Cameron Monaghan will be making his big return to Shameless in the Nov. 17 episode. The actor left the show in season 9 but is coming back to the hit Showtime series full time in season 10. The last time we saw Ian, he was reunited with his longtime love Mickey in prison. Cameron spoke with HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY about Gallavich in season 10 while promoting his new game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
“We kind of pick up with them exactly where we left off with Ian and Mickey in prison together. We learn that it’s very difficult to be in a 6×10 room with someone that you love and you have that passionate relationship with,” Cameron said. “They’re two very stubborn, hard-headed characters. We’re watching them kind of clash against each other simply because of proximity and the nature of their relationship. So they’re kind of like a bickering old couple and there’s a lot of comedy about that because the things they’re bickering about are shiv-ing a person. And then as we explore the season with them, we get to see them face really fully being in a relationship in a way that they up to this point just never have been able to do and that means they’re certain big questions that they get to kind of ask for the first time.”
Ian will eventually get released from prison and he is going to have to adapt to the changes on the outside. “What I think is very interesting is when you’re in prison for any amount of time the world continues to go on without you and you kind of come into things that are slightly unfamiliar now,” Cameron continued. “Lip having a kid, Fiona leaving, the status quo is being shifted and just the fact that people kind of continue to move past you without your presence and that’s something that we explore as well as a separation from someone you love… It’s a really great year. I’m really happy with it.”
Cameron also stars as Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which is available now. He teased Cal’s evolution over the course of the epic game. “We kind of meet him in the beginning when he is in a bit of a desperate time in his life,” Cameron revealed. “He survived the Jedi purge and most of what he knew or loved was executed and torn away from him. He’s spent the next number of years being on a scrap planet doing junkyard work just keeping his head down, so when we first meet him he’s got a real chip on his shoulder. He doesn’t want to develop too deep of a connection with other people. He doesn’t have an overall purpose in life besides just survive. Over the course of the story, we see him develop these connections and relationships with these characters and kind of develop this team of outcasts that are on this mission together, which I feel that’s the core of what Star Wars is but from there we see him challenged and pushed to the edge of things from his past kind of coming back as well as new challenges that he has to face. Some of those push him to the brink and we kind of watch him learn and grown and become more powerful and kind of develop his relationships as well as his relationship to himself and his past. It’s a story of growth. It’s kind of like a coming of age story for him.”
Cameron’s performance was done entirely using motion capture. He admitted it was a “very cool” experience but also “very weird.” He filmed in a velcro suit and had ball markers all over him and a camera attached to him but he wasn’t “constrained by a physical set” in the same way he would be on a normal TV or film project. “There are certain things you have to do with motion capture that you just don’t have to do in anything else,” Cameron told HollywoodLife. “You have to strike what’s called a ‘z pose’ before and after the scene every single take. All takes have to be done for these scenes completely in one just like you were doing like a play or something like that. There’s no cutting, no picking something up, and the suits themselves are slightly cumbersome if you’re in a scene where you’re like hugging or touching someone. You might get stuck to each other and they’re kind of noisy. You might slap cameras. We had plenty of times where we were head-butting each other and stuff which is, obviously, something you would never be able to tell but it took a bit of learning.”