It was our turn to grill Michael Chiklis, who as the L.A. corrupt police detective Vic Mackey is usually the one extracting answers in the interrogation room–by any means necessary—on FX’s gritty, hard-edged cop drama The Shield, which just began filming its fifth season. And Chiklis fared well as a not-so-pretty good guy, too, playing The Thing in this summer’s comic book bonanza Fantastic Four, which raked in over $150 million at the box office. Hollywood.com sweated Chiklis some secrets from The Shield—and the fact the Chiklis is suiting up as the Thing again sooner than you think, and just may be bringing the character straight to your doorstep.
Q: Congratulations on the success of Fantastic Four. Are you getting approached by a lot of 10-year-fans now, as opposed to the more adult audience from The Shield?
Chiklis: “Yeah! You know, it’s funny because my demographic has swung in a big way, I guess, because I’ve got cops coming up to me and saying [gruff] ‘Yeah, The Shield…’ and then “Hey, can you sign this comic book for my kid? The Shield’s awesome, man, but I’ve got a 10-year-old and he’s freakin’ out—he loves The Thing.’”
Q: How deep into the next season are you guys right now?
Chiklis: “We just wrapped episode three, and we’re doing 21 this time. We were doing 13 like we normally do, and they just picked up eight more, and I think it’s because they’re anticipating me going and doing Fantastic Four 2.”
Q: What’s the new angle for the fifth season? “The Shield has added Laura Harring to the cast as an attorney who gets caught up with the strike team, and Forest Whitaker will be playing an Internal Affairs detective this year.
Chiklis: “Yeah, Harring’s amazing, and Forest Whitaker—Maaaaan! Wow! He’s very good. I’ve always been a fan, but then when you trade chops with an actor face-to-face, then you really see the craft, and he’s right there. It goes back to original sin. It goes back to the original sin of the series.”
Q: Interesting…I thought this past season we might see the beginning of the redemption of Vic, and then by the end I was like ‘He may be worse off then ever.”
Chiklis: “Ooooo, you’re going LOVE this season. I wish I could tell you. I have to say, really honestly, the writers—we were marveling the other day. We were saying ‘Wow, we’re in the fifth season of this thing and we’re lovin’ it like it’s day one.’ That doesn’t happen. We’re having a great time with it. We’re keeping the main body cast and injecting really talented people who are bringing something to the dance, and making a fresh energy, like Laura, and Anthony [Anderson] and Glenn [Close]. There’ll be more of that. These first three episodes rival anything we’ve done.”
Q: Are you directing some episodes this year?
Chiklis: “I’m directing right after Thanksgiving. I’m directing show six and I’m really excited about it.”
Q: Will Forest be directing any episodes? Because he’s a pretty talented director, too.
Chiklis: “That’s a good question—I don’t know. Geez, that didn’t even occur to me…Of course! I’m going to ask about that. I don’t know.”
Q: And I hear your family’s going as the Fantastic Four for Halloween—Will you be going as The Thing, or do you want to try out one of the other characters for a change?
Chiklis: “Oh no, I’m The Thing! What am I gonna do, have one of my daughters play The Thing? Or my wife? C’mon!”
