In Season 4 of GRIMM, the show decided to really raise the stakes for its characters. First, it tackled the issue of what their lives would be like if Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) had lost his Grimm-abilities, and if he had the chance to get them back, would he really want to. However, brewing in the background, GRIMM also it had perfectly set up the thorny question of whether the Wesen world would truly accept a mixed marriage between a Fushsbau and a Blutbad. A wedding is normally a joyous union of two people who want to celebrate their love and commitment to each other. But as Rosalee (Bree Turner) and Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) quickly found out this season, not all the Wesen world is happy with their marriage and are making their strong dislike known.
In a recent press conference call, star Bree Turner talked about the looming threat that is about to strike right at Monroe and Rosalee and whether it may just mean that one of their lives is put at risk because of it.
The whole issue with this group that is against Rosalee and Monroe’s marriage, how is that to play? Has it been difficult because of the obvious references to U.S. history?
BREE: Yes, it’s been very challenging. Very satisfying as an actress, but very uncomfortable. I mean just even seeing the wolf Songold burning on [Monroe and Rosalee’s] lawn. I mean just that visual is so powerful, so upsetting, deeply upsetting. And when you’re filming that night, you don’t have to imagine too much. You just sort of in the moment and you’re right there emotionally because it’s an ugly truth to our history and for be touching on that — within this genre is to be able to sort of discuss social issues like this — it is really powerful. The episodes coming up — after Chupacabra — there are two to three episodes that single-handedly deal with these group of people, the Secundum Naturae Order Nam Wesen. It just gets so dark. It gets so heavy. I’m just so happy our writers are so good and I’m so happy that they didn’t hold back at all. They really went for the darkness and the ugliness of the subject matter and, for Rosalee and Monroe, it’s life and death at this point.
Your character seems to have gone through the most transformation out of all the characters that we’re watching. What do you like about the changes and evolution of Rosalee in this series?
BREE: She was already such a fully formed character from her first episode, which is the reason why I wanted to join the show. I was like, “Wow!” From the gate, you know who she is. She came to the scene guarded, with so many walls up, distrusting, broken. Then to find this new way of living, being friends with the Grimm, and sort of this brave new world that Nick (David Giuntoli) and Monroe were creating here in Portland — sort of jumping into this friendship and then the eventual romance with Monroe — to see her become vulnerable and to live a life she wanted to live, but was scared to live, and to feel like she now deserves to be happy, deserves to have this love. That strength, as an apothecary, and her talent, she’s one of the best in the world at this point and her confidence professionally and with her talents are fully cooking now. What I love about this next arc of Monroe being in danger and Rosalee, where a lot of that will actually full circle in the way that she goes back to who Rosalee is inside and her street skills are definitely put into action again. Her fearlessness and her scrappiness and her die-for-a-cause, and willingness to die for the man she loves — it sort of reminds the viewers of how losing Monroe would absolutely kill her. Also to see the fire within her that she will kill anyone who stands in her way of the people she loves or what she believes in. I’ve been so happy to see this kind of full circle exploration of who she is.
Can you just briefly kind of give us a sneak peek on what we can expect when the show picks back up? Not just the Monroe storyline but anything else kind of interesting Wesen or any exciting episodes that stand out for you?
BREE: We’re on a bullet train down to some heavy, very dark territory with this mid-season finale. It’s absolutely life and death for Monroe and Rosalee and for everyone, for that matter. Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch), her storyline gets so crazy good. I’m so excited for what the fans are going to see out of Juliette. It is going to be out of left-field and no one will expect the straight shot that she is on with her new awareness of certain things in her life, her new reveals. Then Adalind (Claire Coffee), she and Victor (Alexis Denisof), as you’ve seen, they’re teaming up. And two bad guys are way stronger together, than they are apart. So they’re joining forces and that connection Adalind has with Nick and Juliette just gets more murky. So it’s some very exciting stuff coming up once we come back in January.
Can tell me a little bit about what’s ahead for Rosalee and Monroe and a little bit about the tease for the viewers? Like what is this life and death situation that’s ahead?
BREE: As we’ve been teasing the last several episodes, there’s a group of extremist, fundamentalist Wesen called the Secundum Naturae Order Nam Wesen and they are basically the KKK and a group of horrible, despicable monsters that have targeted Monroe and Rosalee as an abomination of their union because they’re mixed species couple. So they’ve been doing these sort of violent acts towards the couple. But in this mid-season finale, by the end of the episode, you see that there’s no more teasing, that they have now fully entrenched themselves into our home and our world and one of us has our life dangling in the balance and its very scary. The next several episodes back in January, this is a major storyline for the second half of the season dealing with. Will they even physically survive this terror attack? And how are they going to respond to being on the front line of change? And can their relationship really hold up to this? This is isn’t like the in-laws not liking you. This is very, very serious life and death stuff. So very scary, very hard to shoot, and very satisfying. So we’re thrilled and simultaneously sick to our stomach the whole time, but I think the fans are going to really enjoy it.
