{"id":201586,"date":"2025-10-09T23:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/201586\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T23:39:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:39:15","slug":"ioan-gruffudd-michael-chiklis-open-to-star-in-secret-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/201586\/","title":{"rendered":"Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Chiklis Open to Star in ‘Secret Wars’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIoan Gruffudd<\/a> and Michael Chiklis<\/a> opened up about their experiences playing Mr. Fantastic and the Thing, respectively, in the original \u201cFantastic Four\u201d film series, and what it took to bring their superhero characters to life during their \u201cBack to the Baxter Building\u201d panel on Thursday at New York Comic Con<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tChiklis 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOnce they locked the Thing with the glue, I couldn\u2019t get out of it,\u201d Chiklis explained. \u201cOnce they glued the hands on, I\u2019m trapped in this suit with no zipper. I\u2019m thirsty all the time because as soon as you have that thing, the latex at its thickest was at the chest, so it didn\u2019t breathe at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cImmediately, my body core would go up, my body temperature would rise, and I would start to feel a little panicked sometimes. I\u2019m not claustrophobic at all. But in that situation, I was.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tChiklis said that his claustrophobia got so bad that he had to call a psychiatrist to help him not quit the movie. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe [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, \u2018I got to get out.\u2019 They pulled everything off me, and that cost us hours. I didn\u2019t mean it, I just was flipping out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite being immersed in American culture, Gruffudd said that learning how to adopt an American accent was an \u201cinteresting experience\u201d that required him to spend hours with a dialect coach and getting to know Mr. Fantastic intimately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s important to find the character\u2019s voice authentically,\u201d Gruffudd said. \u201cThat 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Marvel\u2019s \u201cAvengers: Secret Wars\u201d swiftly underway, both actors said they are open to reprising their roles and were met with a crowd of loud cheers as Chiklis said, \u201cIt\u2019s clobberin\u2019 time,\u201d to confirm he would participate in the crossover.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the original Mr. Fantastic and the Thing, both actors reflected on bonding with each other and their castmates while on the set of \u201cFantastic Four\u201d and its sequel, \u201cFantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen you\u2019re immersed in something like that for almost six months, and then you travel the world promoting it, you do become a family,\u201d Gruffudd said. \u201cYou have a shorthand with one another, and you care and look out for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cThe blood, sweat and tears that went into making the movies \u2014 then you get to see it all up on the big screen, and all the work that was done after the movie was shot \u2014 and then to promote it. It was just a wild ride.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ioan Gruffudd and Michael Chiklis opened up about their experiences playing Mr. Fantastic and the Thing, respectively, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,30584,17790,344,125596],"class_list":{"0":"post-201586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ioan-gruffudd","12":"tag-michael-chiklis","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-new-york-comic-con"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}