Morgan Grimes has to be one of the coolest characters on television, he manages a group of misfits at The Buy More and he gets to be a super spy with his best friend Chuck Bartowski. The final season of the show finds Morgan getting some super powers of his own and learning how to deal with it. Chuck’s final season has been on fire and we’re coming up to the 2 hour series finale. A few weeks ago Morgan Grimes himself – Joshua Gomez held court with a bunch of us bloggers. Here are some choice moments from the call.
After playing the role for 5 seasons he describes Morgan. “Morgan was kind of a free spirit, and you know, a little bit impetuous, and kind of the captain of his own ship.”
He continues – “I think he’s still obviously a big part of that, but he’s obviously grown up and matured a ton, so he’s a little – I’ve been more focused now and but still, you know, kind of, you know, fun loving and he’s very loyal, and a really good best friend, and someone to have in the firefight at your side. No actually that’s not true, he’d be terrible in a firefight, awful in a firefight, but a good best friend.”
Gomez got to have a lot of fun this season, not only being the intersect but he also got to play a “bad guy” for a few episodes. “Yes, Chuck versus the Frosted Tips is kind of the big part in the ark of Morgan and the Intersect, and basically where we left off at 502, Morgan clearly – something was wrong – it’s not working correctly in his head. He doesn’t remember who Indiana Jones was, and Luke Skywalker and that’s just – that ain’t cool in Morgan’s world.So obviously something is happening, plus his whole attitude and his demeanor and he’s a little bit aggressive and so something is wrong. So that kind of comes to a head in 503, the Frosted Tips. And clearly something is very, very wrong when you actually see my hair, because it’s something else. Some people like it though. I will go out on a limb and I’ve been told that some people actually find it fetching. Myself, I’m not one of those people. But, there you go.
But yes, so, basically yes, so this is a big kind of moment in – and it really kind of tests the boundaries of Chuck and Morgan’s friendship and also, and all the things like I’ve mentioned about Morgan being sort of a very, I think, throughout the seasons a very, very loyal and dedicated friend that really gets put to the test in Frosted Tips. So, it’s kind of fun.”
Beyond just all the physical aspects of being the Intersect for the final season, Morgan for a while was finally the focal point of the show so he was forced to play the character differently than he has in the past. “It’s been a blast because, like I said earlier, you know, you can tend to, you know, you play the same character. Television I think is much like a comfort food for people. And when people find a comfort food they like, a television show they like, they want things to kind of stay the same. They want the always pizza should taste like pizza. And so I think there’s a chance obviously in television when you do enough seasons it can get a little – as an actor – you can kind of become unchallenged you just have to learn the character you know it so like the back of your hand, it just becomes, you know, you just kind of go on cruise control.
This was fun because it forced me to just switch everything up and so I was excited. I was nervous at first, obviously for so many different reasons just getting the Intersect I thought was just a crazy turn. And something I wasn’t expecting. And then as I started to get the scripts and I saw this character becoming what he’s becoming and how it was affecting him, it’s nerve-wracking. Our fans are really loyal and they love Chuck, and I’m like, “Oh, crap, I’m going to get things thrown at me for being a jerk.”
But that being said, you know, it’s your job, and so you – I said I’m going to go full force and, you know, whether the people are – I mean, my job in these episodes as you’ll see and especially in Frosted Tips, is you’re not supposed to like Morgan, I think at this point. So, I kind of threw myself into that, and I said it’s – it was so much fun because it was a 180 from the Morgan of three or four seasons ago, so. As an actor, challenging and a lot of fun, sorry go ahead.”
The interesting thing about Chuck is that it’s a show that has always been a “bubble” show and on the verge of cancellation every season, but somehow managed to get a last minute miracle save every year. Now that this is it, the real final season of Chuck, the cast must be feeling a bit….Sad.
“You know it’s obviously a question that gets asked a lot and it’s a great question because the end is nigh. And it’s – for us I think as a cast it’s really interesting because you’re exactly right, you know, four seasons, every season, kind of every time we were approaching wrapping up it was sort of like we didn’t know if we were saying goodbye for good, or if just for a few months, and it was always this very tumultuous time. And now it’s got a different feeling to it, you know, we’re all bit – you know, it’s bittersweet and kind of bummed and but some kind of positive aspect that we take away knowing that we are – we know our fate, and so it makes it a bit easier to deal with. So we’re just enjoying every minute of it and having a really great time as a cast and crew and just really kind of taking it all in. And so it’s actually been a really fun season, I think for all of us. Despite knowing that it’s coming to an end, just because I think we’re all, you know, trying to relish every minute of it, you know.”
After four seasons and finally saying goodbye, I was curious to find out what his most memorable experience of doing the show is. “For me it will always be the Comic-Con experience for our show. It made our show, and you’re going down into the first season, Zach and I rode down in this car together kind of barely knowing each other, we hit it off instantly when we first met, and we tested together and got the roles together. But this – in this car ride with this guy I’m starting to get to know, that I’m going to be working with, or maybe not depending on how Comic-Con received our pilot. So we went down there and low and behold it was – it went over amazingly and kind of the rest is history. And so, for me, every year returning to Comic-Con has been just such an amazing, surreal experience, and such a big part of our show.
And the fans are just some of the most amazing, incredible people I’ve ever met. And their dedication and enthusiasm and passion for the show is – I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s always going to – that will always stand out to me, is San Diego Comic-Con (panel, things like that.”
You can watch a cool interview with the cast of Chuck here and here.
Article first published as Chuck’s Joshua Gomez Talks about the Final Season! on Blogcritics.