411mania Interviews: Adam Baldwin

Al Norton: Was part of the appeal of doing the role on Castle working with Nathan again?

Adam Baldwin: Absolutely. He texted me a cryptic message saying, "might be a part coming up, interested?" and my response was, "to work with you, buddy? Absolutely!" It worked out and they crafted the role to me wheelhouse; he's an old-school cop, works for a gang unit, a pretty colorful guy with unorthodox methodologies and a little "bend the rules" philosophy to get the results he needs, which is attractive to Castle. Castle wants to write about him, use this as an excuse to ease away from the pressures of his relationship with Beckett. It gives him a relief valve and he gets to see a bit of the darker side of law enforcement thanks to Detective Ethan Slaughter.

Al Norton: Was in an adjustment to show up for work on a different TV set than the one you had been working on for five years?

Adam Baldwin: Funny, there were people from X-Files I had worked with – the first AD I had worked with on X-Files, there were people from my past on a show I did with Taye Diggs called Daybreak, and Nathan from Firefly, and there were some crew members from Chuck working on the set, so it was all very comfortable for me. It was like putting on an old beat up brown coat. They were all very welcoming.

You never know when you're walking in as a guest what the sensibility on the set will be like but when you see that many familiar faces like that, and when you have Nathan basically say, "this is my guy", it's so easy. Stana (Katic) was very helpful and welcoming. And beautiful.

Al Norton: Chuck and Castle do share some tone similarities, with both shows being serious shows with life or death moments but at the same time shows with quite a bit of humor.

Adam Baldwin: It's always a fine line and the only way you can get away with that is to have the right lead character. On Chuck we had Zack Levi and on Castle you have Nathan Fillion, and they can pull that off; they can play the serious and they can play the funny. You need the audience to fall in love with those guys to make it work and Nathan does that so well. He's a loving guy, he's a super talented actor, he's funny, and he gives back to the fans as much as they've given to him over time and the audience seems to be very appreciative of that.

For the full interview visit 411mania.