No, he hasn’t gotten to watch much of his star-turning role on Showtime’s smash Shameless, and there are reasons for that: he’s been busy blood-lusting as Romanian vampire Vladimir in the fall blockbuster Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and getting hanged as an accused murderer in the upcoming docu-series The Hatfields & McCoys. Terron R. Moore talked with Mickey just before he decked a cop in the face to avoid the revelation of his illicit gay romance. There’s bad boys, and then there’s Noel Fisher.
OLOGY: You probably know that this season of Shameless has gotten absolutely insane.
NOEL: [Laughs] I’ve heard! For most of the first season and second season, I haven't actually been home so I don't get a chance to watch. I [ask about the show] on Twitter and Facebook because I always want to see what people's reactions are.
What made you want to play Mickey?
NOEL: In choosing parts, I gravitate towards writing that really captures me. I have kind of a dark sense of humor: I grew up watching South Park, Family Guy, that kind of stuff. So it's like this steady progression of getting more and more wrong, and what happens in Shameless often is just flat-out wrong. So it’s a chance to be a part of something that hasn't been done before. And one of the great things about Mickey is just that he is so un-stereotypical. He is the polar opposite of anything that you’ve ever seen, and I really enjoy playing that.
Mickey is a tough guy, but Shameless’ second season has dived a bit more into defining Mickey and Ian together, specifically with the scene in the baseball field.
NOEL: It's interesting, because in terms of being out and being in himself, I think Ian's character is miles ahead of Mickey. And then in another way, Mickey is so much in himself and who he is and okay with that rough, not needing to impress anybody [persona], that he’s miles ahead of Ian in that regard. So a really wonderful thing about that particular scene—which was one of my favorite scenes that we've ever done, the writing is beautiful in it—it’s a scene where you get to see how those two opposite characters compliment each other in a lot of ways.
Right- but as of last night, Mickey goes and gets himself arrested in order to avoid coming out, and it ends their relationship.
NOEL: The funny thing about Mickey is—and I think that a lot of the Shameless world takes place in this kind of mindset, and it's especially true with the Milkovichs—jail is just kind of an accepted part of life. In the first season there's a scene after I go to jail with my dad where he basically says “hey, he lasted longer than I thought he was going to.” So I think that's kind of an accepted reality for Mickey, that he's going to spend a significant portion of his life in jail and that's just how it is. But this episode is particularly important for Mickey because it's the first time where there's serious consideration of doing something that would land him in jail forever. It's a different level of danger there.
Do you think Mickey has a heart, way deep down?
NOEL: I think Mickey has a really big heart. My experience in life and also in parts is that the harder people are on the outside, the more they're just trying to protect something on the inside. I mean, if you look at Mickey, he's the kind of guy that would go to jail for you if you needed him. He would do anything for you if you're in that inner circle of his family. And it's interesting to watch someone struggle with someone that he would want to have in his inner circle but because of his own personal demons there's no way that he can be that person yet. I think he definitely has a heart, but it's just a matter if his heart is going to grow to a place where it can be available. I guess we'll have to see. I don't know if that's possible for him.
So now that we’ve just learned of your promotion to series regular (!!!), what can we expect from Mickey in Season 3?
NOEL: I put a lot of effort, my whole heart into getting the part because I'm so passionate about the part and I'm passionate about the project. So, obviously, when you hear that you get to be a regular on something like that, I was through the roof. I was jumping up and down. I hope he gets out of jail- or there's gonna be a lot of jail scenes! But I’d like to see Mickey have the chance to use his roughness in some positive ways. I think that would be an interesting thing.
What else is up this year?
NOEL: Well, I have Hatfields& McCoys coming up for the History Channel. It's a miniseries with Kevin Costner, Bill Paxton, and other really lovely actors and I think that's going to be a lot of fun. I got to go to Romania and I got to act with these guys who’ve been doing it for so long and it's like watching somebody conduct an orchestra or something. They're just people that are very in-tune with their craft, they're in-tune with doing this and they know how to do it very well. It was very nice to watch and experience and have the opportunity to learn from that kind of thing. I'm also in the last Twilight movie that's coming out in November.
Oh, boy…
NOEL: Yeah, that’s the other thing I have this year. Breaking Dawn Part 2. I play Vladamir, and he's a 3000 year old Romanian vampire. He's one of the very few Romanian vampires that are left. We were the guys that were in power before the Volturi and they came and kind of killed everybody that we knew… so we're taking revenge! [Laughs]
What was it like shooting that?
NOEL: Twilight was so much fun, and it's a really cool character to get to play. He's very much kind of a badass and he's a very dangerous vampire. Getting to be part of something that's that huge is obviously really amazing. After I heard that I got it I couldn't really believe it. But it was a blast!
That’ll be huge. You're gonna get so many Twitter followers.
NOEL: [Laughs] Sweet!