“We’re all nerd culture,” he says. “To me, ‘nerdy’ just means passionate. Back in the day, the stereotypical nerd was just passionate about things that maybe other people didn’t understand or get, like, science or science fiction … Now, everybody is into that, on some level.”
Talking to Zachary Levi is like talking to your best friend who just downed a Red Bull. He talks about passion, when he himself oozes an infectious enthusiasm. This fire has lit up enough for Levi realize some of his wildest dreams, dreams he admits he didn’t even realize he had. “That was never on the list,” he says regarding Nerd HQ, his off-site Comic-Con party where celebrities and fans can chill over music, drinks, and good vibes. It’s a choice opportunity to take sick Instagram photos and make your friends sitting at home jealous. It may not have been Zachary Levi’s dream, but it’s certainly someone’s. They shall not be named, not even if they’re the author of this piece.
In 2007, Zachary Levi landed the starring role in NBC’s Chuck. The action/comedy series generated a cult following in the face of low ratings, its legacy now in the same breath of shows like Community and Firefly. Inspired by the Comic-Con devoted and the surging nerd zeitgeist, Levi began Nerd HQ to make that growing con experience retain a bit of intimacy.
Last year Nerd HQ faced a bit of backlash when it attempted crowdfunding despite questionable rewards and vague intentions. The party raises funds for Operation Smile, and will again this year, but not even good will can shield you from the Internet’s bite.
With just days left until this year’s Comic-Con kicks off, I had a chance to speak to Zachary Levi about what attendees can expect this year at Nerd HQ, his observation of what’s happening in nerd culture, his role in the upcoming Heroes: Reborn, and sets the record straight on what happened last summer.
So Zachary, we’re heading into Comic-Con pretty fast. Are you excited? What’s going through your head, man?
Zachary: I’m excited anytime we’re able to get it back together again. It’s a pretty massive undertaking. It’s a big event. It requires a lot of time, energy, resources, money. Anytime we can get all those things together and we can make it actually materialize yet again, I’m happy about that.
I’m happy to just keep bringing people what they want. People are always hitting us up on Twitter and saying, “Are you going to do it again? We missed it, we want it.” I want to be able to tell them, years in advance, “Hey, of course. Consider us booked for ten years,” but it’s just always a crapshoot.
That’s exciting. The panelists, we have lined up already. We haven’t even locked in all of our panels, but the panels we have so far are awesome. I can’t wait to announce those soon and awesome partners. IGN is our media partner. They’re going to be streaming all of our panels, all of our interviews…
What do you have lined up?
Zachary: AMD is our tech partner, Sony is our gaming partner. In conjunction with AMD, we’re bringing Star Wars Battlefront.
Holy shit.
Zachary: Yeah dude, we have the first public playable demo.
Oh my God, that’s awesome.
Zachary: Yeah dude, I know. It’s so awesome.
So that’s locked and loaded.
Zachary: Yeah, we got to play it at E3 and it was so good. I was like, “Dude, I can’t wait for the public to actually get their hands on this, because it’s so dope.” It’s running around in the movies that we love, just like Battlefield. Yeah, it’s great.
So this is the fifth year that Nerd HQ will be around, correct?
Zachary: Year five, yeah.
In what ways has Nerd HQ lived up to your dreams or expectations?
Zachary: I would say that what I set out to do with HQ was just do things a little differently. I feel like if we all thought outside the box a little more and challenged certain things that we’re just handed … You look at a door. We all look at a door in the same way, but as soon as somebody goes, “Why don’t we just do it like this? Wouldn’t it open better or it would creak less or you could exit faster?”
Just kick it down.
Zachary: Kick it down! Right. Then, somebody actually does that, and then everybody goes, “Oh my God, why didn’t I think of that?” With HQ, I saw opportunities to make certain celebrity interactions with the public better and more interactive and more satisfying or more incentivized.
Do you think it’s because Comic-Con has gotten a little too crowded or a little too noisy? Is that why?
Zachary: Oh, no. Comic-Con’s got to do what Comic-Con’s got to do. That’s a logistical nightmare I don’t wish on anybody; 150,000 people coming… It’s gnarly, right? At the same time, I was looking at people sleeping on concrete, waiting to get in to a Chuck panel, overnight. I’m like, “Man, how do we not do that? How do we make sure that everyone who’s actually in a ballroom or a hall is actually there for that panel and not just sitting on a seat waiting for another panel? How do you do that? How do you raise money for charity?”
