Chuck vs. the Nacho Sampler Guest Fahim Anwar Speaks!

Charles Bartowski Italia recentlysnagged an exclusive interview with Fahim Anwar, the asset Chuck burns in “Chuck vs. the Nacho Sampler”. The webmaster there translated the interview into English for us to post. Enjoy!

1) How would you define your adventure in Chuck?

A great learning experience and crash course in everything you could possibly do in a TV show. It was really ridiculous how big of a role they gave me having no acting experience prior. When you go in to audition for things, you read sides which are very small scenes with maybe one or two pages of dialogue. there was really no indication the role would be this intensive. Especially with a show like Chuck which blends so many genres and elements. On my one episode I did significant chunks of drama, comedy and action. Everything was really so new to me so every day was a thrill. I had a nice trailer to hang out in between takes and setups but rarely used it because I would just linger around set and watch. The assistant director would shout to someone to come find me and I’d say “right behind you”, then hop into the scene. It was all too interesting to miss from my trailer.

2) How was it working with the cast?

Working with the cast was great. My first day walking onto the Warner Bros. lot I felt like the new kid in the cafeteria at lunch time but everyone was so nice and accommodating that feeling didn’t last long. There is not a bad apple in the bunch.Zac, Yvonne, Adam, Josh, all of them are super nice and professional. I actually already knew Scott Krinsky before doing Chuck because we had done standup together around LA. He was the first friendly/familiar face I saw on set my first day.

3) Even if you have been there shortly, can you tell us how is the relationship between the actors in the cast?

The cast gets along great. You can tell they’ve really hit their stride. Everything moves so smoothly and they’re so comfortable with each other. You spend that much time with people and it’s bound to happen. They can get pretty silly between takes.

4) In an interview you said that many of your action scenes were played by a stuntman. Which one have you played?

The way it worked is they would shoot me doing the fight scenes a couple times, then they’d shoot my stunt double doing the fight scenes a couple times. The final product is a combination of them cutting between me and my stunt double. So it’s safe to assume all the ridiculously crazy kicks are my stunt double.

5) In the episode Yvonne Strahovski is pravtically ‘on’ you, without a shirt. How was it?

It’s so funny, people ask that all the time. I guess I’m the envy of a bunch of Chuck fans out there but it wasn’t this “Ohhhh man!!! It was the greatest thing in the world!!!” experience at all. Yvonne is a beautiful woman, this is a given but we’re doing a scene. The way it looks and feels on film is quite different than how it is in the room. The other thing is it’s hard to take pleasure from kissing someone when you know they’re only doing so because it’s what’s written on paper. It’s like I’m kiss raping someone. Nothing arousing about that. Funny tidbit about the bedroom scene, though: when Yvonne came into the room, she had onions looped around her hoop earrings to have me think she reeked of terrible body odor. She found this quite amusing.

6) Would you like come back on the set of Chuck? If it happened, would you still play Manoosh or someone else?

I had so much fun there’s absolutely no reason why I wouldn’t want to come back, but that’s not really my call. I’m so happy for what’s already been. Any future involvement with Chuck would just be icing on the cake. I’m quite grateful as is.

7) Have you some current project?

I’m a standup comedian so I’m always doing that. Mostly around LA and traveling to American universities to do shows on occasion. I’m a cast member on this MTV hidden camera show called “Disaster Date.” Not sure it’s playing in Italy. I just shot a very small role on “Californication” starring David Duchovony. I’ll be doing standup on Comedy Central – which airs here in America – sometime in July. Also, I’m always making comedy shorts on You Tube. I’d be happy if you watched them.

8 ) Please, greet your Italian fans.

Ciao ventilatori Italiani! (I used Yahoo! babel fish to translate from English. Hopefully it worked!)

Thanks again to Charles Bartowski Italia for sharing!