For five years, Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski has kicked ass as CIA spy Sarah Walker on NBC’s action-comedy CHUCK.

In that time, Sarah has went from a cold, closed-off spy, to a loving wife (and still stellar spy) to the show’s titular character Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi).

While the ups and downs of CHUCK being on the bubble for its five years on the air has certainly provided anxious butterflies for the cast and crew during the run, Strahovski says the journey has been worth it.

With the series signing off with a two-hour season finale tonight, the actress spoke with ASSIGNMENT X in this exclusive interview during NBC’s Television Critics Association party where she graciously spoke about the end and how difficult it was to hold back the tears filming the finale. In fact, she even admits to having a hard time getting through this interview without tearing up as well.

ASSIGNMENT X: It must have been a relief to at least know that going into this season, it would be the final year so at least the writers could plan ahead for a change.

YVONNE STRAHOVSKI: It’s great because they could write towards an ending and the writers can have a satisfying time doing it. We can all be satisfied that we put our hearts and souls into a real ending, rather than pretend writing something that would fit both an end and a new beginning, which we usually do.

AX: How was Comic-Con this year – knowing it would be the last time the cast got to feel like rock stars together.

STRAHOVSKI: It was really tough. I struggled on stage not to cry. I got off the stage … I had a moment. It was tough.

AX: Was it rough going through the last few episodes, knowing you were getting closer and closer to the end.

STRAHOVSKI: There was a lot of discussion on set about “is this the end?” There were a lot of believers that “no, it isn’t the end.” And there were other people saying “yes, this is the end.” There were a lot of high hopes on set that we would find out we would get the back nine. I was always on the fence. We’ve always been on the bubble, whether we get a midseason pick-up or end of season pick-up. For me, it wasn’t real until we got to the last one and I realized “I don’t think this going anymore – this is going to be it.” It really hit me on the last one. I cried every day. The last week was horrible. It was amazing, and spending so much time with everyone and I got to purge the last five years out of my system. It’s been very emotional for me. I’ve not known this country without this show in my life as my back bone. I’m getting emotional talking about it. Personally, it’s really an end of an era – five years of being in a new country, starting a life here and having this wonderful show and everyone behind it

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