NBC’s Grimm finishes up the first half of its third season with exciting new episodes with a holiday theme. But because this is Grimm, don’t expect a traditional Christmas celebration when “Cold Blooded” and “12 Days of Krampus” air on December 13, 2013.

In support of the fall finale, Grimm star David Giuntoli (‘Nick Burkhardt’) participated in a conference call to talk about this season of the popular drama series which airs Friday nights at 9pm.

Obviously, most of the stories are based on fairy tales and folklore, but recently you had the episode with the boy who seemed to be possessed. Do you like that they’ve done something different? Are you looking forward to more of that, or do you prefer the more normal type of folklore stories?

David Giuntoli: “Well I think the thing that kind of throws a curveball into what the audience is expecting is good for the show. I think that what we’ve done on Grimm is originally I was passed a book that had all these fairy tales in it, and that was what our episodes were based on.

But as the show grows, as does the character Nick, and you discover that some of these other phenomena that take place in the world haven’t yet been added to the book of fairy tales, but they are being added by Nick now. So we are taking other myths and folklore and otherwise just kind of stories that have been told and putting the little Grimm spin behind them now, so I enjoy that.

To answer your question, I like it.”

The first part of the fall finale is about alligators in the sewers, and obviously, that kind of plays on childhood fears. Is there any kind of thing like that growing up that maybe you were scared of when you were little?

David Giuntoli: “What was I afraid of? I mean, I get this question so much. What was I afraid of? I was just afraid of ghosts. I couldn’t handle the thought of them and I felt constantly watched and it was like the worst thing in the world. But no, I didn’t have the fear of creatures coming in through the toilet.”

What is the hardest thing your character has to deal with in this series?

David Giuntoli: “You know, I mean there’s creatures and the creatures get more difficult and more difficult to deal with. I’m trying to think of what the strongest creature would be. Our show’s much like Mario Brothers [in that] just like every level, they just get stronger, and stronger, and stronger, so obviously season three I’m dealing with some over-the-top, resilient, ruthless Wesen.

Krampus is pretty wild – that guy. When I walked onto set and I saw the actor dressed… First of all, we hired a gigantic guy to play this character. And then when I saw him as Santa with these horns, I actually had like a visceral reaction to him. I was kind of frightened in a way. It was a disturbing thing.

I think that some of the grossest things I’ve seen are like the corpse when they’re all set and bloodied. I remember in season one the craziest thing I ever saw was walking on the set and seeing in a car a body being eaten alive from the inside by live rats, and rats were pouring out of this mouth of this dummy and it was awful. And my colleague Russell Hornsby ran away like a scared little boy.

There’s some other stuff too. I think the most difficult thing for me was the initial discovery that I was a Grimm and that this whole other world was out there. It’s something we play on in the series a lot. Whenever anybody else finds out who’s not ready to find out about the world of Grimm, it’s very delicate because you know mental institutions are lined with people who weren’t ready to see something, and they did. So that’s the most difficult part, I think, emotionally of the season – or of the whole show was finding out that I was a Grimm.

And then Hank had to find that out. And then later on in the season, maybe someone else is going to find that out. But you think you’re going crazy and that’s the most difficult thing for the character to deal with.”

Did you actually film scenes in the Portland sewers?

David Giuntoli: “Yes, we did actually. We did some trickery, of course. We went into an actual sewer in Portland, and then we built a sewer on a sound stage in Portland. But yes, I got to look like an actual man for once in my life and had a little sewer suit on. Little hard hat. Got my little soft city hands down a ladder into a sewer.

That episode’s going to look great. I think everything’s getting better and better all the time. It’s one of these shows we’re very lucky to be on the air as long as we are. Any show that’s on the air is lucky to be on the air, and you got to really kind of find how to do it and constantly improve. It’s been fun and I think the season’s better than ever.”

Nick went through a big change at the beginning of the season with becoming a zombie and there’s some residual effects of that. Are we going to get more of that as we come back after the break?

David Giuntoli: “Oh, yes. Yes. We’re going to be playing on this one for a little while. It’s funny. Every time Nick gets harmed, he’s left with this kind of useful side effect and we’re going to definitely be seeing more of that after the break.”

Grimm has kind of moved from a niche show and has expanded its fan base to a wider audience. Have you sensed any of that at all?

