The day job has Michael Chiklis extorting, killing and meting out rough justice as Vic Mackey, the worst sort of cop to wear “The Shield.”
It’s only natural he would want a little break from that. He was more than happy to leave the mean streets behind, to slip on a latex suit and play The Thing in “Fantastic Four” and its sequel opening Friday, “Rise of the Silver Surfer.”
He plays Ben Grimm, pal since college of Mr. Fantastic, a streetwise guy who mutates into the wise-cracking — “It’s clobberin’ time!” — stone-cold beast, The Thing.
Chiklis, 43, didn’t know what he was getting himself into — or what suit he would be getting himself into.
“The first film, it was just a bad situation, physically,” he said. “… But for the second film, I could remove it at any time in between takes. That made all the difference in the world. I wasn’t locked in it for 12 hours at a time, trapped in a pool of my own sweat. Kind of disgusting, I’m sorry. But that’s The Thing for you.”
They don’t call actors “troupers” for nothing, though. Chiklis found ways to use that experience.
“Ironically, as uncomfortable as that [first suit] was, it made me move in a way that was right for my character,” he said. “It gave me the sense memory for the rest of the movie franchise. This one, I could slip it off in five minutes. It was like getting a raise in salary.”
Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and Chris Evans — who play the title characters — all are signed up for a third “Four,” which is almost a certainty, “depending on the box office,” Chiklis said.
Meanwhile, that day job beckons. He’s readying to return for a final season of playing Mackey in the last season of “The Shield.”
“I can’t go there, yet,” he said, noting that production on that last season begins Monday. “I’m in the denial stage that this is ending. I have to go and do it. And if I think about it, I’ll be done.
“You can’t have Vic Mackey busting out into tears on the first day. Save it for the wrap party.”
