PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE: “Grimm’s” Silas Weir Mitchell enjoys a new take on cautionary tale
By Kate Benz
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Hollywood has done its part to make sure we’ve seen our beloved characters presented in every way, shape and form. But never before has anyone come up with the idea to present a werewolf as a Pilates enthusiast whose lover-not-a-fighter mentality makes him slightly less petrifying and slightly more personable.
Cue the entrance of Silas Weir Mitchell, whose character, Monroe, on NBC’s “Grimm” is the walking definition of those characteristics. Lest the name doesn’t give away the obvious, the show takes the twisted tales of the Brothers Grimm and re-purposes them with just a hint of modern-day mystery and crime. It’s up to the reformed Monroe to assist the town detective to figure out exactly how to combat the familiar fairy-tale foes that have infiltrated the real world. After all, if there’s one thing the Brothers Grimm imparted on the world, it’s that not all fairy tales have a happy ending.
Luckily for Mitchell, his professional resume lacks any shadowy dark omens, with credits including stints on “The Mentalist,” “My Name Is Earl,” “Numb3rs,” “Prison Break” and “Dexter...”
... Q: Seeing as how Monroe is based on the Big Bad Wolf, has that changed your perspective on how he was portrayed in the fairy tale?
Silas Weir Mitchell: "No, no, no! The Big Bad Wolf is the mythologized version of what were actually Blutbad. So, if you take the world of Grimm, the idea behind the whole thing is that there were these actual Vessen who would change their form, all these different types of underlying mythical elements to people’s personalities that they actually become in moments of stress. So what the Grimm Brothers did is (say), “There’s this actual thing out there rampaging the countryside, so we need to tell people these things, and we’re going to call it the Big Bad Wolf so people know to watch out when they walk through he woods at night.” The Big Bad Wolf is the sanitized version of this sort of warning signal that there are things out there (so people wouldn’t think) the Grimm Brothers were completely insane..."
Grimm's fall finale airs Friday, November 16, 2012 at 9/8C on NBC.
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