Then, March rolled around and I thought, "I wonder whatever happened with that thing Chuck - if it got picked up or not?" And then, June rolled around and then I get a call, "Hey, we're going." And all of the sudden, there was this job with Big Mike and I hadn't seen the pilot because I was in Maui when they did the screening. My first day on the set, Adam Baldwin asked me if I had seen it. I said no, se he went and got a copy and I watched it in my dressing room and I thought, "Wow, this is a really interesting and funny script." Because I hadn't read the pilot. And it was all of the sudden looking like a piece that had legs. I said, "This thing could probably go."

The opening night, Peter Roth was there, he's the head of Warner Bros. Company and I know they had a bunch of other shows that were opening that same night. I was like, "If he's here, this show is high on his priority list."

And, all of the sudden, it sort of did what it does - the writers have been writing really funny and interesting things, which makes it easy as an actor when you don't have to make something funny. So I really started getting into the role of Big Mike and each episode when a different writer would come in with their script to shoot, they all kept saying to me, "Wow, we love writing for Big Mike. You're really great in it." It's been a lot of fun, because you usually don't hear that. Writers kind of stick to themselves. It was great to sort of get this feedback.

For me, I'm going to do my best anyway, but once you hear that somebody is really taking an interest in your work, it really makes you step up even more. The stuff that they've been giving me has been getting really funny and a lot of fun to work on.

Big Mike and Harry Tang are two of the best characters on the show. We were really sad to see Tang written out of the show.
He's on the show Dexter and they didn't want to share him. He's just a great guy and really just a great actor, so it was kind of a bummer.

Do you have a favorite episode so far? If so, why is it your favorite?
I think my favorite episode hasn't aired yet, so I probably can't talk about it. But you learn something about Big Mike that seems to be out of character and it's really funny. It's hysterical. When you find out what it is, it's like the last thing in the episode and it's hysterical.

How will Chuck be affected by the writers' strike?
Our writers worked really hard to finish the order. The first order of Chuck was for 13 episodes and so they worked really hard and finished the order so that it could be as seamless as possible and then they came in and apologized and said that they have to do what they have to do. I write as well, so I clearly understand it. I've also been on the negotiating team with SAG and AFTRA for the last contract that the actors had with the producers, so I know what they're up against and don't envy them at all.

So yeah, it's going to affect Chuck - once we finish the next two episodes, we're down until the strike is over. So hopefully, that doesn't affect whether or not we're picked up for the back nine. And all indications seem like it should be okay for us. Our numbers are pretty good and it seems like the network really likes the show, so we'll see how it goes.

You also appeared as Mr. LaMarr on an episode of Heroes this season. What was that experience like for you and will we be seeing Mr. LaMarr again in any future episodes?
It's funny that you mention that because Dana Davis that I'm in that scene with, she auditioned during pilot season with me for one of the pilots that I was up for series regular for and she was auditioning to play my daughter - my 16-year-old daughter. And clearly, she's a woman, she's a 28-year-old woman, but when I saw her at the audition, I thought she was a kid. She had a little Catholic school outfit and a little backpack and standing next to the other kids, she looked like a kid.

And then, when I saw her at Heroes, I was like, "Okay, clearly, you are a woman. That's a purse, not a backpack." And she starts laughing. She and I have talked recently and she said that her character is still working at the Burger Bonanza, so there's a possibility that I could end up over there again, but really the role itself is kind of a nothing role, it doesn't really go anywhere.

Both Chuck and Heroes are action-packed shows, but in both shows, you have played a store manager. We know you've got more to offer than your mild-mannered manager role suggest. Do you ever wish that you were the one kicking bad guy's asses and who do we need to talk to to make it happen?
I do get a little action in Chuck, there's an episode that we shot where there is a small action sequence that involved a stunt and I suspect that because they know that I'm pretty physical and can do physical comedy and I'm very athletic for my size that I suspect that the character will have more fun stuff to do.

And sure, you always want to be the guy the show is about but I understand the business and I understand that I'm a character actor and I understand that they hired me because I'm funny, as opposed to sexy. Even though my wife thinks I'm sexy.

We're surprised that the ladies didn't go for the pimp outfit you wore on the show.
(Laughs.) Yep, I got about 20 phone calls when that aired.

How often do you get recognized in public?
Every day.

What role do you usually get recognized for? What types of people approach you?
Most of it is people not really knowing where they know me from. They'll go, "Tell me what I've seen you on."

"I don't know what you've seen."

Or, sometimes people think that they know me. They'll go, "Hey, where'd you go to school?" or "Where do you go to church?"

