Ioan Gruffudd and Michael Chiklis opened up about their experiences playing Mr. Fantastic and the Thing, respectively, in the original “Fantastic Four” film series, and what it took to bring their superhero characters to life during their “Back to the Baxter Building” panel on Thursday at New York Comic Con.
Chiklis kicked off the conversation, revealing that he almost quit the role because of how claustrophobic the suit became, noting it would take the costume design team five hours to transform him into the Thing.
“Once they locked the Thing with the glue, I couldn’t get out of it,” Chiklis explained. “Once they glued the hands on, I’m trapped in this suit with no zipper. I’m thirsty all the time because as soon as you have that thing, the latex at its thickest was at the chest, so it didn’t breathe at all.”
He continued, “Immediately, my body core would go up, my body temperature would rise, and I would start to feel a little panicked sometimes. I’m not claustrophobic at all. But in that situation, I was.”
Chiklis said that his claustrophobia got so bad that he had to call a psychiatrist to help him not quit the movie.
“She [the psychiatrist] gave me a bunch of different things to get me out of my head and into the room. Even with that, there were two occasions where I flipped out and said, ‘I got to get out.’ They pulled everything off me, and that cost us hours. I didn’t mean it, I just was flipping out.”
Despite being immersed in American culture, Gruffudd said that learning how to adopt an American accent was an “interesting experience” that required him to spend hours with a dialect coach and getting to know Mr. Fantastic intimately.
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“It’s important to find the character’s voice authentically,” Gruffudd said. “That comes from reading the script over and over and sitting down with the dialect coach to get an idea of what would sound right. He’s a very bright, smart and honorable man, so that lends itself as a way into the character. The voice and accent had to marry who he was. So, I am quite proud of the way that he came across.”
With Marvel’s “Avengers: Secret Wars” swiftly underway, both actors said they are open to reprising their roles and were met with a crowd of loud cheers as Chiklis said, “It’s clobberin’ time,” to confirm he would participate in the crossover.
As the original Mr. Fantastic and the Thing, both actors reflected on bonding with each other and their castmates while on the set of “Fantastic Four” and its sequel, “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”
“When you’re immersed in something like that for almost six months, and then you travel the world promoting it, you do become a family,” Gruffudd said. “You have a shorthand with one another, and you care and look out for one another.”
He continued, “The blood, sweat and tears that went into making the movies — then you get to see it all up on the big screen, and all the work that was done after the movie was shot — and then to promote it. It was just a wild ride.”
From Variety US