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Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. Were you aware of the comic books as a child?
A: I'm the only one of the four that was an avid Fantastic
Four fan, so that shows my age. 12, 13, 14 years old, I used to
go down to the corner store and get The Fantastic Four.
I really thought I was a big comic book fan until I went to Comicon
with these guys and realised what real comic-book fans were. They
put the fan in fanatic, they're people, they really live it.
I knew it was going to be a little daunting when a man said to
me, "Mr Chiklis, in Episode 283, when your character..."
and I went, "Whoa, wait a minute..."
Q. Have you had any experiences with fans whose expectations
were really high?
Michael: I've had multiple sort of encounters. Again,
starting with Comicon, I had a man about my own age come up to
me dressed as The Thing! That stunned me.
I've had emails, fan mail, that's really hashing it, questions
and requests, like 'please, to get it right'! Or 'what are you
going to be doing, exactly?'
I do wanna say to the hardcore fans, we did really labour over
everything. Particularly as far as I was concerned, the look of
The Thing. This was the topic from day one with myself, Tim Story
and Avi Arad.
We all agreed instantly that it shouldn't be CGI. That it should
be a person and silly me, I was all for it.
It obviously ended up being an incredibly onerous task being in
that costume, but ultimately we made the right choice because
you want to see a human being in that body, because there's tremendous
amount of pathos and humanity behind Ben Grimm. If we'd done it
with CGI, it would have been lost.
Q. If you had a super-power for the weekend? How would
you enjoy it?
A: Flying sounds really good. But I've always fancied
great strength. That's why I was sort of cast in the right role.
But for the weekend, I think I have to go with flight too. If
you only had a limited amount of time, it's the thing you could
do the most with.
Q. How tough was wearing the make-up?
A. It really took the whole first week for me to start
to really feel like I was embracing it and it wasn't in control
of me. The first few days were horrible for me, I didn't expect
it. I knew intellectually that I was going to be wearing this
make-up; I knew what I was in for, but knowing something intellectually
and then when the rubber meets the face is a different experience
as it were.
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Q. Is it claustrophobic?
A. I’ve never been a claustrophobe. I even talked
to a psychiatrist during this period. I had to. I’m not
anxious by nature, I’m a kind of a laid back person I don’t
expeirience anxiety ever.
But for me to have meltown that first day totally surprised me.
There were a lot of people counting on me; my entire network had
pushed shooting of The Shield back three ands a half months to
accomodate me doing this movie, so I think that contributed to
it. As soon as I had the thought in my mind, 'I can't do this',
it sort of snowballed on me, how can I tell them kind of thing.
It took a few days for me to get used to it; for me to go, 'ok,
I can breathe, I can hear, I can see, I can speak. I'm all right'.
That became my mantra.
Finally I went okay and it got better and better. The other guys
saved me because they were so patient and phenomenal in terms
of letting me shoot my side first so I could take my legs off!
They were amazing in that way and I thanked them all the time
for it.
I consider it one of the triumphs of my life when I heard the
words, 'Michael, you’re wrapped'.
Q. What did you think of the negative reaction from
some of the US critics?
A: It certaintly seemed like they were reviewing Wuthering
Heights. Look, we went in to it knowing what it was and what we
were trying to make, which was a fun ride - something to go to
with the family, friends, or a date, or with children, with a
big barrel of popcorn, candy and a soda, and have a ride and a
laugh. That's it, that's what it is, a jaunt. It's fun!
Q. After the box office success, are you now locked
into a new franchise and facing the possibility of more movies?
A: I'm so thrilled to be here right now! Doing this movie
was sort of an hour by hour process for me. So it's hard for me
to go there yet, back into that Thing. But I've signed up for
two more. But we all look forward, I'm sure, to doing more. But
we're all pretty road-tired at the moment and we can't wait to
hear people's response to it for the moment.
It is a long process. You shoot the movie for five or six months
and then you wait for five or six months for it to get posted.
Then all of a sudden it all comes down to one weekend and, thank
God, it opened! It was big and it's doing really well. Now you
sort of want to get feedback from people. You want to go into
the back of the theatre with a hat on and listen to kids laugh.
Related stories: Fantastic
Four review
Fantastic Four feature
Fantastic Four - clips and
footage
Ioan Gruffudd interview
Jessica Alba interview
Chris Evans interview
Fantastic Four sets
US box office alight
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