Check out this great article from Backstage, discussing how it’s the smallest of roles that have the greatest potential to blossom into something great. I’ll give you a taste test here, then click the link to read the article in full! GREAT read and IMPORTANT for us actors to realize it’s not just the series regulars and leading roles we should be salivating after; in fact, it might just be the opposite…
“You never know which roles are going to provide the greatest opportunities. A part may not look like much on paper, but if you invest yourself fully and viewers sit up and take notice, sometimes it can morph into something greater. ‘It’s like an actor fantasy.’
Vik Sahay regularly steals scenes—and has amassed an admirable fan base—as antagonistic Buy More grunt Lester on NBC’s Chuck. Sahay initially auditioned for the role of Chuck’s friendlier sidekick, Morgan, but was passed over in favor of Joshua Gomez. ‘My manager called and said, “They are now offering you the role of Lester,”‘ Sahay recalls. ‘I remember looking through the script, and it was literally one line here, a word there. I was like, “I don’t want to do this.” My manager, smartly, was like, ‘Yeah, who do you think you are to say no to anything?'”
Sahay, who had journeyed to Los Angeles from his native Canada for pilot season, assumed the role was a one-off…until he was asked back. And then asked back again. Each time, the number of words Lester had to say grew a little, and the character developed into a cantankerous social misfit with, as Sahay puts it, an ‘unrequited rivalry’ with leading man Chuck. When the show kicked off its second season, Sahay was promoted to series regular.”
