Eric Christian Olsen: peripatetic funny guy, newly minted goofy cop, culinary school student. Olsen might look familiar from one of his dozen or so TV roles — Community, Brothers & Sisters, The Loop, Get Real, Tru Calling, etc. — but these days he’s Deeks, a mysterious and occasionally silly investigator on NCIS: LA. Deeks is the subject of tonight’s backstory-heavy episode, so Vulture caught up with the actor to ask him how one goes from playing a perpetually bare-chested skeaze on Community to a gun-toting ex-undercover cop on a show with 17 million viewers a week.

There are a lot of fan-made romance videos about Deeks and his partner Kensi (Daniela Ruah). Did that catch you off guard, given that you’re on a procedural?
I remember the first time we went on to YouTube [to see these videos], and there’s literally hundreds of them … I mean, I get it. I watch the show, and I’m emotionally invested in [Deeks and Kensi] getting together.

And they seem to be set to a wide variety of music.
Some of [the videos] are set to Justin Bieber music, and some are set to “Adagio for Strings,” and that’s sort of the crazy thing about the demographic for NCIS:LA. It’s the widest spectrum of fans.

You have been on other shows without … such a wide demographic.
Yeah, I’ve been on a lot of shows that don’t have 19 million viewers. [Laughs.] I mean, Community is one of my favorite shows on TV — I’m a huge fan of the Russo brothers and Arrested Development, which is why I did it … What other shows [have I been on]? Oh, Brothers & Sisters. I never watched Brothers & Sisters. I did it because I loved Rachel [Griffiths] from Six Feet Under.

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