'Roswell, New Mexico' actor Michael Vlamis on Michael's journey in Season 2: 'He's finding peace with himself'
Of the three members of the "pod squad" on 'Roswell, New Mexico' on The CW, Michael Guerin is perhaps the character who went through most trauma growing up. While Max and Isobel Evans got adopted into a nice family, Michael went through abuse.
This is why it is so important for Michael to learn about his real alien family and where he comes from. MEA Worldwide (MEAWW) caught up with Michael Vlamis who plays Michael to talk about the character's journey in the show's second season.
What can fans expect for Michael this year?
The overall goal for Michael this year is to find some kind of peace. Last year, towards the end of the season he started feeling better in his relationship and seeing where things were going. He's been plagued by the deaths of his mother, then his brother. So right now he has to come to terms with what's the point of all of this and what he is doing here. Why am I here? Who am I here for? Is it me or is it my sister? Is it the people I love? It’s a lot of him finding peace with himself and with where he's from. In the first two episodes of Season 2, he’s on a mission to find out more about his mother and wants to know more about his origins. That’s his big journey throughout this season.
What can fans expect from the flashbacks?
Fans can expect to see a lot of really cool flashbacks from the late 1940s and early 1950s. They even have character flashbacks. Jason Behr makes an appearance in some of those which is really cool. That was fun to have him on set. Fans are going to be really impressed by the costumes and the set decorations. The flashbacks are really special. Throughout the season Guerin is researching what happened to his mom, when they crashed and how she was around before she was a prisoner if she conversed with anyone else
He’s piecing together to find out if there’s anybody out there who knows anything about his mother and if there is additional information about her. We see the flashbacks unfolding as Michael pieces the story together, which is really cool.
How did you prepare for the scene where Michael tells Alex about his mother being a refugee?
I look at events that have affected me directly (to portray the trauma). Maybe having the scholarship to go to college to play baseball, then having an injury that ruins your whole career, which are things that I went through, or it might be a breakup, somebody you were with for six years and one day they don’t want to be with you anymore. I drew from personal experiences with anything in my life that has ever been ripped away from me.
Just remembering all the different emotions in that scene, I’m not just mad at Alex. I’m very hurt, I want us to work out. It comes down to a lot of that.
To be completely honest, Tyler Blackburn brings it every time I work with him. Just being across from [Blackburn] and being able to look in his eyes with all of the preparation he’s done as well, it’s very easy to connect with him and you even forget what the scene is about. It’s just going off one another, and there’s the scene. We found something that we didn’t even know existed within that scene.
Assuming Max does come back, will Michael’s relationship with him change?
I take a lot of my own life and put it into the character. I know that I'm a person who I don't learn until I fail. In our relationship as brothers, Michael has some failures and regrets. If your dog disappears for a week and you think he’s gone forever but he comes back, you’re going to spend every second with that dog, you’re not going to let it go, or if a girlfriend leaves you and then comes back. You had that time to reflect and think deeply to recognize your past mistakes. If Max comes back, Michael’s going to do his best to mend that relationship and finally have the brother they both want.
How will Michael’s friendship with Liz be in Max’s absence?
Michael inevitably has more scenes with Liz because they're working together and they're the smartest people when it comes to this tech. I'm working on the alien nanotech. She's working on the science of actually implementing a fresh heart and making it run, so they spend a lot of time together. Those are some of my favorite scenes because Jeanine [Mason] is so fun to play off of and we have a lot of good chemistry as friends.
Does the cast miss having Nathan Parsons around with Max being sort of dead?
We all miss him in different ways. The dude’s a pro, he’s been on a bunch of different shows, he’s worked way more than I have. So I always had someone opposite me that I was looking up to and studying while watching his process. He’s very committed so whenever we have scenes together, they’re a lot of fun because they’re unexpected. You never know what he or I am going to do and we just play off each other.
I missed having that brother dynamic and that was tough for my character. You could be a total d**k to each other when you’re family and you could have a lot of fun doing that as an actor, but deep down, you don’t want that person to walk away no matter what you say.
What can fans expect from this season of ‘Roswell, New Mexico’?
Fans can expect a lot of twists and turns. There’s some really cool action this season. I would say, get ready for some heartbreak. I could have said love, but heartbreak is so much more interesting.
'Roswell, New Mexico' airs on The CW on Monday nights at 9/8c.