I believe in what I call “conscientious capitalism,” where we, as The Nerd Machine, can sell merch and make money and hopefully make them some money from sponsorship or whatever. We can also help raise a bunch of money and give a bunch of money at the same time.
That’s why all the celebrity interactions, I didn’t want to make any money on. There’s plenty of conventions to go make money doing signings, but as far as HQ is concerned I wanted to create an opportunity where, we, in this celebrity world, could interact with our fans in just really pure, fun ways, that we’re still very protected, very safe, but very organic and off the cuff. That’s why the panels are unmoderated and fans just get to ask questions for an hour, because they never really get that opportunity.
Then, every time there’s any kind of interaction, you monetize it, so that it’s actually got some worth. You can’t just have people barging in and queuing up for hours, because then that starts creating lines again. You say, “It costs 20 bucks.” Twenty bucks, to me, was a perfect … It’s one bill. It’s 20 bucks a seat for a panel or 20 bucks for a photo or 20 bucks for a signing.
Maybe one day, maybe even next year, we’re going to have to raise that price, because there is so many people now and we only have such limited space. Maybe people can afford $40 for a seat at a panel, I don’t know. I just wanted to make something that was affordable, but still meant something, and that we could all come together and do something that was bigger than all of us and that’s why the non-profit angle came in.
Are you teaming up with Operation Smile again this year?
Zachary: Definitely Operation Smile, but that said, because our venue is the new children’s museum, they’re a non-profit in themselves. We’re also helping to raise money for the new children’s museum by renting out that space, so it’s even better. It’s made it even sweeter on the whole non-profit world.
Last year there was a bit of controversy with Nerd HQ’s funding efforts. What happened in the past year? What changed?
Zachary: Yeah, man, it was really unfortunate, but I think some people didn’t understand and I think there was actually some people, if I’m being perfectly honest, who are Nerd Machine/Nerd HQ haters and were waiting for an opportunity to spin something on us to drag us down, to pull us down.
It was such a bummer. It broke my heart… You can’t please everybody and I tried. There was one article that was written about it, I can’t remember the gentleman’s name, but he was lambasting us saying that we wanted people to give us money so we could have a private celebrity party for a million dollars. I was like, “That is not even close to the truth. You clearly did not look at our website. You clearly do not understand what we’re doing.” I reached out to him. I said, “Hey, man, can we talk about this? I don’t think you understand what’s going on.” He never got back to me. I’m like, “Okay, you don’t really want to know the truth. You just want to be a hater. You just want to tear people down.” That’s really unfortunate.
The reason why we even did that, and this is something I tried to explain in the crowdfunding campaign was, every year, we try to get the events sponsored. Every year, we essentially succeeded, while losing a little bit of money here and there, because it’s just a really expensive thing to do. In the beginning years, a lot of sponsors were like, “What is this? We don’t know what it is. It’s not really tried and true,” so it’s typical to get a lot of money out of them, but you try to get as much as you can.
The way the whole financial situation breaks down is these big companies, it takes a long time to actually get paid by them. They’re committed to so many other events leading up to Comic-Con. They’ve got money invested into E3 and CES and South by Southwest and so many things and so they’re all like, “We’ll get there, when we get there.”
There’s a whole giant production budget: lights and sound and booths and furniture. It’s a lot of stuff that you need to pay for, but you need to pay for that up front or at least put deposits on it. What was happening, was I was essentially having to fund it all myself, out of my pocket, and then pay myself back, when we get sponsorship dollars in. For the most part, that was working. Again, we’d lose a little money here and there, but to me, it was an investment into the future.
Then, the third year, our first year at Petco… We had an oral agreement with a sponsor for a lot of money and at the last second, they pulled out. I had already spent a bunch of my own money. Then, I was in this predicament where it’s like, we either fold up shop, we cut our losses and we’ll probably never do HQ and maybe have to close the doors on Nerd Machine, because it was that big of a momentum shift, or I just double-down and I say “Whatever, it’s money. It’s a lot of it and I’m really not stoked to have to lose it, but I believe in HQ and I believe in the happiness that it brings people and the impact that it has on people’s lives, not just the non-profit stuff.”
That was a huge thing, too. It was like, “If we don’t HQ at this point, we’re going to not raise $250,000 for kids who really need it, but also, we’re not bringing the smiles to the public and to the celebrities that are coming down and have those moments.” They’re moments that last a lifetime.
Those moments are that important.
I get people that tell me, to this day, the most incredible memories that they have of being in San Diego at that time are being at one of our dance parties, that we have, by the way, for the public and for private. We don’t just throw private parties. It’s not just me hanging out with my celebrity buddies.
