‘Grimm’ Season 4 – Silas Weir Mitchell Interview

Silas Weir Mitchell Grimm Season 4 Interview
Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe in ‘Grimm’ (Photo by: Chris Haston / NBC)

Grimm season four finds Nick (played by David Giuntoli) having to rely on his detective skills after losing his Grimm powers. The current season also finds Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) dealing with the news of their inter-Wesen marriage getting out into the Wesen population at large.

There’s a lot going on this season in the relationships between all the key players, and in a conference call in support of season four, Mitchell talked about what’s going on with Monroe and what fans of the popular NBC series can expect in the upcoming episodes.

Silar Weir Mitchell Grimm Interview

In the third episode of season four, we saw a couple of troublemakers sitting outside of the Spice Shop. What can you tell us about those guys and what their intentions might be?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “Well, you know, I mean it’s been pretty sweet for me and the lady. The only hiccup really was my parents being a little old school as far as the inter-Wesen relationship and we got over that hump pretty well. But I think what went down at the wedding has sent a kind of a bad signal out in the Wesen world. They know what’s going on and I think there’s a lot of people who have issues with it. And I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as it was convincing (these) people that we’re okay as it was to convince my parents. So I think there’s a target on our backs, basically.”

What are some of the challenges of being on a show in its fourth season?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “I would say mostly it’s great stuff. […]Primarily, it’s that we’re a pretty well-oiled machine now so there’s not a lot of distractions. You can economize the way you work in the sense that you know where all the locations are. You know the city, to get around the city. The crew is really at the top of their game. So when the machine is humming along it makes it easier to do better work. That’s one of the great things about it. And the only real challenge about it – and this isn’t a challenge that I face – it’s for the writers to keep the thing fresh. I think they’re doing a bang-up job of that, but that’s not my problem so to speak. I take what they give me and I do my best to make it real and have fun with it. But I don’t have to worry about storylines. I just live the life they give me to live. So for me it’s really all upside.”

What are your feelings about Wu and how he’s beginning to question what’s going on with Nick, Monroe, and the rest of the gang? Do you think that they should tell him what’s been going on or do you think they should try to keep him in the dark about it?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “Well, that’s a good question. I mean I think in a lot of ways Wu – he’s already been through the wringer, you know, pretty big time as far as having his mind really messed with when the Aswang was the [involved], when they were dealing with that because of the Filipino nature of that myth that he always thought it was a fairy tale and then he starts to see that maybe it’s actually true. So in some ways there’s a fertile ground there for him maybe being able to deal with these things in a way. But, on the other hand, it could send him over the edge. So I just think that whatever happens Nick and Hank will have to be very deliberate as far as how they handle it with Wu. He obviously keeps pushing, then they’re going to have to make a decision. And the decision’s going to be based on what’s going to be best for Wu. Will he lose his mind completely or will he be able to handle it, because he’s already sort of been down that road?”

The writers teased for a long time with Wu’s name. Are we ever going to find out if Monroe is the first or last name?

Silas Weir Mitchell: [Laughing] “If I knew I wouldn’t tell you. How’s that for a riddle?”

Is it difficult to have to play Monroe while he’s being persecuted for this inter-Wesen marriage?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “No, it’s not. It’s exciting because it’s a different. It’s a different life experience that I’m getting to live and that’s the fun of the whole game. It’s just living different life experiences. I mean, that’s the fun of being an actor. So to me it was looking forward to things getting sticky and difficult because I think the only real hiccup last year on the way to the altar was my dad being a jerk. And that’s not that big of a deal, and this is a much bigger deal. I tell you, a lot of things that are smaller in magnitude than having a Grimm be on the altar with you at the wedding have happened that have led to terrible things. So I think, you know, that’s a big deal. When that gets out in the world not only the inter-Wesen thing but the fact that we’re friends with a Grimm and if that gets known it’s trouble. I think it’s just going to be ugly and I’m excited about it because that’s fun to play.”

Grimm has had some pretty gnarly holiday episodes in the past. What does the show have coming up for us with the Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “Pretty gnarly episodes. You know, I still miss Krampus. I think he was just one of the best. I loved that guy. I thought he was awesome. I think that Christmas is interrupted by other events than a Christmas-oriented Wesen this year. I mean there’s still Christmas and it’s big, god knows. It can’t be otherwise. But the complications involved aren’t specifically Christmas related.”

Is there somebody in particular on the cast who you haven’t had a lot of scenes with that you’d like to work with more?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “Yes, definitely, and the two would be Sasha [Roiz] and Reggie [Lee]. I’ve worked even more with the Captain than I have with Sergeant Wu. I remember the first scene that the Captain and I had together and it was so much fun to get these two people with completely different energies who’ve never been in the same room together practically – when he came to the Spice Shop, I don’t know if it was year two or three. It’s all sort of blurred together. But he came to the Spice Shop to get some stuff to keep him from being in love with Bitsie [Tulloch’s] character – with Juliette. It was a delight to get to have Monroe and the cast in the room dealing with that. It was really fun.

And I think that it would be fun to get more with Wu and Monroe just because Reggie’s fantastic and we work in similar ways and we haven’t had a lot of stuff to do together. We were actually in the same class in Los Angeles when we both got this job. We were working together on a scene from a play so we know each other pretty well, and it would be fun to actually get to work with him more.”

What’s it been like to play the dynamics between Monroe and Nick with him not being a Grimm? Has that been fun to play as well?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “It’s been totally great because so many issues arise in the absence of his powers for me and Rosalee. I mean, he got me into all this crap and now he can’t protect me. I love the guy but now I’m kind of out on a limb, you know? He feels bad and I feel bad for feeling angry. And, I feel bad for him. But I’m also scared and angry, and it’s great. There’s a lot of stuff swirling around in the soup.

Again, it’s just the writers are finding ways of re-imagining things that are still fresh. They’re still fresh and they’re still interesting for us and hopefully for you guys too. And definitely I enjoy playing the dynamic of Nick as a broken man at this point.”

I love the relationship between the characters Monroe and Rosalee, but I also just love the chemistry between you and Bree Turner. It’s great. Cant you talk about working with her and how that’s actually developed over these four seasons?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “Well it’s just one of those things where you’re lucky to get to work with someone who you work similarly. We’re both invested in having a real experience, and the story is the most important thing. It’s fun to play pretend at a high level, and we play pretend until it becomes real on a certain level and it’s just nice to have a partner who shares that ethic.

And, you know, that’s just the luck of the draw, really. But it’s been delightful. It’s one of those things where it could have gone either way, and luckily it went the way of two people who work well together. That’s just luck, really, and you’ve got to credit casting. They put a group of people together that do well together. I mean all of us do well together. You know what I mean? There’s no strife. People show up to work and have fun doing it and we respect each other. It’s a nice brew of psyches in there.”

Why do you think Grimm is so popular for so many different cultures?

Silas Weir Mitchell: “I think there are two main reasons why Grimm has a global following, if one could say it in those terms. First of all, it deals with universal themes because everybody has these elements of their psyche. Grimm deals with mythical issues in a very, very detailed and human way. So that’s one reason; that the themes are mythical and universal.

The other reason is it’s using fairytales from different cultures. Every culture has its own myths. Every culture has its own fairytales. Every culture has its own spooky stories; its own creature stories. And so, again, this is sort of the sub-set of the universal thing. Everybody has it. It’s not a show about the fashion industry on the Upper East Side of New York City which only a certain sub-section of society knows or cares about. It’s dealing with something that every culture deals with which is myth and storytelling. It’s appealing for that reason to a pretty large set of the human population.”