David Giuntoli: “Yes, I have noticed that and I don’t know if it’s completely based upon the fact it’s been on the air for two years now, so more and more people have encountered it just based on that. I don’t know if you pay attention to this stuff as much, but like right after we air it, the next morning it’s like, ‘Oh, what’s our rating,’ you know? And it’s funny. Like our demo is staying more or less the same. It bounces in the same demographic it’s been in for a long time, but the total amount of viewers has been going up.

Like this last episode we’ve had, it was the most viewers we’ve had since the pilot, and that’s kind of a trend. So, I have noticed that. I have noticed more and more non-sci-fi types you know, and I include myself in the sci-fi type, and more and more kind of middle-of-the-roaders coming up to me and talking to me and knowing about the show.”

It’s been interesting watching everything that’s been happening with the Royals and everything that’s going on. Moving into the second half of the season, is there one person that’s sort of going to emerge as the villain?

David Giuntoli: “You know, the writers have done a very good job of this – what I like to call the slow reveal. We have, I would say, coming towards the end of the mid-season we still have probably two or three contenders for the villain. One definitely. We have kind of a new character that emerges who is one of the, I’d say, two villains, but we have a new character who is one of the greater villains that we’re going to have on the show. But, I still place the Captain as a possible villain, and definitely Adalind as a villain, and then there’s one more guy who’s showing up here soon.”

What can you tell us about Grimm’s take on Christmas?

David Giuntoli: “I mean, just guess. Whatever you think is what it is. We just ruin it. We just ruin Christmas for everybody. I mean there’s an actual legend of Krampus out there, and we’ve had German people asking us to do Krampus over and over again, and we finally tipped our hat to the fine people of Bavaria and we’re bringing this legend to life. We ruin Christmas for everybody and it’s gory and it’s wonderful.”

Your relationship with Julia has had so many rocky problems in the first two seasons and it seems to be going just maybe a little too smoothly this season, except for the whole zombie thing. Are we about to see some more problems between you two, or are you guys going to live happily ever after?

David Giuntoli: “Oh, there’s no way we’re going to live happily ever after. I mean, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if there is a relationship – it is the job of the writers of America to tear it apart, at least temporarily you know. So I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I can guarantee you there’s going to be something thrown into the works here. I just don’t know what that is yet.”

Do you dream of some day just getting to be the bad guy, other than you did get to do a little bit with the zombie episode. But do you hope someday to really be able to get in touch with your inner dark side a little bit more?

David Giuntoli: “Yes. I think the longer Nick does this job, the more he is going to become that. I sense that. I sense that it happens, and I’ll become that more and more to the world of Wesen. And I’m not afraid of people anymore, so that’s a good sign for my character, getting dark.”

Earlier in the season when Nick was starting to deal with the aftermath of the zombie period, Captain Renard made a very interesting statement or question when he asked what the problem was with killing a human versus killing Wesen. Is that going to ever come up again? Are you aware of it?

David Giuntoli: “Yes, it will. It will come up again. The Captain and I…you know, it’s a very good point that somehow Nick never really thought of, but it will come up again. It’ll be a theme that is addressed. And I thought it was kind of cool because I was waiting for somebody to bring that up.”

With Nick’s newfound super hearing and his ability to appear dead, do you think that this is something he will learn to control over time, or is it something that you think may put his life in danger?

David Giuntoli: “At this point he does not control it at all. He certainly can use his hearing to his advantage, but this dead thing I don’t think he knows where it comes from yet. It is certainly not something that he can kind of pull out of his bag of tricks at his own whim. So you know, it either helps him or it hurts him at this point.”

Is there’s anything special about getting chapters with Latin American myths that you like?

David Giuntoli: “Yes, absolutely. I think A) let’s just be practical here. Like there are so many viewers of these episodes, for whatever reason – you know, when we did La Llorona, we got I think our second highest rated episode that we’ve ever done, and we’re like, ‘Oh, wow, maybe there’s a trick here.’ But what I really do love, and I said it before, is taking actual folklore, stuff that people really grow up being afraid of, that they hear about all the time.

There’s plenty of stories in the Grimm’s fairytales that we could go to that we haven’t gone to yet, but they’re not really stories that have made it really into the cultural conversation or don’t enter your homes through your parents telling you about them. And, there are plenty of other stories that do enter your family life as a child or whatever that are not Grimm’s fairytales.