The panels, for fans to be able to have that kind of access to ask whatever they want for an hour of Tom Hiddleston or Joss Whedon and then for Tom to have the ability to really have time to answer a question, to get into the depth of a role that he’s done or why he’s done them or the really silly stuff, like when somebody said, “Hey, I saw you do a velociraptor impersonation online. Would you do that?” and he goes, “Yeah,” and he just does it. It’s so funny.
That doesn’t exist anywhere else. I’ve never seen places where that type of magic happens. I think it’s a very specific formula. You have to allow for enough structure where it’s safe, but not so much structure that it’s confining and where people feel like they can’t do just whatever … I wanted there to be a off-the-cuff enough feel and setting where you could do whatever, as long as it’s respectful and kind and that’s what it’s been every year.
Giving fans the freedom to ask what they want, not one fan has ever asked any panelist something that was rude … or disrespectful. Everyone is so cool, because they also feel like, “Wow, we’re being thought of. We’re being taken care of. We want this to keep going.”
There’s no question what you’ve done with fan and geek culture. Do you ever stop to think or take stock? Like, “Oh my God, I was able to do that?”
Zachary: Every once and a while, I do. Every once and a while, I go, “Wow…”
“I was in Tomb Raider!”
Zachary: Yeah, but I don’t know, it’s weird. I’m always looking forward. I think it’s awesome that they made a character of me for multiplayer in Tomb Raider, that’s so much fun, but no, I didn’t … When I was a kid, I don’t know that I ever thought, “Oh, that’s a goal,” or certainly didn’t think, “Oh, I’m going to create my own convention.” That was never on the list.
I’ve always definitely had a entrepreneurial and philanthropic side to me, so I’ve always had ideas of different things. Then, when ideas come to me, I vet them in my own mind, I think about them a lot and I go, “You know what? I think this would work. I want to go try this, I think people would dig this.”
That’s where HQ came from and then people did, they believed in it on both sides, the public and celebrities. It’s just really cool to see something come together like that. It’s still a battle. There’s still a lot of things that surround putting the event on every year. It’s still a battle and I just don’t want it to be a battle anymore. I just want it to be good and to happen and people to know it and enjoy it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHClJhC8Wfs
The trailer for Heroes: Reborn dropped just a little while ago, and I’m so, so excited. What’s it like to be on the revival? Can you tell us a little about your character?
Zachary: Yeah, it’s great, man. We’re still doing it, by the way. We’re only about half-way through. When I was doing Chuck, we were on the same night with Heroes and I knew all those kids. I say “kids,” playfully. Obviously, they’re older than I am … but I got to know them. I love them, I think they’re such incredible people and so talented.
As much fun as I was having on Chuck, I was always a little envious of the sandbox they got to play in, because I was like, “Dude, you fly and shit. That’s amazing.” When this came back around or when Heroes: Reborn was announced, I was looking for what my next gig would be. I love a mini-series. When you’re weighing the idea of committing to a full series, that’s three, seven years of your life. With a mini-series, it’s going to be about five months.
I loved the world of it, so I went to my team. I said, “Hey, let’s go track this down.” I ended up talking to Tim Kring a couple times and he was telling me about it. I was telling him, “Hey, look, if nothing else, I just don’t want to play Chuck again. I want to play something that’s very different, a departure.” He pitched me this role of Luke Collins.
Luke is married to Joanne Collins, played by Judi Shekoni. We, essentially, are greatly affected by this event that happens four years after the end of the original series. When everyone finds out there’s people with powers, four years after that, there’s this incident in Odessa, Texas.
It’s considered a terrorist attack of sorts, many people die, and we are personally affected by it. The world believes that who’s behind it are people with abilities. We take it upon ourselves to do what we think is the right thing to do to make the world a safer place, which is to kill people with powers, with abilities.
Holy shit.
Zachary: Yeah, it’s dark, man. It’s dark and twisted and tortured. There’s a lot of soul-searching and journey with these characters along the way. It’s pretty intense. It’s full-on. It’s been weird, it’s definitely the darkest I’ve ever had to go with a character. It’s very draining sometimes. You’re like, “Wow, to keep this up, I don’t know that I could even do it for another year if I had to stay in that mindframe.” It’s intense.
So, definitely a departure from Chuck?
Zachary: Oh, yeah.
You’re clearly a passionate geek and you’re all in the Comic-Con culture hardcore. You’ve seen geek culture change from kids getting stuffed in lockers to The Avengers making so much money at the box office. What do you think about geek culture now? Does it surprise you or did you see this coming?
