Season three of NBC’s hit drama series Grimm kicks off on Friday, October 25, 2013 at 9pm and Bitsie Tulloch (‘Juliette’) is very excited to now be in the know and considered part of the gang. After spending the first season completely clueless as to what was really going on with her boyfriend Nick (played by David Giuntoli) and spending season two suffering from amnesia, season three finally offers a Juliette who’s a key member of the Grimm team.
What are you most excited about fans seeing in the new season, both with Juliette and with the show as a whole?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Well, you know, the truth is obviously if you’re going from season to season, one thing is that I’ve noticed because – and I really do believe this – season two was better than season one, and I think season three…I’ve finished up to episode nine now…it’s better than season two. It’s getting better and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Jim [Kouf] and David Greenwalt, our showrunners, have been really been able to delve deeper into the mythology aspect.
And I think that’s really what the fans like. I mean, the procedural stuff is fun, but they’re into this mythology. They’re into this Wesen family tree that’s been created and sort of connecting all of the dots, and now they’re going further into these Wesen families.
Episode one coming back – one and two – really, considering they’re both still dealing with the zombie storyline, they really feel like movies. […]There was a lot of action. I was doing a lot of stunts which I had a blast with. You know, at one point, Bree and Silas, and I were basically dangling from the top of a container yard that was like 50 feet high.
It was just really fun, and I think what I’m most excited about, besides the fact that every script that comes in, I’m like, ‘Awww, this is so great.’ I’m loving all the scripts and everything.
You know, I usually shoot with David for the most part, and I’m getting to shoot more with everybody else because Juliette is now part of the Scooby Squad and that’s been really fun for me.
You know, I think that in the past, last season in particular, having amnesia and season one basically, the main thing was Nick having to hide it from me. David and I have just been having so much fun shooting together this season, because it changes everything for us. The fact that I get to be involved, and I get to help him solve storylines, but even just the fact that we can talk about this stuff has changed everything for us, and it’s been really great.”
Last season, Juliette had amnesia, and Nick was trying to win her back, and so this season it kind of seems, at least at the beginning, that the big storyline is going to be an inversion of that dynamic. Does this mean she have a chance to have a more active role in Nick’s fight against the Wesen?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Yes, definitely. They’ve eluded to the fact that Juliette, even though in some ways she was somewhat passive character obviously having had amnesia, they’ve eluded enough in the last two seasons that she’s quite capable; she’s smart and she’s kind of a badass. I mean she knows how to use a gun. That’s popped up, and so that’s definitely a direction that the character is going in.
But one of the things that I’ve always said, starting in the [final] episodes of season two [was] she just got him back. I mean, she was literally thrown into the fire. She has no background in this world. She has doesn’t know what is going on. It’s the first time she’s sort of part of the Grimm gang and helping out. There’s this zombie invasion. But, you know, she’s kind of thinking, ‘I will be damned if I’m going to lose him now. I just go him back.’
I think it’s really a testament…and I always have to give credit to the showrunners again. They didn’t want this relationship to be like a lot of TV relationships. They were breaking up and getting back together, and breaking up and getting back together. They established early on that we’ve been living together for years; we’ve been through a lot together and there’s a lot of love there.
And I think that it’s really a testament to that love that no matter what they’ve been through, they always find their way back to each other, and so she’s very pissed. She’s angry. She’s scared she’s going to lose him again because he’s in a severe amount of peril right now, in the first three episodes coming back in particular, and I think that she’s going to do everything in her power to make sure that they get him back. Hopefully, safely, before it’s not too late.”
Does the increased focus on serialization instead of the procedural aspect change how much you know about the season as it goes forward? Do you know more about where the season is headed than in the past?
Bitsie Tulloch: “No, honestly, we don’t. We don’t know that much more than we always have, which is that I have a general idea of what’s coming up, what the main twist is going to be towards the end of season of three – which is great by the way. I have a general idea, but otherwise, we don’t really know.
The truth is the writers were way ahead of the game this season. Usually, we would get the scripts for the next one while we were shooting the previous episode. This time we have like four or five scripts out, and a lot of us just stopped reading them because we were like, ‘It’s too much information.’ You totally get confused if you’re in another story, but you’re shooting another one. So, I don’t know that anybody really wants to know that much out.
I mean, I have the general plan. Everybody has the overarching for planned. I know David for sure does not read the script until the day before he starts shooting it because it’s just too much.”
