‘Happy!’ Star Patrick Fischler On Working With Christopher Meloni

Patrick Fischler enjoys working with Christopher Meloni.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fischler said that he and Meloni have never met each other before filming their first scene together on Syfy’s new series “Happy!” But when Fischler felt that Meloni was open to anything, the former didn’t hesitate to take the intensity of the scene a notch higher.

“I couldn’t have loved working with Chris more,” Fischler told of his co-star who played detective-turned-hitman Nick Sax on the crime dramedy. “We’d never met before we shot [our first] scene [together] in the pilot and right away I knew that he was up for anything. It wasn’t written for us to play that scene so closely. I just thought, ‘Why don’t I get right in his face?’ It was fun.”

Although Fischler’s “Happy!” alter ego is a nemesis to Meloni’s Sax, the two actors are in good terms off-screen. “Chris and I play a game of pretending we don’t like each other when we do press together,” Fischler said. “But since he’s not around, I can tell you that he’s a great dude.”

Fischler plays the role of Smoothie on “Happy!” Smoothie is one of the henchmen of crime boss Mr. Blue (Ritchie Coster), and as seen in the series premiere, Smoothie specializes in interrogation and torture.

“I like to refer to Smoothie as a ‘doctor of sorts,’” Fischler told Entertainment Weekly of his character. “He basically extracts information from people for the mob. And Nick Sax, you learn in the pilot, is going to be really a challenge for him, to get what he needs from him. And that doesn’t happen often.”

In last week’s Season 1, episode 1, Smoothie threatened to remove Sax’s penis “in thin slices, like salami.” While that scene gave viewers an idea about how insane Smoothie is, Fischler said that it was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of his character’s craziness on the show.

“I would say that the pilot is a four in the level of the insanity that Smoothie hits, on a scale of one-to-ten,” the “Mad Men” alum said. “So, Smoothie has a long way to go in insanity and craziness. I think [exec producer] Brian Taylor kept thinking I’d say ‘no’ to things he told me I was going to have to do. It was like a game of chicken. I kept saying ‘yes.’”

In a separate interview with Nerdist, Fischler said that “Happy!” is by far the “most insane” thing he’s ever done. “This is next level for me,” said Fischler, who has already been in several insane projects before. “I remember reading the script and thinking ‘this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen on TV.’ … And Smoothie, I’ve never really played anybody like him. The pilot episode is just a taste of what is to come, and what I do in the comic is nothing compared to what I do in the show.”

“Happy!” Season 1, episode 2, titled “What Smiles Are For,” airs on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 10 p.m. EST on Syfy.