Chuck, Chipmunks et Zach

Zachary Levi goes from 'Chuck' to 'Chipmunks' and back

It’s been a busy time lately for Zachary Levi. He hosted NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller with 30 Rock’s Jane Krakowski last week, Levi stars in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (in theaters Dec. 23), and his popular NBC show Chuck returns for a third season starting Jan. 10. “I’m really blessed, man,” Levi says. I talked with Levi for a feature in this weekend’s issue, but read below for more on his interacting with musical chipmunks and what’s in store for Chuck Bartowski in Chuck’s third year. Plus, check out an exclusive clip from the movie as well as a clip after the jump featuring Dave Seville’s cousin Toby, who takes care of Alvin, Simon and Theodore in the new film.

What can you tell me about Toby Seville?
The main guy from the original, Jason Lee, is still in the movie, but he bookends it – he’s in the beginning and the end. The story goes that he’s unable to care for the Chipmunks at this particular time, something gets in the way of that, so he needs someone to come in and take care of the Chipmunks. Toby steps in to do that, although he doesn’t really take care of the Chipmunks so much as the Chipmunks are taking care of him and themselves. He’s a video game slacker – nice guy, but doesn’t really have it all together. He and the Chipmunks learn valuable life lessons about growing up and whatnot. I literally started shooting the same day I wrapped Chuck: I wrapped at 5 in the morning, and later that day around noon was my call for Chipmunks. That was a really weird transition – not really having time to decompress from one character, and then jumping into a next with a whole new cast and crew.

How was it working with computer-generated chipmunks?
You rehearse with stuffed animals, and then there’s nothing there: You’re just looking into space. It was certainly a challenge, one that I wanted to take on. There’s so many more CG-driven films nowadays, and we didn’t do a lot of green screen but we certainly had the whole looking-at-thin-air thing, and some people would look at tennis balls depending on whatever the job would be. It was weird but cool at the same time.

Chuck was on the bubble for a while on if it was going to return, but thanks to fans and the media, it did. But how much were you sweating it?
I’ve always had faith that whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen. It’s all in God’s hands, and He knows better than I do. If we’re gonna have a third season, cool. If we don’t, cool. It’s tough having to say goodbye to your family – these guys really are my family, this cast and crew. I spend far more time with them than I do my own real family and friends. [Laughs]

What can you tell us about the new season of Chuck?
This season’s really about revelations. It’s about everyone learning a little bit of something — the audience especially is going to learn a lot, characters on the show are going to learn a lot, and Chuck learns a lot. It’s Chuck’s journey as a spy and as a superhero, and you’re going to see a lot of change and growth in Chuck and how he handles this new world and how he handles the new Intersect. In the second season, Chuck to a place where he was a part of the kicking bad guy butt scenario, and now you’ll see him do more of that in this season as well as grow in his confidence as a spy and his abilities, good and bad, and about how he handles his family and friends and the webs that are being spun in trying to still keep all these secrets suppressed.

You had been cast as the lead in Young Frankenstein on Broadway but had to turn it down because of Chuck. Do you think we’ll be able to see you sing on the show anytime soon?
[Laughs] We’ve all joked about the musical episode because everybody would have fun doing it, but I don’t know. I think that might be a point of shark jumping for us, at least at this point. Maybe like if we go eight seasons and they’re running out of ideas on what to do, we could do the musical episode. I’d love to do it, it’d be so much fun, but tonally for the show it’s tough to pull that off and hold dignity intact. Shows like Buffy or Scrubs can do it and they both have, and yet still they only did it later on in the series. I don’t think it can work on Chuck so much.