Have you caught your breath after THAT ending?
Roswell, New Mexico Season 4 Episode 2 ended with a shocking twist! And it’s a twist that will directly impact Michael Guerin, played to perfection by series regular Michael Vlamis.
Catching up with Michael is always so much fun, and we spent the early part of the interview discussing his next movie, Crossword, which he directed, wrote, and starred in! Make sure to follow his socials to keep abreast of news about this exciting project! Seriously, the movie sounds incredible.
The man is a machine, but we were lucky enough to pick his brain about all things Malex, what impact he hopes the role of Michel Guerin will leave on viewers, and he even let us know which of his castmates kills it at Super Smash Brothers. Check out the interview below!
Getting into Roswell here. Before we get into the episode, can you tell us a little about where we’ll see Michael this season, his mindset, and what kind of journey he’s headed on?
Yeah. Yeah. His mindset, it’ll shift a little bit once he fully realizes that Alex is missing. He’s never going to stop to find him. We’ve seen him do that in the past, but Malex has never been in a better place. They are a full-blown couple, a full-blown item.
There is no Michael without Alex. There’s no Alex without Michael.
It gets pretty dramatic towards the end of it. Know that Michael is going to be a man on a mission. A lot of that, as he builds up to going after Alex, a lot of it is trying to figure out what’s up with these aliens in town. What’s going on with them and trying to stop them.
At the same time, when you’re learning about someone that you’re trying to stop, if you have strong ties to them, because you’re from a similar place, it’s got to be hard to not be intrigued or smitten by them.
I think Michael Guerin has a tough journey ahead of him where he’s got to infiltrate this group, and he’s got to get the answers everyone needs to stop these aliens. At the same time, he’s trying to get, he can’t help, but selfishly go for the answers that he’s been searching for his whole life.
I think that’s where Michael Guerin’s going to run into some problems.
Sure. It’s funny; you just merged into some of my other questions because when I was watching the second episode, I was thinking how much of Clyde I saw in Guerin, you know what I mean?
Some of the things he was saying about Earth and things like that got me interested in what those kinds of interactions would be like with Guerin, Clyde, and Bonnie, too. Are we going to see more of that?
Yeah, yeah. Oh, we’re going to see a ton of that. Andy and Zoe, those are the actors playing Bonnie and Clyde, they were amazing to work with. I forged great friendships with them over the season, but we got some good drama coming on-screen between us. I’ll tell you that.
Okay, cool. Also, with Michael and Alex, you touched on this as well, but I’ve liked seeing them together and discovering what it looks like for them to be in this committed relationship. I thought to myself during that bunker scene, the second one, that season one Alex and Michael could never have this conversation.
They just weren’t at that place.
Never.
Yeah, exactly. Can you kind of speak to the place the relationship is at now?
I think it’s the most mature it’s ever been. I’m really proud of it. I’m really proud of them as characters. I’m proud of the writers for taking us that way. I think it’s earned. I know the fans want more Malex throughout the seasons, but it’s a slow burn. The best love stories take time.
I think they’ve really done a great job allowing it to grow, allowing it to shape into what it is now. It is the most fulfilling place our relationship has ever been in.
Guerin is still struggling with some things he’s always struggled with. When you take someone who at one point in their life was fully broken, and we’ve all been there in different capacities, it takes a lot to get out of that. While things seem good, he still struggles in episode two.
By the end of it, he’s at least self-aware enough to know that this is his person. He has to fully trust this person. If he can’t do that, their love will never grow, which is why he’s willing to let it grow.
I love the little assist from Sanders, too, with you guys’ conversation.
Sanders is the man. That guy is the best. Nicholas. I love him. He’s one of my favorites to work with.
Yeah. That was a nice scene.
He’s like the father I never had. That’s what he is.
Oh, for sure. Yeah. If there was one word you could use to describe Malex throughout season four, what would you say? How would you describe them?
One word. If it’s one word, I’ll say cosmic.
Okay!
Because that is the theme of us. I think what will be will be. So, I’m not going to give any spoilers away, but I think they’re meant to be together, and that’s all I got to say.
All right. I’ll take it. In the first episode, we saw some good scenes between Michael and Dallas. It’s nice to see Michael make new connections and make new friendships. I was curious, how do you feel that Michael’s brotherly relationship with Dallas differs from the one he has with Max? If you see them differing at all.
No, I think they differ tremendously. It’s like when you’re talking to a sibling, sometimes when you’re looking at a sibling, I don’t know, maybe this is just me, and it’s weird.
But sometimes, when I’m talking to a sibling, one of my sisters, and they’re going on about politics or something, my sisters are so smart, and the way they talk to me sometimes.
If I’m talking to someone else on the street, I’m probably not putting on a front but seeming more engaged or more understanding or more knowledgeable about whatever we’re talking about. When you’re dealing with someone as close to you as family, you can’t help but know that there’s that imposter syndrome.
They know who I am. Even if I’m interested in what we’re talking about right now, they know five years ago, I didn’t know a thing about it.