If they are ever so blessed, what do you think Rosalee and Monroe’s children would look like?
BREE: I think that’s a $20 million question. You know, I don’t know. I think that’s obviously something that people are interested i, we’re interested in and the writers talked about it. It’s obviously something that’s in conversation and as we’re way farther ahead than the episodes are airing. It comes back into conversation again, especially in light of this horrible event that is about to be happening. I think you just have to stand by. It’s something that they’re very interested in finding out themselves, too.
Is there any Wesen that you can talk about that’s either coming in the back half of the season or some that you would like to see more of?
BREE: I would say I like sort of referencing Wesen that we already know. It kind of keeps the world familiar to the fans, within the story. Also there’s a lot of glutevaden that are coming out that are against [Monroe and Rosealee’s] marriage — [their] mixed marriage. So will we see sort of different kinds of glutevaden. I thought were really interesting how much it shows that Monroe has bucked the system in terms of his species and what they’re known for and to kind of see the sort of a path that Monroe could have gone down if he wasn’t reformed.
Would you say this is like the darkest place that GRIMM’s ever gone before?
BREE: Yes, for sure. I love it because I think about our writers always make that turn if it gets a little too light or a little too funny or a little too casual. It is great to give us some breath in the series, so it’s not all intense, but right when they’re about to get a little too comfy, they just throw this nasty curveball at us. I just I think it’s constantly keeping the fans on their and they think it’s really fun.
Who is the cast member that you think most resembles their GRIMM character?
BREE: Russell [Hornsby] is a pretty dapper, smooth, intelligent man in his real life and I feel like Hank is really on par. I think Russell is such a great actor and I love the depth he brings into his procedural portion of the show. I’m always very excited to see him be able to expand out of that role with the scripts. So I say he’s probably closest to his role, except that he’ll break out into a dance party on set every once in a while. He makes me smile when he gets goofy. Russell and I, we’re right in sync. We have the same taste in music so we know all the old R&B jams. We break out into a little dance-off, he and I, often.
Is there someone in the cast that you haven’t maybe worked a whole lot with that you’d like to spend more time doing scenes with?
BREE: I would probably have to say it’s Reggie [Lee]. It’s almost like there’s sort of three separate worlds happening in GRIMM. There’s the Adalind world, the procedural world and then there’s the Wesen world. And, up until now, I would have said it would have been Claire [Coffee], but we had that nice arc with her last season. Reggie is such a beautiful actor and person that the few moments we’ve shared — our time together has always been super enjoyable — but, as you can see we’re on a trajectory with him to get in the loop and be a part of the Scooby Gang. I’m really looking forward to more screen time with him.
I love the chemistry between you and Silas on the show, and I was just wondering is it the same working with him in person. What’s he like to work with?
BREE: I love that man. He is funny, he is smart. He is a very good friend and we just have a blast together. He’s a fabulous actor and it’s just always fun working with him. So I’m very lucky.
What has been the scene you’ve done has been like so fun? Not necessarily your favorite or most memorable, but just something that was a lot of fun to film.
BREE: The Christmas episode, you just saw last week, was so fun. We all had such a great time filming it. It was a bit of a departure from the tone of the show, but I think Christmas episodes you can get away with that. It’s like when the cast goes to Hawaii. It’s sort of like it’s a separate kind of entity from a series. There’s special episodes and Bitsie and I always have a blast working together. So it was really fun to kind of be able to allow from working-in-the-moment and physical comedy where there are Wesen creatures. So many of our episodes are life and death and the stakes are super high and they’re super scary. So it’s kind of fun and refreshing to sort of deal with Wesen that weren’t necessarily going to kill us, but were just annoying and gross. I think that kind of element allows for a lot of comedic moments from everyone’s characters because it wasn’t necessarily people’s lives were in danger. So I think that was one of my most fun scripts we shot.
Do you have a favorite episode so far?
BREE: Honestly, I think this Chupacabra episode this Friday was one of my favorite this series. I think there’s so much packed into this episode. It’s not confusing. It’s a tight episode — well written, well directed. There’s a lot of pay-offs at the end of it and it’s very emotional and I think it’s the best of GRIMM — the Chupacabra.
To see what nefarious things the Chupacabra will be bringing to GRIMM, be sure to tune in for an all new episode of GRIMM on Friday, December 12th at 9:00 p.m. on NBC.
The TV Watchtower 