Season four’s been a rough one for Grimm newlyweds Rosalee (Bree Turner) and Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell). They haven’t had a chance to celebrate their marriage or take off on a relaxing honeymoon because of Nick’s Grimm problems and because they’ve been the target of a group that’s not happy about their marriage. And according to Turner, their problems are only going to get worse as the season gets even darker.
With season four’s midseason finale, “Chupacabra,” airing on December 12, 2014 at 9pm on NBC, Turner took part in a conference call to talk about Rosalee and Monroe’s season four storyline thus far and the outside forces that are attempting to rip Rosalee and Monroe apart.
Bree Turner Grimm Interview:
Is there someone in the cast you haven’t worked with a lot with yet who you’d like to spend more time doing scenes with?
Bree Turner: “Yes, I would probably have to say it’s Reggie [Lee]. You know, it’s almost like there’s sort of three separate worlds happening in Grimm. There’s the Adalind world and 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, so really 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 in the loop and a part of the Scooby gang and I’m really looking forward to more screen time with him.”
Who is the cast member you think most resembles their Grimm character?
Bree Turner: “Well, 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, and I’m always very excited to see him be able to expand out of that role with the scripts. 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.”
The issue with Wesen not supporting Rosalee and Monroe’s marriage, how is that to play? Has it been difficult because of the obvious references to US history?
Bree Turner: “Yes, it’s been very challenging. Very satisfying as an actress but yes, very uncomfortable. I mean just even seeing – a few episodes ago, seeing the wolf burning on our lawn, I mean just that visual is so powerful, so upsetting, so deeply upsetting. And when you’re filming that night, you don’t have to imagine too much. You’re just sort of in the moment and you’re right there emotionally because it’s an ugly truth to our history and to be touching on that within this genre is to be able to sort of discuss social issues like this, really I think powerful.”
The episodes coming up after Chupacabra are two to three episodes on this, you know, single-handedly dealing with these group of people, the Secundum Naturae Order Nam Wesen. It just gets so dark. It gets so heavy and I’m just so happy with. 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 transformations throughout the series’ run thus far. What do you like about the changes and the evolution of Rosalee in this series?
Bree Turner: “I mean 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.’ And to come to the scene you know guarded, so many walls up, distrusting, broken, and then to you know find this new way of living with being friends with the Grimm and sort of this brave new world that Nick 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 and the strength and as an apothecary, her talent, she’s one of the best I think in the world at this point and her confidence professionally and with her talents are fully cooking now.
And then 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, we see who Rosalee is inside and her street skills are definitely put into action again and her fearlessness and her scrappiness and her die for a cause, die for the man she loves. You know, I think [we see] a bit of domestic storyline and then sort of remind 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.”
So, what are Rosalee and Monroe’s children going to look like?
Bree Turner: “I think that’s a $20 million question. You know, I don’t know. I think that’s obviously something that people are interested in. We’re interested in it and the writers talked about it and it’s obviously something that’s in conversation and as you know, 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.”
You and Silas Weir Mitchell have great chemistry. What’s he like to work with?
Bree Turner: “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.”
Do you have a favorite episode so far?
Bree Turner: “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’s, I think, in the Chupacabra.
What has been the scene you’ve done that was a lot of fun to film?
Bree Turner: “Well, this Christmas episode you just saw last week was so fun and 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 know, 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 [Tulloch] and I always have a blast working together and it was really fun to kind of be able to allow working in the moment and physical comedy – and there are Wesen creatures.
So many of our episodes are life and death and the stakes are super high and they’re super scary, and 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, yes, I think that was one of my most fun scripts we shot.”
Are you and the cast and crew doing anything together for the holidays?
Bree Turner: “Well, we just got together last week and watched the Christmas episode and hung out all night. The cast likes to get together and throw an annual party before our winter break for the crews. We had that coming up. It’s always a very good time and a much needed release for the crew and for all of us.”
Can you kind of give us a sneak peek of what we can expect when the show picks back up after the mid-season break?
Bree Turner: “Yes. 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.
Juliet, her storyline gets so crazy good. I’m so excited for what the fans are going to see out of Juliet. 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. And then Adaline, she and Victor, 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 Adaline has with Nick and Juliet just gets more murky. So it’s some very exciting stuff coming up once we come back in January.”