When it comes to Dallas, he doesn’t know anything but me now, so it’s very loose. It’s very free. It’s very fun. There’s no drama. There’s no emotional weight to it. It’s just two guys having a good time. Literally bro-ing down.
I told Alex in a previous season I can’t go from love to or lust to ‘sup bro’ overnight, but with Dallas, you started ‘sup bro,’ and it’s a beautiful thing.
Yeah, I like that.
Quentin is the man. I hang out with Quentin all the time. He’s really good at Super Smash Brothers on the Nintendo switch. We play that all the time together. We forged such a bond outside of the show that it made it so easy to work together on screen.
That’s awesome. Your chemistry carries over. Your real-life chemistry, because you can definitely see you guys seem like friends.
We are! We are friends. That’s exactly right.
What are you most excited about viewers seeing this season as it continues to unfold?
I’m excited for them to watch Michael struggle with trying to stop these aliens, but he can’t help but uncover truths about where he’s from. He’s in such a place where he is conflicted of doing the right thing, quote-unquote, whatever the right thing means to everyone.
Then doing the thing that satisfies him as a person and what he’s been searching for his whole life. There is a beautiful conflict. The fans are going to see me deal with other characters throughout the season, too, which I think is really cool. Because you just touched on that with Dallas. It’s the same thing for Bonnie and Clyde.
Just seeing Michael Guerin exist with new people. I think you learn a lot about him.
Cool. Now, these are some questions about Roswell in general. What’s been your favorite storyline for Guerin up to this point?
Oh, well, that’s easy [laughs]. That’s so easy. Malex.
I’ve got to ask!
Malex is my favorite storyline. It is vulnerable. It is scary. It is fulfilling. It is full of love. It’s full of heartbreak. Literally, every single different emotion that you want to play with as an actor has been given to me in Malex. Saying even things like him handing the house keys to me and telling me this is mine.
You see in that moment, Michael Guerin does not feel like he deserves that. That was even a brand new thing I got to play. It is an ever-evolving relationship in the show that allows me as an actor to go to places that sometimes you got to do several movies to get to all those places.
With this one character development, I’ve gotten to go there, and I’ve gotten to go there repeatedly and try new things and learn about Guerin, which at the same time when I’m learning about Guerin, I’m really learning about myself. That is such a beautiful thing.
I love learning about myself. I love learning why I pick, and why I get angry at certain things. Why certain stupid things make me so happy when they don’t mean anything to other people. What is it about me that is reflected in Guerin?
I get to do that with Malex. I love Malex the most.
In what ways do you think Guerin has grown from the pilot until now?
Oh my God.
So many?
Yeah, so many. I remember in the character breakdown, which I actually posted on my Instagram, “Alien 28 simmering.”
There are all these things. This guy is just so mad at the world, and as an actor growing and as a character growing, I got to go from so much anger to more of a nuanced character who still is always, not always, but for a while, he’s going to be that person that he starts at in the pilot.
It’s fun to play with the fact that you can have all these feelings, you could be super angry, but you can find people like Alex where you just behave differently with them. That is what we’ve seen. I have that with my siblings too.
I have a different relationship with everyone in the show, but there is a special bond with Alex where I’m not as hard as I am with other people. The real softer Michael Guerin comes out with that. I think that was something that I really didn’t have in the beginning, early stages of season one.
Even through it, we saw some things develop, but Guerin was just beat down in season one. He saw his mom die in front of him. Finally, every season he seems to have some kind of beat down like that, whether it’s with his dad last year in the battle scene or my mother in Coffield prison.
But from season one to now, he’s a much more fleshed-out person. That has to do with the writers and the character growth and myself as an actor growing and learning as well. Also, Michael Guerin, as a human being, learning that it’s not worth it to be holding on to all this anger all the time.
Yeah, for sure. The last question for me here is that Michael Guerin genuinely resonated with fans on many different levels. With the series ending now, what impact do you hope the role of Michael Guerin and the series will leave on viewers?
Oh, man. I hope that viewers can see Michael Guerin and they can see themselves in them and know that it’s okay to be flawed. It’s okay to come from a background that you’re not proud of. It’s okay to have once in your life, not loved yourself. That is all okay. That is all-important.
The traumatic experiences that have happened to you in your life have shaped you into who you are now. Some people have dealt with way worse things than I will ever deal with, so it’s really hard to speak on how everybody is going to feel and how everybody can overcome their trauma.
Some people, especially those with mental illness, it is even tougher.
I do think it’s so important to always remember that who you are is okay. Accepting yourself is the first step. Very, very hard to do. I think Michael Guerin had four seasons, 50 some episodes to do that, and I think he’s gotten to that point, especially by the end of this season, but that’s the biggest takeaway.
I think we got to see the beauty and the flaws, not be so hard on ourselves, and in turn, we’re not going to be so hard on others. That is what I think a lot of Guerin’s storyline comes down to.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Your interviews are always so thoughtful. I really appreciate it.
Well, thank you, Whitney. Your questions are always so thoughtful, so that helps me.
Always. Thanks. You have a good day.
Yeah. All right. You, too. Talk to you soon. Bye.
Roswell, New Mexico airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.
***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.