For seven years, actor Michael Chicklis played Vic Mackey on FX’s acclaimed drama series “The Shield.” During that time, Chicklis won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his work as the morally dubious character in what is considered one of the best drama series of the past decade.
During that time, Chicklis also found time to star as Ben Grimm aka the Thing in the two “Fantastic Four” films.
But when it came to playing his role as Jim Powell, the father of “No Ordinary Family,” Chicklis says that he’s happy to be on a show that he can watch with his kids.
“It is nice to go to work and laugh and be light and deal with a completely different tone of work and material. I love the fact that I’m doing something that I can sit with my family and really enjoy [watching],” he tells Blastr.
Chicklis says that “Family” is a hybrid of three other genres, “he family show, the police procedural, and the superhero show” and “that’s never been done before.”
In the series, Chicklis’s character is an artist who works as a police sketch artist. This helps give the characters an in on the police aspect of the show. But the scenes that Chicklis says have been the most fun are the superhero ones.
“The superhero aspect of the show just really makes it fun and gives us a larger canvas and bigger palette to paint with in the context of a family show. But at its core, it really is a family show,” said Chiklis.
Chicklis adds that after years of playing the morally questionable Vic Mackey, that playing Powers is a nice change and that Powers is the closest to who he is.
“I am so used to being able to slip into other people’s skin and, in a way, hiding in that skin. But this is sort of who I am in a lot of different ways. I am a husband. I’m a father of two. I care deeply about my friends and family, and I have my ups and my downs just like everybody else. You try to pick your way through this life and navigate it the way you can be proud of at the end of the day. And we all have that to relate to about the show.”
We’ll have more on the show on this week’s Slice of SciFi. And you can catch the series premiere tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC.
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