Smallscreen Features
NBC 'Grimm' bonus cast interviews, what's to come (VIDEO)
By April MacIntyre May 4, 2012, 16:29 GMT
NBC\'s "Grimm" is an imaginative series that has brought ogres, werewolfs, hexenbiests and fairies to life on Friday night. The network ordered a second season this fall.
NBC's "Grimm" is an imaginative series that has brought ogres, werewolfs, hexenbiests and fairies to life on Friday night. The network ordered a second season this fall.
The cast includes David Giuntoli, Bitsie Tulloch, Russell Hornsby, and Silas Weir Mitchell, and showrunners David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf.
Interview from the recent NBCU press day:
Will Claire Coffee's character still be in Season 2 now that she has no powers?
DAVID GREENWALT: Stay tuned.
Can you talk about the decision to remove her power and what that means for her in the future?
DAVID GREENWALT: Well, we thought it was a great thing that you had to kill a hexta (sp?) beast beats. He had no problem with that. But then we thought it would be great to kill a hexta beast inside the human. She's just left as a human, which some people would find a great relief, but she is cast out by her mother and by the captain, and she's left to kind of wander the world as a human, but stay tuned.
Is there anything about the mythology of the show as you're going that can surprise you in its evolution?
JIM KOUF: Everything.
DAVID GREENWALT: Well, when we first wrote Monroe's character surprised us that he, you know, that to him, the Grimms were the big bad boogiemen of his childhood. That gave us a whole point of view on what the critters feel about the Grimms looking at the other side of the coin. So we keep discovering more history in the show. You know, we actually had Hitler in episode 113, and we keep discovering more ways to
JIM KOUF: To anchor it in real events.
Most couples when they loom there's a proposal and then if there's a rejection, they don't stay together. Does she really think that he'll confide in her because he thinks looming back?
DAVID GREENWALT: Well, he's a strong man. Go ahead.
DAVID GIUNTOLI: I'm a strong man.
DAVID GREENWALT: And loves her.
DAVID GIUNTOLI: I love my girlfriend.
BITSIE TULLOCH: The reality is that I love him very much, and I know a lot of fans are always wondering how Juliette can be so patient with him throughout. But the reality is in the second episode his aunt dies, and I know she raised him, and so she is a very compassionate and understanding person. So she's been really forgiving of everything. I mean, I think personally she's been crazy to stay with him and it's so weird. But one of the character's line is, you know, "I can't wait to marry him one day, but I can't say yes until you let me in."
DAVID GIUNTOLI: Yeah.
For Russell, what was your appeal was to do a show like this?
RUSSELL HORNSBY: I love the opportunity to do both stage and television. And I think just the ability to sort of traverse both worlds is what really appeals to me. But, you know, honestly, I love procedurals, and so it was just really the scripting in the world and really curious about what they were how it was being executed that really intrigued me about "Grimm," you know, and it's just really been a joy, quite honestly. So you just come to work every day, you know, excited and ready to have some fun and work with these great actors and play out this world.
I was just in Portland this last weekend, and every restaurant in that town had little tune ins with "Grimm." People are so vested in the show and piqued up about it. And I wanted to know, I know when we spoke last, you were enjoying the transition of living here. Can you talk about how the city has taken to you?
DAVID GIUNTOLI: Well, yeah. Something great about "Grimm" is it's been kind of like we've had a love affair with the town of Portland. Absolutely using it for everything it is and celebrating it, and people in Portland are they watch it all of the time, and I think they're just really thrilled and kind of tickled by the fact that we're kind of, you know, showing what the city has to offer. As far as living in the town, it's just better and better. It's been a thank God, been a mild winter because sometimes the stars can't be seen for months at a time, but it's kind of been out. And the people have been wonderful. The restaurants are awesome.
Is it everything you hoped it to would be? Or are there more surprises with like strange locations that we just wouldn't see in Hollywood?
DAVID GREENWALT: We love Portland, and it did. Obviously, you couldn't shoot th show anywhere else, and, yes, we thought we'll have the forest and we'll have the waterfalls. We'll have the gorge and the great downtown and the pearl and all that. But our great production team up there, they keep finding new, weird, strange places, and it distinctive. I don't certainly see it on other channels when I'm surfing on the TV. And, you know, just that gloomy misty, you know, gingerbread houses. Everything looks like it's kind of a fairy tale there, and we couldn't be happier. Definitely going to stay in Portland.
For the other David, this is the kind of show that the fans embrace. Loyal fans embrace it big time. Was it the fans that got you that second season pickup? Any encounters you can talk about?