You said Juliette doesn’t want to give up her man now that she has him back, but does she think long-term? If she goes ahead and marries him and they have kids, this would be her kids’ life too, because they would be Grimms. Or is she just living in the moment?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Well, to be honest with you, Juliette does not yet know that there’s a genetic connection so that wouldn’t be a concern yet. But I also think that for the time being, I mean as far as anybody getting married, then it’s going to be Monroe and Rosalee. I think Nick and I really just need to have some normalcy in our life and get back to having a normal relationship. I think their main focus honestly is figuring out how to navigate this together now that Juliette knows.
And, you know, in the second to last episode Juliette messed up and she asked that tow truck driver what kind of Wesen he was. It’s not going to be smooth sailing.
She’s the only character of any of the series regulars who’s either not Wesen or not a cop or a detective. She’s kind of the normal one and as such there’s something exciting to her about it, which I really like. Like, this is exciting for her. She feels like she’s a little bit in a detective story. But at the same time, every so often there’s something bumbling because she just, obviously, to her this is almost like a fantasy land that she’s stepped into. She’s not used to it being a reality yet.”
Does she have to deal with Nick as a zombie?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Yes, I mean you’ll see a lot stuff happens. In the first two episodes, obviously he is a zombie and it’s pretty frightening. But again I think you guys are going to see a really different side of Juliette this season because, as I said before, she’s very capable.
This is the first time she’s really been able to be a tough cookie, and she’s always been that way. But she couldn’t be that way when Nick was hiding stuff from her because she didn’t know. She just didn’t know. She didn’t have the opportunity to be strong because she didn’t know what was going on and then in season two she was poisoned, in a coma and had amnesia for most of the time.
So, as I said, I think she was slightly passive but through no fault of her own. So, yes, it is going to be scary. There are certain things that are going to be really scary for her, but I think it’s definitely been fun for me to be able to sort of show her true colors now that she actually knows what’s going on.”
What do you see as David’s strengths on the show? What does he bring to the show, and what he’s like on the set?
Bitsie Tulloch: “He is so much fun on set. Well, you know, for me in particular, because he and I have known each other the longest basically because we shot a movie together before we booked Grimm and we were playing boyfriend and girlfriend in the movie, so basically for the last three years we’ve been playing boyfriend and girlfriend. So, he’s pretty playful with me.
Like there was a huge spider on set and I have major arachnophobia. There was a massive spider on Juliette’s and Nick’s stages, and we were shooting a scene where Silas and Bree – Russell and David and I – and somebody noticed a spider and I ran away screaming immediately. I literally climbed over the porch and almost sprained my ankle because I wouldn’t go near where the spider was. And David totally tricked me, pretended like he got it down with his arms and was chasing me around the set.
He’s really fun. He’s such a good guy, you know? I always say he’s just a good ole boy from the Midwest. You know, there’s not a lot of pretense. He’s just smart and charming and he’s just delightful.
As far as where his character’s heading, same thing I said as far as you’re not just going to go into another season with a certain amount of stasis. It has to get fettered. We have to keep the fans into the show and intrigued and Nick is learning more and he’s getting stronger; he’s faster. But there’s an edge to his character going forward because of what he’s going through with all of the zombies.
You’re going to see a different side of him. You’re going to see a slightly twisted side because of everything that went on and vice versa. You’re going to see stronger Wesen and families now know more about him because they’ve been aware of him longer and they’ve been tracking him longer, so it feels like everybody’s sort of coming out together as far as the same level of capabilities or what have you.”
So he keeps it fun and light on set?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Yes, for the most part. I mean, sometimes we have really, really long days and everybody’s kind of dragging their feet by the end because every so often we’ll have a 17-hour day. But I would say 95% of the time, we’re all really having fun. We all like – Bree and Silas – the Grimm gang. Whenever we’re shooting together, we’re always having a blast.
We really like the fact that for the first time we’re having these scenes where there’s a group of us kind of and everybody has specific talents. Juliette is a veterinarian. She’s a doctor, so she has more of the science and chemistry background which she’s now being able to really use. I always refer to Bree’s character Rosalee as sort of being like, if I’m the actual doctor, she’s like a Wesen doctor with all her potions and stuff.
But, yes, we really have fun. […]It’s a very happy cast and I think that anybody would tell you that, like who visits the set or something. You know, we are always hanging out. Literally all of us are going out to dinner tonight because it’s Sasha’s birthday. It’s a happy cast.”
Is this a much more action-oriented season for you and did you prepare yourself physically for taking this on?
