Michael Chiklis – A Look at the Actor, The Pink Pig & The Senior
The first time I saw Michael Chiklis at work was back in 1991, on a Season 3 episode of Seinfeld. He played the host of a Long Island party that Jerry, Elaine and George quickly regretted attending. Although Michael’s character only appeared in that one episode, he was unforgettable. His innate talent shone in a show that had not yet become a hit but would ultimately become the most successful sitcom in TV history.
All these decades later, Michael has had many more opportunities to display his chops as an actor. From 1991 to 1996, he starred in the ABC comedy-drama series The Commish, and in 2002 to 2008, he starred in FX’s hit streaming series, The Shield. Michael won two Emmys and a Golden Globe for his performance over seven seasons. Michael further cemented his legacy in pop culture by portraying Ben Grimm aka the Thing in both of the Fantastic Four movies released in 2005 and 2007.
Michael’s recent achievement, a film called The Senior, is coming to theaters soon. Based on the true story of a college football player nearly 40 years older than his teammates, The Senior provides Michael with another vehicle to show us what he can do in front of the camera.
“THE SENIOR IS ABOUT SECOND CHANCES AND ABOUT REDEEMING YOURSELF FOR THINGS YOU MAY HAVE DONE WRONG WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG, FOOLISH AND CONFUSED…IT’S ABOUT OVERCOMING THOSE THINGS AND BECOMING A MENTOR AND EXAMPLE FOR THE BOYS HE WAS PLAYING WITH ON THIS TEAM. IT'S A BEAUTIFUL STORY, REALLY.”
Audrey Pavia: I watched The Senior the other night. It's about college football player Mike Flynt, who began his career at the age of 59. It's quite a story.
Michael Chiklis: Mike Flynt played college football at a place called Sul Ross State University, which is a big-time West Texas football team. In the beginning of his senior year, he was kicked off not only the football team but out of his school for fighting. It's something he regretted his whole life. Some 40 years later, he receives an invitation to a college reunion, which he thought was a mistake. Turns out it wasn't. He went to the reunion just to get that demon off his back, and one thing led to another, and he became The Senior.
There’s football in the film, but it’s not just about football.
No. The Senior is about second chances and about redeeming yourself for things you may have done wrong when you were young, foolish and confused. Flynt went through some really tough stuff with his own family, with his own father. It’s about overcoming those things and becoming a mentor and example for the boys he was playing with on this team. It's a beautiful story, really.
You don't have to be a football fan or even care about football at all to appreciate the film.
Exactly. There’s very little football in the movie, per se. It’s the context of football that actually heightens the excitement and the drama. Frankly, the football sequences are pretty great, but you don't need to know a thing about football to follow this story and come to love Mike and his family, and the boys on this team. I have to shout out to the guys on the team in the film. They did a phenomenal job, and we became very close. Also, Mary Stuart Masterson, who plays my wife, was so brilliant and so lovely.
How did you come to work on this film?
The script came to me, and bless Rod Lurie, he was the one who wanted me for it. What a wonderful director. I just had an incredible working experience with him. He brought all the elements of this thing together, he and Mark Ciardi, who's just a wonderful producer. You know Mark from Invincible and Miracle, and all these incredible sports-oriented films. Mark was a professional baseball player himself. He understands camaraderie and what team sports can teach you, how they can bond people, and the remarkable learning experiences you go through as a person working on a team. All of those things come together in The Senior. Sometimes you just know you're working on something that's special, that's different. Right from the beginning, it was a bolt from the blue.
As you're describing the film and its themes, it makes me think of Ted Lasso in a sense that it uses sports as a tool to go into all kinds of other deep subjects.
Yes. You fell in love with Ted Lasso and the team and their camaraderie, and all the lessons that they derived from those experiences together. I was the captain of my football team in high school. I played all kinds of sports—baseball and hockey—I was an athlete growing up. I have some of the greatest memories. I had great learning experiences. I was also very fortunate because I had great coaches. Great coaches are there to help you grow, to help you learn.
