Michael Chiklis has gone from playing a corrupt cop on ‘The Shield’ to being a super hero dad on ‘No Ordinary Family’. John Byrne reports for TEN from Hollywood.
We're on the Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, which is easily the most fascinating and architectually impressive of the many TV and movie studios dotted across the greater Los Angeles landscape.
Built from the revenue generated in 1937 by the runaway success of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, the lot has grown over the decades and, as well as being a functioning HQ and studios for what is now a multi-media global empire, it’s also something of a working museum, tracing the history of the studios.
It’s an awful pity that, alone amongst the big Hollywood studios, there are no public tours of this monument to the visionary genius of studio founder, Walt Disney. Indeed, there’s an almost Charlile Bucket-like buzz about getting inside the gates and being led past and through buildings bursting with many of Disney’s TV and movie memories.
We come to a full stop at the set of ‘No Ordinary Family’, a family, sci-fi drama starring Michael Chiklis (‘The Shield’) and Julie Benz (‘Dexter’) as Jim and Stephanie Powell, the parents of a family who find themselves with super powers following a plane crash in the Brazilian jungle.
The show has been compared to ‘The Incredibles’, Pixar’s brilliant animated movie about, eh, a family with super powers, but such lazy comparisons does ‘No Ordinary Family’ little justice.
It’s been running on British satelitte channel Watch for the last couple of months and it’s a fun show that all the family can enjoy, as it mixes the super hero side of the story with family-type dilemmas, and a fair dollop of humour, all of which helps to broaden the show’s appeal beyond that of recent fantasy series such as ‘Heroes’ or ‘Lost’.
Still looking for comparisons? It’s a bit like ‘Smallville’ for all ages, so it’s no coincidence that members of that show’s writing team are on board.
For Chiklis it’s a sideways step from his role as Ben Grimm/The Thing in the ‘Fantastic Four’ movies, but a major departure from the gritty, award-winning drama series ‘The Shield’, where he excelled as corrupt cop, Vic Mackey. But one of the great attractions of acting is the potential for playing a variety of roles, and Michael Chiklis is definitely in that camp.
While weighing up his options before he signed a deal to join the cast of ‘No Ordinary Family’, he contemplated change. “I think certainly, if another script that was as powerful as ‘The Shield’ had landed on my desk, I don't think I could have refused it, but that's not something that happens every day, you know. It just doesn't. A lot of people try for that, but also I think I was leaning towards going a totally different direction,” he says.
“I spent seven years really going to very dark places [in The Shield], and I loved the experience . . . but, as an actor you want to mix it up and do different things and satisfy different parts of your soul, and this was just fun, you know, and a fantasy and entertainment. And some things are meant to be socially relevant and powerful and all that heavy shit . . .” Pausing to apologise for his mild profanity, Chklis continued: “And some things, you know, are meant to be entertainment, and this was that.”
For one thing, Chiklis’ previous gig on The Shield was causing some confusion at home, where such a show would be the antithesis of wholesome family viewing. Yet another reason for a change in style and content.
“I've got my 11-year old who was starting to question if I was even an actor anymore,” he grins. ‘“Dad, I can't see anything that you're in.” So it's nice to be able to sit down with the entire family and watch something. Although it's interesting, even though The Shield was one of the great acting challenges of my life, this is one of the great challenges of my life as a show totally, in terms of making the whole of it work.
“It's much harder to do something that appeals to a broader audience because, if you go too dark, you lose the family. If you go too light, you lose the young men, who, are, like, “Oh, whatever.”
But then, if you don't go too far in any direction, you become mayonnaise. So you're nothing; you're mediocre. So in order to pull it off, you have to be really great. I mean, you have to be smart and charming and witty and exciting and keep the pace going and everything. I think we're really starting to find our footing now.”
Our interview takes place in one of the school classes attended by the Powell kids, son JJ and daughter Daphne Nicole. And afterwards there was a mini tour of the set as we were brought to the lab where Stephanie works. It was pointed out that ‘nothing goes to waste at Disney’ as the lab is a combination of parts from two recent (and cancelled) shows, ‘FlashForward’ and ‘Eli Stone’.
That's how fickle the TV business can be – especially in the USA, where early on a show that fails to pick up a certain number of viewers can find itself in real trouble, regardless of its quality.
It’s a subject Michael Chiklis isn’t afraid to discuss. While ‘No Ordinary Family’ works as both a sci-fi story and a tale of modern family life, the bottom line is that, if the numbers don’t stack up, it’s history.
‘You know, I'd be lying if I said we didn't look at that,’ he admits, before emphasising his positive feelings about the show. ‘I don't think I would if I wasn't so engaged, if I didn't see the tremendous potential for this show because I really think we have a world-class cast . . . you can't buy that. I mean, that's something that you have that chemistry with each other or you don't.
“We truly do love each other on this cast, and we have a great crew, and now, like I said earlier, we're starting to run. We see all the things that we can do, and we know what we're running towards in terms of the storylines. So,’ he adds, ‘you have tremendous hope that people will give us the chance to gain traction and grow.’
No Ordinary Family continues on Tuesdays on Watch