Bitsie Tulloch: “I didn’t. It’s definitely more action-oriented just because of the fact that my character is sort of involved now and with the Scooby Squad, you know? I’m sort of tagging along to certain things. As far as preparation, I actually at the wrap party I had torn my radial collateral ligament or, ruptured actually, it in my hand so that stuff was really hard for me to shoot. There wasn’t a lot I could do to train because I was in a removable cast.
I was supposed to have surgery but I couldn’t because episode one was a continuation of the finale, so I couldn’t all of a sudden have a cast on. So my hand surgeon had to make one that I could take off and Bree was like, ‘Bitsie, what are you doing?!’ Because I’m right-handed and it was my right hand, my natural inclination was play her as yourself, I would put my right hand out on my wrist, so it was actually kind of brutal having to shoot some of that stuff considering the fact that I was still pretty hurt and I was in physical therapy.
But at the same time, there’s so much adrenaline pumping. You have all of these zombies, stunt guys running after you, and I was having a blast. I loved all of that physical stuff. I have a scene coming up in another one and I’m already just so excited about rehearsing with our stunt coordinator and getting to do that. So, definitely a lot more action just by virtue of the fact that my character is in the know.”
The next time Juliette and Captain Renard are in a scene together, is there awkwardness between them or are they acting like it never happened?
Bitsie Tulloch: “For now, I mean I think it’s a touch awkward, but the primary focus really because this is a question that pops up again, ‘Are we going to see Juliette and Renard together again?’ And I just say, ‘Never say never.’ But as far as I’m concerned, it’s really about Nick and Juliette sort of figuring this out together and strengthening their relationship now that everybody knows this information and going forward together as opposed to on diverging paths.”
Will Juliette ever get to the point where she realizes that Adalind [played by Claire Coffee] was the one who did this to her? Do you foresee a catfight?
Bitsie Tulloch: “You know, that is an awesome question that I do not know the answer to but I always mention to the writers. I’m like, ‘When is she going to figure it out?’ I mean this woman screwed up her life and almost killed her. You know, she almost lost the love of her life. She was involved in this love affair with somebody she barely even knew and had amnesia, and that’s a terrible [thing] what Juliette went through.
I’d been reading this book by Oliver Sacks when they first gave me that storyline about the amnesia and it was a book called The Mind’s Eye about Prosopagnosia which is people with facial recognition problems, but obviously not what Juliette had. But I always remember in the book how sad it was that a wife couldn’t recognize her husband or she would have to touch his face or something to know or smell him to know that’s my husband. And that always broke my heart. And then two weeks later they said, ‘Oh you’re going to have amnesia.’ So I always just thought what a cruel, cruel thing.
And also they were so specific in that it wasn’t that she forgot everyone and could just start a new life over – she forgot just Nick. So I would think if she figures it out, she’s going to be pretty angry. I mean that’s all I have to say about that. I haven’t seen anything coming up. Adalind’s storyline is basically in Europe right now. I haven’t seen anything coming up as far as that, but I wouldn’t mind seeing that. I think that that would actually be pretty fun.”
You’ve talked several times about her loyalty to Nick, but why do you suppose she is so loyal to him? In light of all that we’ve seen in the first two seasons, what makes Nick the right person for her?
Bitsie Tulloch: “I always remember getting asked a lot in season one, ‘Why is she being so naïve while he’s lying to her?’ and all this stuff and I guess it was mainly that I’d done enough to her story. We’d been together by that point for three years. And I had been with him and had gone through Marie dying for him, which was really traumatizing for him.
I mean basically his mom, for all I know the woman who raised him and that mother figure, had died, and I always sort of interpreted it as she’s being patient. She’s being understanding and letting him grieve, and she kind of thought that the reason that he was being so weird had to do with not getting over Marie’s death. Like in the proposal scene, when he proposed, she says, ‘Until you let me back in again.’ So she kind of assumed that and she obviously didn’t know about anything that was going on with the Grimm.
She thought that he was just shutting her out because of Marie’s death. So, in that sense, you can kind of understand the patience. It just feels like they have this really comfortable rapport and they’re not really fighters and it just sort of feels like they’re just comfortable, like a little old married couple and they really love each other a lot.
I think that with the new storyline with Juliette getting involved more, he’s going to look at her in a different light because she didn’t realize that she was such kind of a badass. And you’re going to see more of that. There’s going to be scenes where he’s like a little impressed. He’s like, ‘Oh crap, I didn’t even know this side of her. Look at this. This is interesting.'”
– More Interviews with the Cast of Grimm: David Giuntoli / Bree Turner / Sasha Roiz / Claire Coffee