Zachary: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of things that contribute to that. One, is we have definitely shifted as a society … so many more jobs nowadays are less about physical ability and more about mental ability. We live in a digital age, whereas, you might’ve been coming up as a kid and your dad worked in a coal mine and now you’re working in the coal mine. That’s a really quote/unquote “manly,” brawny thing to do.
Now, a lot of kids come up playing video games. It’s a typical thing. It’s a typical thing that kids all know how to use the computer. It’s a typical thing that you’re now inundated with entertainment because special effects have gotten so good, that we’d all go watch a movie like Avengers, because those movies can be made now and they can be made really well.
That’s brought something that was maybe more exclusively quote/unquote “nerd culture” or “geek culture” into the mainstream and people who only loved Iron Man in comic books, who were the maybe nerdier kids, now, everybody likes Iron Man because Robert Downey Jr. is a bad-ass and been in really cool movies and you go, “Awesome.”
One of the things I wanted to do with Nerd Machine was create a lifestyle brand for nerd culture, but simultaneously, tell everyone, “We’re all nerd culture.” To me, “nerdy” just means passionate. It just means you’re passionate about something. Back in the day, the stereotypical nerd was just passionate about things that maybe other people didn’t understand or get, like, science or science fiction or comic books or video games or whatever. Now, everybody is into that, on some level.
That means, A, that stuff that was stereotypically nerdy, now everyone understands, and then, B, even if you’re not, you’re still passionate about something. You’re passionate about basketball. You’re passionate about fashion. You’re passionate about food. You’re passionate about travel. You’re a travel nerd. You’re a food nerd. You’re a sports nerd. Yeah, everyone’s a nerd about something.
That’s been one of our big mantras. I really do want people to embrace that messaging, because that’s, ultimately, what’s going to break down so many barriers and stigmas. What’s really fascinating to me is the almost reverse discrimination that I’ve seen come out of the stereotypical nerd culture. It’s very strange.
There was a galvanization of the quote/unquote “nerds,” because they all found something they really liked and they appreciated it and there was freedom in that and people going down to Comic-Con and cosplaying and not being judged for it. That’s great. So much of it was rooted in not judging other people and finding a place where you’re not judged.
Then, all of a sudden, a cute girl who might not have been into the comic books, but all of a sudden watched Avengers is like, “Oh my God, I think Black Widow is awesome,” and “Holy crap, I can go dress up like Black Widow and go down to this place, like Comic-Con? I’m going to go do that.” Then, all of a sudden, the people who consider themselves the “true nerds,” they start judging that new girl, because, “What do you know about Black Widow? What do you know about Avengers?” It’s like, “Whoa, shouldn’t you just be stoked that there’s a new convert of somebody …
Just accept that someone’s into it?
Zachary: Yeah, it’s weird and crazy. I think that there’s this weird backlash, because they feel like they were ridiculed for so long and now it’s theirs and it can only be theirs. They get to be the “cool kids,” almost. I’m like, “Guys, this is so antithetical to what being an original OG nerd was even about. You should be so stoked that people finally get you and get what you were about and what you were passionate about. Embrace other people, isn’t that what you always wanted?”
Isn’t that what we always wanted? We wanted to be able to talk to about the Legend of Zelda without people going “Nerd alert,” because, guess what? Now we can. It’s just fascinating to me. I’m so happy that stuff is becoming mainstream, but at the same time, I’m witnessing this discrimination. It’s a bummer.
Last words, man. Is there anything else you look forward to this year at Nerd HQ?
Zachary: Oh, man, it’s the same stuff we do. Battlefront‘s huge. We’re so stoked out. We’re going to have Project Morpheus as well.
Project Morpheus? Really?
Zachary: Yeah, dude, totally, and we’re going to have dance parties open to the public both Thursday and Saturday night. Friday night’s the big nerd party. That’s the big box party that’s out and everybody in town, panels all day, every day. We’re going to have awesome food, awesome drinks, charging stations, like we’ve always had. You can come in, charge your shit up, you can do that.
Again, other than the celebrity interactions, everything is free. You don’t need a badge, you can just walk right in. You get an RFID bracelet. You register. You can go into the photo booth, take pictures, it’ll automatically send them to your email address.
We got the new app, you can go download that, the Nerd HQ app. Yeah, man, it’s all that groovy stuff.
Dude, I can’t wait and I hope to see you there. Thank you so much for your time.
Zachary: Right back at you, brother.