So what I really love about these things like La Llorona and El Cucuy are they’re actually part of the folklore of a lot of people, and we get to just add that to the Grimm’s fairytale book now. We get to utilize Bitsie’s Spanish speaking and I think they’re kind of somehow richer and more…I don’t know…it seems more realistic, those episodes, so I do enjoy them. They’ve been very strong episodes, both of them.”

What’s it like now that everyone knows Nick is a Grimm? Is it nice that you no longer have to hide this from Juliet and Hank and the whole gang can like work together now?

David Giuntoli: “Yes. I think the show is better for having several more people know about Nick being a Grimm. There are still some people in the dark that I don’t want it to be revealed to just yet. The show can never become a big happy family. There needs to be a lot of problems. There are responsibilities and dangers that come with knowing about this world, and those who have found out who are not either Wesen or Grimm, there are dangers that come with that, and that’s going to be explored in this season.

And, there’s a reason Nick doesn’t tell everybody. It’s not safe for me, the more standard, normal human beings that know about this. But, I am happy that a couple more characters are in this circle, so to speak. I think it opens up a lot of new character dynamics. Different people who can interact with each other for the first time. And I love those big dinner scenes where we’re looking at gory, bloody pictures and drinking red wine and kind of discussing it from all these different points of views. Fuchsbau. Wesen. Juliet. Grimm.”

Can you tease a bit about what’s ahead in the European side of the story?

David Giuntoli: “You know, there’s going to be a big plot line that’s going on in Europe. Nick is not too involved with it, at least through mid-season, though I know that’s going to start changing soon. So we have the Verrat and we have the Royals. These are all bad guys. The Verrat I see as kind of the SS, and the Royals, such as Captain Renard, and his cousin, who’s being introduced as Alexis Denisof, a great actor, will be having a major conflict overseas. His cousin wants to get me and access to me. And, he comes very close very soon.

And then we have the resistance, a kind of group of rag-tag people trying to overthrow the Royals. So we’ll be meeting some new characters overseas doing that kind of thing. Keeping an eye on Adalind. We’ll be doing quite a bit abroad. The passports have all been stamped, so we’re overseas quite a bit.”

How have you seen your character further grow and develop this season would you say? And with that growth, what new acting challenges have you also discovered with the character?

David Giuntoli: “Well, I think he’s become far more confident. I kind of decided this year I’m not afraid of Wesen anymore; they’re not something that’s going to scare me. What does scare me to this day is what happens to my loved ones if I don’t stop the Wesen, so that’s where the struggle comes in.

I also see myself now as the only person who has like the rare blood to solve some of these cases. The stakes are raised in a different way now. I’m not afraid of the creatures, but I know it’s on me to take care of this case or this next case. Like, no one else can figure this thing out because they can’t see anything that I can see. I don’t know if there’s an acting struggle that’s come there, but you got to make the decision of what is keeping my character so highly invested in each one of those cases, and that’s a decision I made.

But, yes, where Nick is now is he’s very confident. I should say more than just confident is he is kind of settled into his role. There’s no reluctance there anymore and he’s willing to go kind of rogue more often.”

We’re starting to see increasing tension between Rosalee and Monroe concerning loyalty to Nick, and then also you eluded to the Captain as well. Are we going to see Nick eventually lose two members of his support team?

David Giuntoli: “You’ll see some wavering, I’ll say that. I don’t want to say I lose them all together. But things are starting to get questioned, you know? Is Nick using Monroe? I just shot an episode where that’s like the central theme and there’s a big falling out between Monroe and I. And it’s great because am I using Monroe? And in the episode that’s what I ask. I’m sitting with Juliet. I’m like, ‘I don’t know. He’s right. I think he’s right.’ So I think it’s kind of cool that this stuff’s coming to the surface in season three.”

Are you happy that you’re a Grimm or would you rather be a Wesen?

David Giuntoli: “Listen, I love being a Grimm. I feel like I live inside the character now. I just get it. I know where he’s coming from. I know exactly. You sit with a character for long enough, and it’s the beauty of having a television show that’s running. You don’t even have to try any more, you just kind of know how he would react to a certain situation. And you probably can’t get that in movies or even theater sometimes. It’s just we spend so much more time with these characters, so I like being a Grimm. I’m sure I would love being a Wesen too if I were one. But right now, Grimm’s just fine with me.”