Michael Chiklis May Have Never Landed 'The Shield' If He Weren't Neighbors With The Show's Creator
Typecasting is a double-edged sword; it can help actors secure parts but also limit the type of roles they play. But if an actor plays against type well enough and long enough, they can either break out of the box or form a whole new screen persona. Take "Breaking Bad," which famously turned Bryan Cranston, best known as the dopey dad from "Malcolm in the Middle," into a drug kingpin.
Before Walter White, there was Vic Mackey on "The Shield." A corrupt LAPD officer in bed with the very street gangs he's supposed to be breaking, Vic was played by Michael Chiklis. When "The Shield" premiered in 2002, Chiklis' most famous role was a cop, but a very different one than Vic Mackey.
Chiklis had been the lead in ABC series "The Commish" — his character was Tony Scali, an upstate New York police commissioner. That series' take on law enforcement was much sunnier than that of "The Shield." He also had a brief run as a stay-at-home dad in a cut-short sitcom, "Daddio."
How did a sitcom actor get the lead part in such a dark drama? It was serendipity. Chiklis was neighbors with Shawn Ryan, creator of "The Shield." The two were introduced by their wives and since Ryan wasn't aware of Chiklis' work, he gave him his script to read. But even before then, Chiklis had been preparing for "The Shield" without knowing it.
Breaking out of typecasting
Chiklis is one of the many actors who've been interviewed for "The Interviews: An Oral History of Television." During his talk, he discussed how he feels typecasting happens and how he sought to break out of it:
"If you're an actor and you're in this business you have to think about an executive. If I'm the executive, in charge of $300 million [...] budget for the season, you tend to compartmentalize [...] to plug things in [...] So [actors] become a cliché to that person, 'We need an affable guy, Chiklis will go there.' 'We need a mean guy, so and so will go there.' That's how you get typecast, it's more people looking at a huge palette and they need to plug people into that."
Since he'd starred in lighthearted shows, Chiklis was "plugged in" as a friendly man in more family-friendly shows. After the cancellation of "Daddio," he decided he didn't want to keep being "plugged into" the same niche and would rather act in something, "smart, hard-hitting, and adult." As he recounted to Entertainment Weekly, his wife Michelle is the one who gave him the advice he needed: "'It's not incumbent on the studios [to] reinvent you, it's incumbent upon you to reinvent yourself'. [So] I worked out three hours a day, shaved my head."
Chiklis promised himself he wouldn't take a new part until he secured one like what he wanted. He and his wife even began writing a film script about a "rogue cop" as a star vehicle for him. Unbeknownst to the Chiklis family, a part of that exact mold would be coming to them.
All thanks to Gymboree
Chiklis recounts that while he and his wife were taking their child to a Gymboree class, they met Cathy Ryan, Shawn Ryan's wife and a friend of Michelle Chiklis' since preschool (she would later play Vic's wife Corrine on "The Shield"). Chiklis then met Shawn Ryan and the writer told him about his new script for FX, "The Barn." Chiklis' reaction? "He's doing something about farm animals at a station I've never heard of."
When Chiklis actually sat down with the script, though, he was won over: "This is the best script I've ever read and I need to play [Vic]." Auditions and two title revisions later, Chiklis was playing Vic Mackey on "The Shield." Though not without resistance from FX.
Ryan told Entertainment Weekly how he had to convince his casting team as much as Chiklis did:
"There was resistance amongst our casting folks when they heard he wanted to come and audition, like, 'He's really wrong for this.' I told them, 'Listen, anyone who's willing, we should let them audition.' Michael had the foresight to realize he was going to have to knock down the door."
Chiklis was also aware the odds weren't in his favor too: "I knew I had to earn the role, I had to win it and there's a lot of value in that. When you win something, then everybody's mind is set at ease." Chiklis' mix of determination and frustration meant he went into the audition carrying himself with anger: "If nothing else, I'm going to make them fear me." As he notes, that anger was "probably fortuitous," since the way Chiklis carried himself proved he was the right man to play Vic Mackey.