The best way to get a sense of who Zachary Levi is—barring meeting the man in person—is to watch the TV series he stars in on NBC: Chuck. The character and the actor share a sweet innocence, a sense of humor, and a giant heart. Not to mention a winning smile and a deep love for video games.

I was lucky enough to spend some time with Zac and his castmates Adam Baldwin and Yvonne Strahovski at a promotional shoot and luncheon last weekend and it has taken me three days to figure out how to convey to you how awesome the guy is without breaking the rules and posting the raw audio files of our conversations. I’ve decided that I have to gush even if it makes me sound like a complete fangirl and use words like “generous” and “soulful” and “deserving” to describe him because this guy gives everything he has to his role on Chuck and I in turn must give everything I have to convince you to watch this show if you aren’t watching already.

Chuck vs. Craft Services

When asked just what it is that makes Zac Levi so damn funny, Adam Baldwin says his co-star has a pure joy in humor that he himself doesn’t have. “When it’s coming from him it’s just so honest and so wonderful that it’s infectious.” His publicist says the moment she met him she knew he had something special. Zac was her boss’s client first and when she was ready to take on clients of her own she asked if she could have him. She told me very seriously that it was one of the greatest gifts anyone has ever given her. And she doesn’t diminish the long road to where they are now. She talked about how hard it was to get his face out there in the beginning, how nobody wants to meet with people they don’t know, but how quickly people would fall in love with him once they did meet him and how they would instantly want to work with him. He’s funny AND magnetic. I witness this first hand when he walks in on his on-screen love interest’s photo shoot she screams, “Zacharrrreeeee!” and jumps on him.

The two actors have a lot of fun in their joint shoot, standing back to back giving the camera matching badass stares and then slowly bending their knees and sinking to the floor. Yvonne finishes up and the photographer ushers Zac over to a very cool classic car. She gets him in the driver’s seat and gives him directions like, “Give me your best road rage face” and she everyone else in the room laugh uproariously as Zach strikes poses in the car. It’s not until much later that the photographer tells us that she doesn’t mind if we snap pictures of her shoot so I don’t have any of my favorite pose: Zac facing the half open driver’s side window and then slowly ducking his head down until all you could see was his hair, his forehead, and his very expressive eyes. It was hilarious. I joked that he’s like a cartoon character come to life. “That’s a perfect way to describe him!” says his publicist. And it is, at least a certain part of him: the youthful, fun, egoless part. But he’s also a serious actor.

The Many Faces of Zac Levi

He told us (me and bloggers from Daemon’s TV, IGN, and Televisionary) that if he had to choose anyone to model his career after it would be Tom Hanks. He talked about Hanks’ impressive transition from comedic roles to meaty dramas like Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan and expressed a desire to follow a similar path. While we were walking and talking I resisted the urge to bring up Bosom Buddies and ask if we could expect some cross-dressing in an up-coming episode of Chuck. Instead I thought about the joy of life that Tom Hanks displayed in Big and the heart he let quietly shine through gruff Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own and how devastating his performance was in Philadelphia. I thought about how genuinely kind Tom Hanks seems to be and realized that unlike most people who’ve won two Oscars in a row, the public is still on his side. I think Zac Levi knows himself well and has picked a good role model.

And he knows his show. Sure, because of the series’ fun and fantastical premise (unsuspecting geek accidentally downloads database of international secrets to his brain) the writers can get away with ridiculous things–like letting Chuck’s time logged playing “Call of Duty” be all the training he needs to safely land a helicopter—but underneath all that the show has a very real heart. It’s not just action or comedy, he tells us. It’s more of an “action dramedy.” The spy missions might be written with a wink and a nod and the dialogue might be often too funny to be realistic, but the relationships in this show—between family members, friends, co-workers, and possible love interests—are very genuine. And because of the variety in the cast of  characters and the ways that they are connected to each other, there really is something for everyone.

Zac: “It’s good mix between procedural and serial. There’s a a certain amount of mythos that you need to catch up on but it’s not like when you sit and watch Lost with someone who’s never watched Lost before . . . Chuck’s a little bit easier. It’s more like, ‘He’s a bad guy. He’s a good guy. They’re trying to get him. OK, let’s watch Chuck.’”

So why aren’t you watching yet? Or, if you have been watching, are you (like Rae) insanely jealous that I got to spend the afternoon hanging out with these guys? Are you looking forward to hearing what they had to say about each other, their roles, and how they keep themselves entertained on set? You’ll have to come back tomorrow for Part II because I’m all Chucked out.

Next time: What shows do the cast of Chuck watch? Who is Adam Baldwin’s hero? (Besides Joss.) Which awesome stunt did Yvonne Strahovski come up with herself?