Yvonne Strahovski Had the Best Night Ever on 'Louie' and '24: Live Another Day'

Yvonne Strahovski just had the best night ever. The “Chuck” alum was in the return of two of the most buzzed-about, critically-acclaimed shows on TV, Fox’s “24: Live Another Day” and FX’s “Louie.”

"Thank god they’re not actually happening at the same time, because then I’d have to pick," Strahovski joked to Yahoo TV, noting that while "24" is probably more in her wheelhouse, she was excited to stretch her comedy chops on Louis C.K.’s show. "It was a lot of fun — we had a blast," she said with a laugh.

Keep reading for more about working with Louie, going to some really weird places, and that totally unexpected punch.

The “Louie” guest spot made me so happy. How did all of this come about?
It was a big, fat surprise — they called and said, “We’d love you to do the episode,” and I quickly agreed because it’s fabulous. I haven’t even seen the episode, so I’m very excited to see how it turned out and how it ended up being.

No audition?
No, the casting director had actually seen a Broadway play that I was in last year, “Golden Boy,” so she thought of me from that, and they called me and that was it.

[Related: Louis C.K. Explains the Break Before ‘Louie’s’ Fourth Season]

Did you have any idea that you’d be this crazy, beautiful woman luring Louie back to her house?
They sent me the script, and I loved it — it was definitely something that I really wanted to do because I often get caught up in more of the dramatic stuff, especially lately. And I love doing that stuff, but this was really nice to do something that’s completely different than anything else.

I’ve been bursting to talk about it, but it’s been such a secret this whole time. I did it last year, and it was a big, sneaky trip to New York to do it, and I’m really excited now that I can finally talk about it.

And talk about all the weird places it goes — it gets weird real fast.
Oh yeah… but is it like “you can’t watch” weird? Or like good weird? [Laughs.]

No, it’s very good weird! Seeing you get punched in the face was kind of delightfully deranged, and very unexpected.
[Laughs.] Well, good, I’m glad.

That production on “Louie” is very guerilla filmmaking, very run-and-gun, right?
It is — I thought that was the most fascinating thing. Here’s this comedian who’s amazing at what he does, and watching him work on set, he’s like a one-man band with 5,000 instruments on him. He’s doing so many different things at once, between actually writing the episodes, directing them, acting in them, being in front of the camera as well as behind the camera… so often I saw him pick up the camera and set up the shot himself, or step away and move cars or things in the shot that he didn’t like. He was doing everything at once.

It’s such a small crew, it’s really intimate — it’s a tight family, and it’s all run by him. It’s amazing to see this guy who is comedic have such a business strength about him, manning this ship from all different angles.

[Related: Louis C.K. Back for Season 4 of ‘Louie’ Done His Way]

Any chance we could see her again?
Oh! I don’t know… you never know… [Laughs.] I would love to come back if they would have me.

It’s funny to me that you’ve got “24,” which is obviously action, but then you end up doing stunts on “Louie” — what was the process like to get that punch perfect?
[Laughs.] The punch! It was funny — it took a lot of massaging to get it right because of the camera angle and the weirdness and everything. I remember Louie was saying to me to do something after the punch — he was telling me to lie there and pull a certain face, post-punch, and I remember feeling very awkward while I was doing it. And he was like, “No, no, no — it’s gonna be weird! It’s gonna be good!” [Laughs.]

He brings out stuff in people that’s really offbeat and unexpected…
Yeah, well, I mean he certainly brought out stuff in me that I never thought I’d be doing. [Laughs.]

When you signed on for both shows, did you have any idea they’d be coming back on the same night?
No, this is a total surprise and a total fluke, and thank God they’re not actually happening at the same time, because then I’d have to pick! [Laughs.]

What can you say about your role in “24” this season?
Well, we hit the ground running, more so than any other season, because we’ve only got 12 episodes rather than 24 to tell the story.

[Related: Exclusive Photos: ‘24’ Hero Jack Bauer Lives (to Save the World) Another Day]

What I liked about my character was that she’s going through a difficult time. She was a really great field agent, one of the best, and very intuitive — and she still is. But when we meet her, she’s being demoted from her job because she was married to another field agent who, it turned out, was selling government secrets to a foreign government. And she didn’t catch it — she lived with this guy, was married to him, and didn’t see it coming, and is therefore being demoted. She’s pretty much lost a lot, if not everything, in her mind.

It’s nice to see you back in action, kind of in a very “Chuck” way.
[Laughs.] I know! The Twitter feed has been active about that from the old “Chuck” fans, for sure.

"Louie" premieres Monday at 10 p.m. on FX; "24: Live Another Day" premieres Monday at 8 p.m. on Fox.