GRIMM - MY FANBASE: SILAS WEIR MITCHELL INTERVIEW
April 2013
by Annika Leichner
The first season of "Grimm" started a few weeks ago in Germany on VOX. We got the opportunity to do an interview with Silas Weir Mitchell who plays the lovely character Monroe on the show. Silas talked to us about learning to speak German, why fairytale storys seem to be so popular lately and what he likes most about the show "Grimm..."
... Q: There are a lot of fairytale-storys on television and in theater these days. Why do you think are people drawn to these storys?
Silas Weir Mitchell: "I think that fairytales are basically myths. And I think myths are eternal [...] and they are part of the human fabric. You know, there are some facile answers to that question like "Oh when times are tough people turn to mythology". [...] I just think, I mean that may play a minimal role, but I think really it's just things come in cycles and we're in a cycle now where people are interested in these stories. They're always there. The myth is always pleasant in any kind of storytelling. It's just what happens, people go to different realms to get their story and they happen to be fairytales. But basically I think they are sort of eternal and we're just going through a cycle."
Q: Your character Monroe is definitely a fan favorite and seems to get the best lines. What do you like about playing this character?
Silas Weir Mitchell: "What's cool about "Grimm" in general is that "Grimm" is severe enough that we're comfortable with it, but different enough that we're not quite sure what it is exactly. So we have something that is wrapped in the clothing of something we know and yet you can tell that it walks a different way or talks in a different way that you're inclined to kind of lean in and see "what exactly is that?". It walks like a duck and it talks like a duck, but it is not exactly a duck and that is what "Grimm" is… It looks like a police procedure, it also talks like a police procedure but clearly there is this other layer going on. That is something that I think is really canalizing to people. Because it offers this idea that the world is not exactly as it seems. And I think that Monroe fits in right in the middle of that whole setting. Monroe is not what he seems. He is a sort of bookish, quiet [...] guy who is just trying to fix the clock and live on the straight and narrow and do the right thing. Beneath that is this rapacious vibe to his ancestry and I think that makes him such an interesting character. Someone who is kind of in two places at once..."
Grimm airs Tuesday at 10/9C on NBC in the US.
