CHUCK -- Season:5 -- Pictured: Joshua Gomez as Morgan Grimes -- Photo by: Mitchell Haaseth
Chuck is back (Fridays, 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, NBC) and that should make diehard fans of the action-comedy happy. That way, the writers can tie up all the loose ends for the final season. And that’s why Joshua Gomez, who stars as Chuck’s best bud Morgan Grimes on the show, isn’t sad about this being the last year of the program.
“We’re just really thankful and lucky to have this season to kind of deliver to the fans,” he acknowledges. “So many shows get yanked off the roster and you’re not prepared for that. Although Chuck every year was kind of prepared for that. Every season we could have tweaked the season finale and made it the finale. We were always on the bubble anyway.”
No question about that. The show’s ratings have hovered right around 5-million viewers each week. That may not be impressive enough for the network, but those viewers are devoted to Chuck.
This season, Gomez tells EntertainmentHeartbeat.com, will be wild…and he’ll be in the thick of the action now that he’s the new intersect. So far, all the physical demands have been fun for him, though he admits there have been times when his body took a beating.
“One scene can be many takes and you have to do it over and over and over again and takes three to four hours to make,” he stresses. “Oh dear Lord, the Icy Hot was out, but I’m not in too bad of shape. I like to jog and run, so it wasn’t so bad.”
Gomez does admit that the toughest element to shooting the action scenes is combining his acting with some pretty fancy footwork.
“It’s demanding because being an actor I’ve never really done actiony things,” he explains. “It’s challenging to jump in this arena where you’re memorizing lines and you’re memorizing steps like a dancer, but to also remain in character. You can’t just say, ‘One, two, three, kick, karate kick! OK, four, five, six, judo chop.’ So, the back and forth, mental and physical, I give so much credit to action actors.”
The character of Morgan has developed considerably over the past four seasons of Chuck, but fans still expect Gomez to be a bit of a geek like Morgan in real life. That sort of confusion doesn’t both the actor at all. He admits that prior to starting his own career, it wasn’t that easy separating actors from their roles.
“That happens a lot,” Gomez acknowledges. “It happened when I was younger when I didn’t know better. I’m sure Richard Dean Anderson wasn’t really MacGyver. If I would have met him as a kid I would have been like, ‘Come on. Don’t be a bum, dude. Here’s some gum, here’s some paper clips…make me a bomb.’ I get it. It’s understandable.”
Still, no matter how wacky Morgan gets, the actor loves the character.
“I think he’s a pretty cool guy and in all honesty the geekiness between Morgan and me – I’m nowhere near as outgoing or impetuous – but I love Star Wars probably just as much as Morgan does and I dig videogames. We definitely have that in common,” he agrees, then adds, “Fans can believe whatever they want. I’m so thankful to have this job and to be able to play this character so it’s all good with me.”