DAVID GIUNTOLI: Well, I guess it is the fans that got us the second season pickup, and thank God there are a lot of them, and there really are especially in kind of genre television, the greatest fans you could hope for, you know. They keep you accountable too, and they imagine the world beyond where we've even maybe imagined it sometimes. That's really cool. Yeah, we've had I've had nothing but positive encounters with the many fans in Portland. We've had people who use the moniker grim stalker. So it doesn't feel
They're people find where we've filming often because we're filming in a really cool area of the city, and it's been nothing but positive.
Mr. Mitchell you're sort of bearing the double burden often of the continuing comic relief and often the font of exposition. Have you found a way of blending those two things together?
SILAS WEIR MITCHELL: Well, yeah. I've heard that before. But like, boy, how do you you know, you're just doing the expositions, man. And I know what they mean, but exposition is only that kind of exposition when you're expositing about something everybody already knows about. But when you're expositing about umbha sou fog (sp?) and expositing about, you know, shock hounds, which are things now one's ever heard of before, that's when the comedy and the other elements of exposition come in because you're not talking about something everybody already knows about which is the presumption when someone says, "You're just exposition."
How many more characters do you think you'll be introducing into the show? Do you have a hole list of ones you've made up?
DAVID GREENWALT: As many as we can pack into the can of sardines. You know, we started with a big kind of a panoply of characters, and there's new ones coming along all the time. I think some of you know Rian Turner joins the show as a regular. She plays the gal who runs the spice shop. She and Eddie Monroe may or may not have eyes for each other. You know, as needed is the real answer to the question, as we develop the show and get into the second season and as the threats get bigger and the stakes get higher and, you know, they'll and then it's really funny like those beaver characters, you know they started really small, but they've gotten bigger. And a week from Friday, there's a whole episode kind of devoted to them. So it's very organic how it grows.
Has anyone on the cast had a paranormal experience?
SILAS WEIR MITCHELL: I haven't had anything paranormal, but I certainly believe in the perceptive abilities of the human mind far transcend what we usually live in.
BITSIE TULLOCH: About ten years ago, my sister and I were talking, and I'd never discussed this before. But when I was around four, which made her six or seven, I woke up in the middle of th night one night, and I saw I swear I saw a floating head in the corner. And then she I never talked about it. I was freaked out and everything, and then about ten years ago, we were talking. I told her, "I had this really weird thing when I woke up" because we shared a room at that point she said, "Yeah, there was this weird floating head," and I thought that was pretty creepy.
RUSSELL HORNSBY: Nothing scares me.
SILAS WEIR MITCHELL: Except questions about paranormal stuff.
After seeing the amazing makeup artists, who wants to talk about the makeup and how they create the creatures and how much that adds to the magic of the show?
DAVID GREENWALT: Well, as a matter of fact we have a little demonstration. We have that, right?
AKIVA GRIFFITH: Yes, actually. That's a good segue. (Inaudible) who is our makeup artist is here. We're going to bring out the creature he's working on today. The neighbor was created courtesy of Lago, and it will be featured in our "Cinderella" episode which is called "Happily Ever After That," it's going to be airing on May 4th.
I wanted somebody to talk about the makeup here. You're better than anybody to talk about it, how much that adds to th magic of the show.
Barney Burnum: Thank you. That's very kind. I'm very, very happy to be able to be part of this show. It's such a unique experience, and there's so little that is being produced on television much less in the United States that deals with these kinds of makeups. You know, it's every makeup artist's dream to be able to do creatures. I'm sorry. I don't know if there was a question, but thank you for the coming.
Specifically different creatures. Specifically they give the idea of what the creature is? Like a pig creature or a wolf creature, and you design it and come up with it?
Or do you come up with something and inspire them?
Barney Burnum: That's something I may work on. That's a good idea. Maybe I can inspire you. They've been inspiring me, and they've had a couple of brilliant digital artists. A guy named Constantine Sakarras (sp?) and Jared Moran (sp?), who if they weren't on board before I came on, I would have called them to see if they were busy to be part of this. So I was just so excited to find out they were already doing designs. They do a lot of concept art, and then once the role gets cast, I take their work, and I take the actor, and I sort of meld them together and see how I can stay true to what they envision but also make it work on the actor or stunt person that has been cast.
###
With only a few episodes left of Grimm, NBC sat down with the cast and asked them to reflect on this season.
Hear what their favorite episodes are, what to expect as the season rounds out, and a message to their fans.
