Interview: Meet ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’ Star Osric Chau

Ahead of the season finale of ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,’ we get to know Osric Chau and learn more about his character Vogle.

Just one more episode of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is left this season, but before the finale Hidden Remote had the opportunity to meet one of the recurring players who have made this season so memorable.

Osric Chau portrays Vogle, who along with Cross (Zak Santiago) and Gripps (Viv Leacock) makes up the “Rowdy Three,” and he sat down with us to talk about what drew him into the world of Dirk Gently and his tendency to appear in shows of the fantastic variety.

Check out our interview with Osric below and don’t miss the Dirk Gently season finale tonight at 9/8c on BBC America.

Hidden Remote: What was it about Dirk Gently that made you want to be a part of the series in the first place?

Osric Chau: The scripts were incredible. I read the first one and I was blown away. Every character is so well developed; especially as they go through the season, it’s fun to see. It was really hard to pick a favorite character because every character had so many great moments. So it was the scripts that sold it for sure.

My character Vogle just got to smash things and I really like physical roles. Later on his character just grows and grows, and the Rowdy Three become pretty prominent in the last episodes, so it’s a fun journey to be on.

Hidden Remote: You’re known for your work in this sort of sci-fi/fantasy realm, particularly playing Kevin Tran in Supernatural. Is there something about the genre that’s attracted you?

Chau: As a working actor you take whatever you can get, especially at the beginning because you’re just trying to build up that experience and you’re still learning. But I think for the most part it’s in the sci-fi and fantasy world that you have so much diversity. The rest is catching up, but I think for the most part, the whole issue of diversity and media is still pretty prominent because people don’t write their stories.

Right now we’re coming into a new age where there are so many more writers and producers and directors of different backgrounds, and it’s changing the story. But for the most part I feel like it’s [been] mostly in sci-fi that we see that possibility.

Hidden Remote: From an acting standpoint what’s it like to keep acting in that sort of wide open sandbox?

Chau: It’s super fun and I don’t know, is it acting if it actually exists, if it’s there in front of you? If it’s a green screen, a blue screen then yeah, that is acting in its truest definition, I guess. For the most part, you get to play make believe. You have the armor, the explosions – those things are so much fun to play with.

Hidden Remote: What have you taken away from working on Dirk Gently in particular?

Chau: It’s a franchise where they have the BBC show, the have the comics, they have the book series, so it’s already got a fanbase but this show is kind of its own thing off that. It’s really cool to be at the beginning of what I hope is the Dirk Gently fandom. Because I’ve been a part of Supernatural for so long, I’ve had my training in the whole fandom thing and how that works so everyone’s asking me all these questions, like how do we live tweet? What do we do? How do we answer questions? And I think that’s been so much fun just to figure out.

If we can engage with the fans and be as appreciative of them as they are of us and the show, then we’re probably in a good place. That’s been really cool and if it one day spawns into something even a fraction of what the Supernatural or Doctor Who fandoms are, that would be my favorite thing in the world.

Hidden Remote: So when you’re not smashing things in character as Vogle, what would you call yourself a fan of? What are you passionate about?

Chau: I am a bit of an environmentalist more than anything. Leonardo Dicaprio just put out a documentary called Before the Flood and this is the world’s biggest problem right now, is climate change. I would love more people to look at it, and read about it and read about all the possibilities. We have these people that want to do nothing and hey, that’s fine, but on the other side people want to do something.

When you look at the worst case scenario, [on] one side nothing changes, one side the world ends. So sometimes it’s nice to have a little bit of insurance and even if you don’t believe it, maybe we should all just do something. Help the world be a little greener. Renewable energy, we have the technology, maybe we should just do that. Maybe we should ease off eating beef a little bit, maybe we should drink more water, less sugar.

Now that you know a little more about Osric, don’t miss him as Vogle in the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency season finale tonight on BBC America.

The Dirk Gently season finale airs Saturday at 9/8c on BBC America.