In fact, one of my good friends, she and her husband were misplaced by Katrina and I actually met them in TJ. So now they're really good friends of ours and she's a professor at San Diego State. When I met her, that's what she said to me - she said, "Wait a minute, why do I know you?"

I said, "You probably saw me in a movie or TV or something."

She goes, "Nah, that's not it." (Laughs.) Her husband just started cracking up.

He goes, "That is."

So literally, everyday. When I leave the house today, I expect if I go to the store or if I go to the gas station, somebody is going to recognize me and they may not know why, but it will start a conversation.

Do you enjoy that?
Yeah, as long as people are respectful and talk to you. You know, sometimes people just kind of stare at me from a distance and it makes me a little nervous. I grew up in Compton, so if someone is staring at me, immediately I'm getting defensive.

So, it's fun sometimes - especially when other people who haven't seen it before.

So you can kind of show off a little bit?
Yeah, it's kind of interesting. I was doing a play at the San Diego Rep a few years ago and me and this guy Fernando went upstairs to the food court and I got stopped like 20 times and we got back to the theater, Fernando was going, "How come you don't have this guy's picture on the poster? Everybody knows him." (Laughs.) So it was pretty funny.

What goals do you have set for yourself? Where would you like to see your career go?
I think early on I said that I want to be in that group of actors who you see all the time like J.T. Walsh, somebody like that, where people don't necessarily know who they are, but they recognize them and then the people the do know who they are really like their work.

I just want to have that career where I can always work, I'm just floating from one thing to the next so that you don't get into that rut of "Man, I wish I had another job" because early in your career, it's so much of that that you have to feel like there's got to be something better. So far, I've been very lucky to float from, if I'm not doing a movie or TV, I'll get a commercial or I'll do some voiceover or a play. I'm also a standup, so I'm always floating from one thing to another. In one respect, I'm doing what my goal was, but on the other side of it is I think when I'm working in film and TV, I just need to get to that point where more people are calling me and I'm not jumping through all the hoops.

What do you do to unwind when you are not working?
Tequila and cigars. A couple of my closest friends, we have a club called the TJBC - the Tijuana Boys Club. We consider ourselves tequila aficionados and cigar aficionados.

So what are your brands of choice?
Well, I'll tell you, by far, my favorite tequila, not necessarily my favorite brand, is Jose Cuervo De La Familia Reserva. It's Cuervo's family reserve. Every year, they get a different artist that creates the artwork on the box that it comes in - it's a wooden box - and then the bottle is like a really dark green bottle and the tequila has sort of an oaky flavor to it and it's really, really smooth, it's very high end. It kind of reminds you of a Cognac. It's really awesome. If you've never had it, treat yourself. Costco sometimes has it for like $70 and it's worth every penny.

And I've had tequila that - down here, there's a place that has hundreds of tequilas. And they have one that's 600 bucks. So one day, I said, "You know what, I have to know." And so I got a shot - a shot of it was $30 and it was okay. It wasn't in the ballpark of Familia Reserva.

And cigars, I was definitely a Rocky Patel Vintage series kind of guy. He does the Vintage 1992s with a 60-ring gauge and that was my favorite cigar until recently, on my birthday, my friend Aaron gave me a Gurkha Fuerte and that is fastly becoming one of my favorites. I think my top three in cigars would be the Rocky Patel, the Gurkha Fuerte and then La Gloria Cubana Series R.

What would you do for a living if you never got into acting?
I think if I would have never gotten into acting, had I never taken that voice class, I'd probably be a lawyer today. If my career were over today, like if I got punched in the throat or something and couldn't speak, I think I would go with costuming.

Is that something you've tried before?
I like to shop and I like to design. I started doing my own clothes - designing my own clothes and going to the tailor and having them put things together based on kind of what I had in my head. And I started doing a very small boutique business of it with big guys who were friends with, you know, "Hey, you don't have to wear just jeans or just suits. You can wear other stuff that's nice."

Tell us something most people don't know about you.
Most people probably don't know that I volunteer - I've sort of adopted a school down in Palo Cedro called Willow Elementary and over the past few years I've taken to them people from different walks of life to show the kids there that you don't have to be a drug dealer or the next Kobe Bryant to better yourself. For instance, I took them a master diver, one of five black master divers in the Navy ever - Mike Washington. I took another guy, Tony Washington, whose actually Mike's son, he does animation work for Sony. I took them a financial planner. Just so that they could see that there's other things - you can be happy without being a millionaire.

Most people don't know that because I work in LA and the people I hang around with here in San Diego are very, very close friends, so the two sides of me never really meet.

Interviewed by Joel Murphy, November 2007. Chuck airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. on NBC.