Sports are incredibly valuable in your growth and maturation as a human being. It teaches you so many different things about how to handle loss, how to handle victory, how to deal with adversity and how to get along with people. It teaches you how to work with people that you don't necessarily relate to, how to find chemistry with people of dissimilar backgrounds. I've taken it into every single aspect of my adult life.
To get back to Mike Flynt, he’s from West Texas. He had violence visited upon him as a kid, and oftentimes people continue that sort of abuse in their own lives. Some people have to break that cycle of violence and abuse. When you see a man struggle and find redemption after all of that, it makes your heart swell. You want to root for people like that.
You were specifically requested to be in the film. Why do you think they wanted you?
Sometimes roles just align with an actor. I guess one of my sweet spots is that “tough guy with a heart” generalization. That's Mike Flynt. Mike's a hard guy. His name is “Flynt” for crying out loud. He's a stone. He's this rock-hard guy with this hard veneer, but a heart of gold, and someone who is very compassionate and loving. He wants to be a great husband and a great father, and a great teammate. He struggles with his own past and his own demons, as we all do.
Tell me about the stunts. I know you did a lot of them yourself.
I did. I think some of the best words I ever heard in my life was, "Michael, you're wrapped," because when I wrapped, nothing had broken. I was so thrilled because I actually did this film when I was 59, and that's when Mike Flynt lived it. And while I did not actually try out for a Division 2 college football team and make it, I played with these kids when shooting. I'd say I did 90% of my own football in the film. I think the only shots that I didn't do are when my character gets completely cleaned out. I'm so glad I didn't do those because some of these young men were just crushing each other.
You were shooting with actual football players?
Yes, they play big-time Division 1 and Division 2 football, all these kids. They did an incredible job. The football feels authentic, like real college football. It felt like that on the day, which was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, because there's a lot of bodies flying around.
Did you have to train for the film?
Oh, yes. Absolutely. Every day. And I found the wonders of the cold plunge. You've seen ice baths and stuff, but there's something that now all athletes use, which is a cold plunge. It's water that's 40 degrees or lower. It's between like 36 and 40 degrees, and you submerge to your neck for three to five minutes. I’ve got to tell you, it's difficult at first, but once you get into doing it, it makes living to 100 feasible. Yes, it's painful for the first 30 seconds, but once you get used to it, you're used to it. The next day, instead of hobbling around and not being able to move and feeling stiff and sore, you're a different person. You're okay.
I know that you had a chance to meet the real Mike Flynt. What was that like?
He was there every day on set. That was a little unnerving initially because when you're playing someone, you don't expect them to be sitting there watching you. That's a little daunting. It makes you a little self-conscious. But then we quickly realized they were not there to be critical. They were not there to impose themselves, or give notes, or tell us what to do. They were just fascinated by the process and excited about the whole thing. They were incredibly supportive, and we became fast friends. I quite love Mike and Eileen [Flynt’s wife], and his whole family. I'm really proud to have been a part of telling this story.
Switching gears a bit. You have a special connection to a tequila called The Pink Pig.
I do. My oldest daughter, Autumn Chiklis, who is a professional writer, has made an incredible añejo cristalino tequila called The Pink Pig. I'm so proud of her and her business partner, Marissa Lepor. Great ideas are a dime a dozen, but it's rare when people follow through on them. They were at a bar one day and they both were having a tequila. They looked up at the bar, and everything was made and marketed towards men. They thought, ‘Why don't we make and market a high-end tequila toward women that men could also appreciate and enjoy?’ At the same time, they wanted a portion of the sales to help women start-up companies by supporting a non-profit, Grameen America. Every single day, they took steps to continue it. They went down to Mexico and met all the great top 10 distilleries. They ended up working with two women who own and operate a tequila distillery in Jalisco.
