SFX MAGAZINE: Grimm Interviews: Russell Hornsby & Silas Weir Mitchell
Two of the stars of Grimm, which kicks off in the UK on Monday 13 February on Watch, talk exclusively to SFX
by Dave Golder
February 11 2012
In case you hadn’t noticed, fairytales are big in Hollywood at the moment. We’ve got not one, but two versions of Snow White hitting the big screen this year (Mirror, Mirror and Snow White And The Hunstman) and Jack The Giant Killer is in production, while on the small screen we already have Once Upon A Time, while there are two versions of Beauty And The Beast in development.
At the vanguard of this new wave of screen fantasy, though, is Grimm, which has already proven a big hit on NBC in the States, and begins here in the UK on Monday on Watch. But don’t expect anything twee or cute about this take on fairy tales.
Grimm is a genre hybrid: it’s primarily a hard-bitten police procedural that just happens to involve creatures inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales. It stars David Guintoli as Nick Burkhardt, a cop who discovers he is a “Grimm” and can see these creatures (and we’ll have an interview with him on the site next week). Here, though, we chat to two of the show’s impressive cast of supporting characters...
David Giuntoli and Russell Hornsby from Grimm
... Russell Hornsby: Hank Griffin
Q: For the first part of the season at least we don’t learn much about Hank’s private life. Do you know his back story?
Russell Hornsby: “I have an idea in my head, and what I’ve learned as an actor is to keep it to myself, not to ask the writers or producers. What they have shared with me, is my character was married and divorced four times to a variety of accomplished women: doctors, lawyers, anthropologists, things of that nature. So I’ve learned a lot from various different women, which is the case with a lot of men. We are judged by the company we keep.
“Other things are coming down the pipe for my back story: where I live, my home life, what I do when I’m off, all those things. But again we have to build the nucleus and the foundations first, which right now is about Nick and his character and his world. I think what will keep the audience engaged is when we delve into the lives of the secondary characters...”
... Silas Weir Mitchell: Monroe
Q: What appealed to you about the role?
Silas Weir Mitchell: “The inner conflict. I mean drama is about conflict and inner conflict is inherently interesting. So the idea of a being whose very identity constantly hangs in the balance, I find very interesting. I think there is a potential there for it to be very intense. There is a levity to the show, and there’s also the procedural element. A crime is solved every week, and a criminal is caught every week. So there is a rhythm to the show. But I certainly think there is room for the darker elements of the human animal – the human psyche – to be played upon.
“Because really I think what we’re dealing with are creatures – on a psychological level – that people who are unable to withstand their darker impulses. And when a Grimm sees a creature, what they’re seeing is a creature who’s out of control. And whatever they are – some of us might be a mouse, some of might be a lion – underneath the human mask lies this dark element...”
Grimm airs Friday at 9/8C on NBC in the USA.
