be on a set, where to stand, how to do a fight scene, things like that,” he said during a recent interview in a high-end Santa Monica coffee shop, one of those mad-scientist places where they grind the coffee in front of you and serve it in vacuum-sealed flasks on a silver tray. “But then I had to learn how to act. And that just takes some people longer than others. I’m no Leonardo DiCaprio.”

He can say this now that he’s 46, aware of his limitations, proud of the niche he has found. In “Chuck” he plays no-nonsense secret agent John Casey, protecting loose-limbed amateur Chuck Bartkowski (played by Zachary Levi), a computer nerd who has accidentally had the contents of a super-secret government computer downloaded into his brain. But even before “Chuck,” Mr. Baldwin had received sterling reviews and a growing cult following for playing similarly grumpy characters on “The X-Files” and “Firefly.”

“The guy does more with a grunt than most actors could do with a monologue,” said Josh Schwartz, the executive producer of “Chuck.” The extent of Mr. Baldwin’s built-in fan base became apparent to Mr. Schwartz only when the “Chuck” cast appeared at last summer’s Comic-Con International, and “4,000 people went insane whenever Adam said anything.”

(read the entire interview…)