In a recent, and lengthy interview with Vulture. Michael "Ben Grimm" Chiklis talks about his old show "The Shield" and his new role in ABC's new superhero show "No Ordinary Family." Here's a portion of the part of the interview pertaining to "No Ordinary Family."
How did No Ordinary Family come about? Was it built around you?
No, it was just an offer. I’d just opened myself up again for television since the end of "The Shield." It was a very flattering pilot season in that there were a number of offers made. This came in from Greg Berlanti, and it was just so different from everything else in the landscape. Ambitious, too. My concern going in was the tone, because it’s the kind of thing that has so much in it — drama, comedy, action. Are we going to be able to do this in a way where everything works?
Were you sought for this series because of your superhero work in the Fantastic Four movies? Honestly, "The Commish" had more to do with it. After the fact, I found out that he was a fan of "The Commish" when he was a kid, which was sort of a bouquet with a brick in it. I was like, "Oh, when you were a kid?" But I think it’s a combination of the two. My instinct is that you need someone who has an everyman quality but who can also be heroic. It’s a very demanding role in that you have to be able to go to a lot of different places. There’s the familial, there’s the superhero, and there’s the cop procedural, and I've done work in all those areas, but never in combination, so it’s fun.
How are you contending with the physical demands of the role? I’m not a spring chicken anymore. I often joke that my career is ass-backwards: When I was in my late 20s, I was playing a roly-poly affable police commissioner, and now I’m well into my 40s and I’m playing a superhero. I’m really trying to take care of my health and stay physically fit. I’m on the Fresh Dining program; I eat my food out of a bag every day, and you do the things you can to keep your weight in check.
The very first shot on the very first day of the pilot, I tore my calf muscle. It was seven o’clock in the morning, it was chilly out, I had to do this sprint on a rooftop. I didn’t stretch out, I went into a sprint, and when I went to jump, I really threw a lot of torque into it and — pop, my calf just went. I had to shoot the entire pilot injured. So that made me brutally aware of how physical this gig is. My superpower is power and a lot of jumping and a lot of carrying people. The other day I was doing a lot of jumping with Romany Malco in my arms, and if you do twelve takes on that it can really wreak havoc on your lower back.
“No Ordinary Family” stars Michael Chiklis as Jim Powell, Julie Benz as Stephanie Powell, Romany Malco as George St. Cloud, Autumn Reeser as Katie Andrews, Kay Panabaker as Daphne Powell, Jimmy Bennett as JJ Powell and Stephen Collins as Dr. Dayton King. The show airs on ABC Tuesdays at 8 pm ET/PT.
DLM: To check out the rest of the interview, where he continues to talk about "No Ordinary Family," plus "The Fantastic Four" and "The Shield." Head over to Vulture by using the link below.
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