My big bit of advice as a father was, "Just make sure that what's in the bottles is exceptional." They really took that to heart, and they made the best tequila. It's my favorite by far, and on top of it, at an incredible price point. It really is exceptional. The greatest thing is you don't have to drink it neat. You put it on a rock with any citrus that you love, or you put it into any drink, and it elevates it. It's an incredibly versatile alcohol.
“HONESTLY, MY FAVORITE CIGAR IS THE MY FATHER LE BIJOU TORPEDO. IT'S A STRONG SMOKE, BUT I'M NOT A PERSON WHO SMOKES ALL THE TIME. AFTER DINNER, I'LL HAVE MY ONE CIGAR. THAT'S WHY I LIKE IT STRONG. IT’S A NIGHTCAP. IT'S MY DESSERT, IF YOU WILL. IT JUST CALMS ME.”
You're a cigar guy. Can you tell me what are some of your favorite smokes?
Honestly, my favorite cigar is the My Father Le Bijou Torpedo. It's a strong smoke, but I'm not a person who smokes all the time. After dinner, I'll have my one cigar. That's why I like it strong. It’s a nightcap. It's my dessert, if you will. It just calms me. I like that. I really look forward to that time at the end of the day to sit and have that cigar, and either read or write or just have a nice conversation with whomever I'm with.
There are others I like. I was shooting in the Dominican Republic for about four months last year and went to the Arturo Fuente company and got some great cigars there. All different kinds. That's a family that's really steeped in the tradition of making great cigars. They're a wonderful cigar maker.
I think you have phenomenal cigars coming out of Nicaragua and out of the Dominican Republic, where initially those were inferior to the cigars coming out of Cuba, but that's no longer true. I think they've really leapt forward over the last 25 years. Now, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you start to get extremely well-made, refined cigars coming out of the United States, and other countries in South and Central America as well.
Thank you so much for talking to us today, Michael. It’s been great meeting you, and I loved The Senior.
Thank you. I'm so glad you enjoyed the movie.
THE PINK PIG TEQUILA IS TYPICALLY THOUGHT OF AS A MAN’S DRINK.
Something about the machismo of its Latin origins, perhaps? But Autumn Chiklis, daughter of Michael Chiklis, and her friend, Marissa Lepor, are two women who like tequila, and saw an opportunity to market this popular spirit to women.
“The Pink Pig started a few years ago when one of my best friends and I were celebrating International Women's Day,” Autumn recently told Cigar & Spirits. “We were at an event, and we ended up ordering skinny margaritas at the bar. It launched this whole conversation about how despite the fact so many women in our lives are huge tequila lovers, it's still a very male-dominated industry. Anytime there's anything even remotely female facing, it tends to be ‘tequila for her,’ where there's this emphasis on it being skinny or diet, or less alcoholic, or it's sweet. There's just all of these diminishing adjectives and associations with it.”
This conversation sparked an idea, prompting Autumn and Marissa to create a brand that is all about celebrating the empowerment and ambition of women.
“We wanted a tequila that someone like me could enjoy, someone like my dad could enjoy—literally any person under the sun can enjoy,” she said. “Where it doesn't matter who you are—it's a high-quality, delicious product.
The result is a premium añejo filtered through activated charcoal, designed to be a fresh tasting aged tequila that’s also crystal clear. With vanilla, butterscotch and toffee notes, it also includes the herbaceous, tropical zing of a blanco. Made with 100% blue agave and aged in white oak bourbon barrels, The Pink Pig cristalino is considered exceptionally smooth and sippable.
In keeping with the female empowerment theme, The Pink Pig partners with Grameen America, a nonprofit organization that provides microloans, training and support to low-income women to help them start or expand their small businesses. The Pink Pig donates a portion of profits to the organization, helping support these hard-working entrepreneurs. -A.P.
Randy Mastronicola is the editor and publisher of Cigar & Spirits Magazine.
Article written by Audrey Pavia, she is an award-winning writer and editor living in Southern California and she has authored twenty-three nonfiction books. Audrey is a frequent contributor and consulting editor for Cigar & Spirits Magazine.