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Television actor and East Bay native David Lim is in his third season with the CBS drama “S.W.A.T.” and he still can’t believe what a blast it is.
He plays officer Victor Tan on the drama that airs 9 p.m. Wednesdays. It’s a role that often calls on him to do things rappel off buildings, hang from helicopters, knock down doors, get into fights and blow things up.
“It’s as fun as you think it is,” he says. “Even Shemar, who has been on TV for 25 years, will sometimes pause during a scene, look at me and say, ‘Can you believe this is our job?’”
Shemar is Shemar Moore, the hunky star who headlines the action-packed crime series. Like Lim, he’s a Bay Area native. In fact, the two men were born in the same hospital in Oakland, about 13 years apart.
Lim, 36, grew up in San Ramon and attended De La Salle High School.
“We talk about life in the Bay all the time and we’re both into sports,” says Lim, who played basketball and soccer at DLS. “Although, he’s a Raiders guy and I’m a 49er. But we’ve watched Warriors’ playoff games together … Our bond extends beyond the set.”
It’s a bond that almost didn’t happen. When Lim initially auditioned for “S.W.A.T.” he was rejected.
“I gave a good audition, but I knew the role wasn’t a good fit,” he recalls. “It was written for an older person. And sure enough, my manager called and said, ‘They’re going in a different direction.’”
But Lim made enough of an impression during his tryout that the show’s producers decided to create a new character for him — Victor Tan, a young officer who came to “S.W.A.T.” after a stint with the LAPD Vice Squad.
Still, the character was only supposed to appear on a recurring basis. But just before the series premiered, Lim was promoted to a full-time cast member. Forty-plus episodes later, he remains a big part of the mix.
“It was very, very cool that they created a character especially for me,” he says. “This whole thing has been a pretty incredible ride.”
Funny how things turn out. Early on, Lim had no plans to be an actor. After graduating from the University of San Diego, he became a mortgage loan officer because “the money sounded good.” And he actually excelled at the job, becoming one of the top account executives at his company.
But after three years, he grew restless.
“I wasn’t really feeling challenged,” he says. “And I was getting tired of the hustle.”
That’s when he turned his gaze toward Hollywood.
“Ironically, acting is an even bigger hustle,” he says. “Especially at that time. There weren’t a lot of Asian guys on TV. It was slim pickings for roles and if one came along, it usually wasn’t the kind of role you were looking for.”
Lim struggled to break through, experiencing “so much hardship” along the way. He scraped by with occasional guest spots on shows like “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Supergirl” and “Criminal Minds” before earning a recurring role on “Quantico.”
Now in his third season on “S.W.A.T.,” he’s enjoying how the show’s writers are digging deeper into his character. Recent episodes have explored Victor’s love life with a woman played by Karissa Lee Staples, and a future episode will delve into his history with the vice squad.
“My character is growing this season in a way that we didn’t see in the first two seasons,” Lim says.
Meanwhile, he and his fellow cast members do their best to stay in shape in order to handle all the cardio-intensive work that the “S.W.A.T.” scripts demand. To that end, when the production goes on location, the crew brings along a state-of-the-art gym in the back of a semi-truck.
“We try to get in there whenever we have down time,” Lim says. “If you’ve seen the real S.W.A.T. officers, you know they’re big and jacked and incredibly fit. We try to be authentic as we can and pay homage to them.”
From the looks of it, the actors are keeping a decent pace. Lim is well conditioned and Moore, who became a TV heartthrob during his years on “The Young and the Restless” and “Criminal Minds,” has been known to show off his six-pack abs during a scene or two.
“I hope when I’m his age I can have abs like that,” Lim says, laughing. “He’ll flash them in front of us every now and then to let everyone know that he’s still got it. It’s motivation for me.”
Contact Chuck Barney at cbarney@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/chuckbarney and Facebook.com/bayareanewsgroup.chuckbarney.
