Across the Universe: It's getting 'Grimm'

By Don Kaye
Special to MSN TV

"Grimm" has been one of the surprise hits of the past two seasons for NBC, as well as one of the more successful products of the networks' recent wave of fantasy and genre programming. David Giuntoli stars as Portland detective Nick Burkhardt, who learns that he is the descendant of a family line -- the Grimms, as in "the Brothers Grimm" -- charged with protecting humankind from various mythological creatures (many of the episodes have been based, very loosely, on tales written by the Grimms, as well as other sources).

Joining Giuntoli on the show are Russell Hornsby, who plays his friend and partner, Hank; Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe, a wolf-like being who is now Nick's ally; and Bitsie Tulloch as Juliette, Nick's veterinarian girlfriend who is unknowingly thrust into Nick's battle against the Wesen and has had her mind manipulated and memory erased as a result.

Bing: More about 'Grimm' | More on Bitsie Tulloch

In the fall finale, titled "Season of the Hexenbiest," Portland is revisited by Adalind (Claire Coffee), a former Wesen with vengeance on her mind. In advance of the episode, Bitsie Tulloch got on a conference call with reporters to discuss the season so far, the spell Juliette is under and her strange new attraction to Capt. Renard (Sasha Roiz), Nick's superior, who is also a Wesen in disguise. Highlights from that talk follow ...

Video: 'Grimm' cast previews fall finale

Can you give us a little bit about what's going on between Nick and Juliette in this episode and how the return of Adalind may play into that?

Bitsie Tulloch: Well, she's basically, Adalind is just back to sort of wreak havoc everywhere she can. And she's trying to sort of avenge her mother's death. And, you know, how much I play into that story line remains to be seen. But, you know, obviously, based on last week's episode, it's coming to a place where, you know, they're going to have to just talk about what's going on.

But the reality is Juliette just doesn't really understand what's going on because she's under a spell and doesn't know she's under a spell because she kind of just woke up one day and started having these intense feelings about Capt. Renard...the reality is they're both inextricably connected to one another and they both don't understand why. I mean, he probably has a better understanding of it just because he's more within that sort of Grimm world.

What sort of acting challenges have you found with the role of Juliette this season, having to play her without her memories of Nick?

It's been hard. It's certainly a harder story line than what I had last season. But, you know, there was a very strange coincidence. I read a lot of Oliver Sacks, that neurologist and I was reading a book called "The Mind's Eye" about prosopagnosia, which is facial blindness where people can't recognize their loved ones.

So even though that's not really what Juliette has -- I mean, she can see his face -- it was just interesting to me to think about how terrifying it is for these people who can't recognize their loved ones. And to play it as if I was just meeting this guy for the very first time was interesting -- all of the things that you use as an actor to, you know, find chemistry and everything, you sort of have to subdue all of that so that you're coming to it with a blank slate because her mind is kind of blank right now with regards to Nick.

So it's definitely been more fun for me, everything that's going on this season and obviously getting to make out with two sexy guys, as opposed to just one, is never a bad thing.

What do you think it is about "Grimm" that crosses generational and all kinds of lines where people love it?

I went to a Leonard Cohen concert last night here in Portland and I had probably four or five people varying widely in ages and ethnicity come up to me and be like, "Juliette, I love you on the show." "Bitsie, you're great. We watch every week." It's amazing. And I was even sort of like, whoa, are you kidding me? You know, one of the little ladies had to have been at least 80. And I was just thinking that's cool. But, you know, my grandma, she doesn't -- she can't stay up that late, but I always download all the episodes from my iTunes so that she can watch them all. And she at one point -- she watched eight in a row.

It's just -- it's very entertaining. It's scary, but it's not too scary. It's definitely suspenseful but I think like the overarching theme is that you have a lot of different sort of genres smushed seamlessly into one show. You have procedurals, the romance, the fantasy, sci-fi. It's funny with characters like Monroe and Sergeant Wu, who are really funny. And then you have these cool, these whole morphing creatures and the effects and all of the prosthetics.

Personally, what do you think about the supernatural or the paranormal or things like that? Do you have an open mind?

I would definitely have an open mind. I'm more of -- like, I'm definitely a wuss. I don't watch scary movies. They really scare me, and I'm definitely not somebody -- I don't go watch horror movies. Sometimes even having read the script and doing an episode of "Grimm" I get a little tense because I know someone's going to jump out of somewhere. ...I certainly wouldn't want to encounter any paranormal activity, but it's, you know, whatever floats your boat, man. If you want to party with ghosts then go for it.

Are you wishing for Juliette to get her memories of Nick back or to remain the way she is right now and why?

That's an excellent question. I think it would be pretty cool if eventually I get my memory back and then I sort of, you know -- what's my reaction going to be like this time? Is it going to be the same as it was the night in the rain when he told me and I just thought he was crazy? Or having gone through everything I've gone through this season with being under the spell and everything like that, is that going to make me open minded? So I think at a certain point I think it would definitely be nice for Juliette to get the memories back.

I'm not quite sure what their intention is. I sort of know but I'm not going to say anything. But at the same time, like I said, it's been really fun having to not only juggle this love triangle but to play with the memory loss. So in that sense it's been kind of fun as an actress to go through.

The Grimms' fairy tales are very rich material. The writers have used that to create sort of a European-based mythology with the royal families in Europe and all of that. And yet we've seen Mexican and Native American legends recently on the show. Was that a conscious move on the part of the writers to be more culturally diverse?

I know that at Comic-Con they were saying one of their main intentions for Season 2, and going forward in general, was to make this show as international as possible while still staying true to, you know, the original fairy tales, the reason we're here in the first place, which were the Brothers Grimm.

But they've always said it was not just about the Brothers Grimm. They always said that it was about fairy tales in general so why not make it international? Especially because the show does very well internationally and I think one of the reasons it does so well internationally is that it's a format that's fun but also kind of easy to follow.

"Grimm" obviously has raised your profile in Hollywood. Do you still have to audition or how is that process working?

Oh yeah. I'm definitely still auditioning for stuff. It's been harder because our, you know, this hiatus for example, takes place over the holidays, so there's far fewer projects going on. Our next hiatus will be in April, so if we have a nice chunk of time, then there'd be a lot more movies going on. You know, we literally -- our hiatus is from Thanksgiving to a couple of weeks after New Year's. So basically, you know, Hollywood sort of shuts down.

It certainly raised my profile, but I've also been unavailable for a year and a half. So it's sort of a Catch-22 because now all of a sudden everybody knows who I am but they can't have me. It's great. It's a high class problem.

The fall finale of "Grimm" airs Friday, Nov. 16, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.