Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) pops the question to Rosalee (Bree Turner) in the Grimm episode "The Wild Hunt." Photo copyright of NBC.
On the hit NBC supernatural crime drama Grimm, the good guys are (usually) the humans, and the bad guys (usually) belong to a race of creatures called Wesen. Like most things in life, though, there are exceptions. Our heroes have encountered some not-so-nice human beings, while not all Wesen are out to cause mayhem and commit murder. Monroe and his fiancée Rosalee Calvert are among the latter. A Weider Blutbad and a Fuchsbau, they are members of the Wesen community who help the program’s resident Grimm, Detective Nick Burkhardt, in his battle to keep the dark forces that threaten humankind at bay.
Using their knowledge of the Wesen along with the various herbs, potions, powders and ancient texts from Rosalee’s spice shop, they have saved not only Nick’s life more than once, but also the lives of other innocent humans as well as Wesen. In the show’s (current) third season, Monroe and Rosalee have become engaged and will soon be planning their nuptials. Being the first Wesen wedding in TV history, it will be anyone’s guess what will be involved. Needless to say it will unlikely be a smooth sailing to the altar, but that is to be expected on Grimm.
Last week, actors Silas Weir Mitchell (Monroe) and Bree Turner (Rosalee) spent some time on the phone with me and other journalists to talk about their characters and navigating the Wesen world. The following is an edited version of our Q&A. Enjoy!
Can you both talk a bit about filming the scene (in the episode “The Wild Hunt”) where Monroe proposes to Rosalee, and have they (the producers) talked with you about how they will eventually do a wedding or anything like that?
Bree Turner: That whole episode was super fun to shoot. We packed a lot into it, from the actual night of the proposal and getting engaged to Monroe’s parents arriving at his house in the end. It's a really big episode, but the proposal scene itself was adorable, fun and silly to shoot.
Slias Weir Mitchell: As soon as you think everything is fine, the parents show up and it gets extremely difficult. But yes, the shooting of that scene was really fun. I mean, it's fun to watch this imaginary life unfold, and the way that it happens is so sort of unique.
BT: I feel like what's been enjoyable about exploring Monroe’s and Rosalee’s relationship is that there's been just this very truthful consistency right from the beginning about who these characters are and how they treat each other and handle these different moments in their relationship. I think the proposal is such a pure, touching and honest moment and very much in the vein of who these characters are.
SWM: There’s a rich interracial kind of vein with Monroe and Rosalee becoming a couple and that the writers are going to mine, but this is, after all, still Grimm. As sweet as this relationship is – and it totally is - what I like about what the writers do is that they allow for the show’s complexity and darkness to come out as well, do you know what I mean?
I wanted to touch upon last week's episode (“The Good Soldier”) where Monroe and Rosalee visit Rosalee's mother and sister. Could you talk a bit about filming that episode and what that was like for both of you?
BT: Well, the whole dinner scene with Rosalee’s mom and sister took place in one day, so it was a very long 18-hour day out in Hillsborough (Oregon) and it was exhausting.
SWM: Yes, that was a big day.
BT: It was a biggie, and there was a lot of emotional stuff going on for Rosalee, and so, again, I think exhausted would be the word I would use by the end of that day.
SWM: That was like the most awkward dinner in the history of man. Monroe felt bad for Rosalee to be in a situation where there’s so much tension between her and her sister. That was hard, especially because I think there's a great deal of truth to that familial dynamic. So I felt the awkwardness as well as the love.
Can you also talk about the Christmas episode (“Twelve Days of Krampus”) that explores a bit of Rosalee’s past and her feelings about that particular holiday?
SWM: Be honest now. Do you really want to know how one person could put all those Christmas decorations up and/or take them down in one night (he jokes)?
BT: Rosalee must have been morphed out when she did that because only a fox could gather and put together everything that quickly (she jokes).
SWM: A bottle of wine, a couple of morphs, no problem.
BT: Every time I walk onto our set, and this is not an exaggeration, I'm blown away by what our construction and set design teams can pull together so quickly with no time between (episode) turnover.
SWM: Yes, it's really amazing what the art department can do. So much of the show has to do with its look, and those guys are incredible.
BT: So there was not a lot of acting needed when I walked on the set with the house being decorated as it was because it was truly like Christmas “threw-up” (in Monroe’s living room), so I didn't really have to pretend about it. But as I mentioned earlier, what's been enjoyable to me about the arc of Monroe’s and Rosalee’s relationship this season is that it’s been a complicated, real and very adult relationship. I think it's been really fun that an adult late-30's couple is being portrayed onscreen as opposed to the high drama of your 20's or silliness of your teens. It's these two people who've lived a very full and complicated life coming together and finding harmony.It's not a straight path, it's a twisted one, but there's always respect and love, and you get to see how they deal with the complexities of their relationship.
Silas, you certainly have a talent for playing the lighter side of your character as well as the seriousness surrounding a mixed Wesen relationship/marriage. What has that been like for you?
SWM: From the inside it's just these two interesting people trying to figure something out. So whatever the story demands, whether it's the sort of awkwardness of a proposal or the seriousness of a fight with your parents, that's where I go. What's nice about the show is the writers use a lot of bandwidth as far as the emotional vicissitudes, which are pretty great, and that's what makes it fun.
BT: With Grimm as a whole, there are funny and serious moments as well as the fantasy elements, procedural drama, etc., and we flow in and out of all these spaces when we're creating the world within each episode. I think what Silas is saying is that as actors, we're not trying to be serious, funny, comedic or dramatic. It's just about living as truthfully as possible in this world we've created, and as we’re honoring that, the sort of comedic moments just naturally emerge and you respond to them because they're just truthful.
The two of you have really nice onscreen chemistry together; what do you like about working with each other?
SMW: I can't stand her (he jokes).
BT: He's such a pig (she jokes). No, seriously, I love Silas, especially his big heart. He's a sweetheart of a man and also a true professional to work with. I think from day one I knew it was going to be a very cool journey with Silas because he's all in 100% and brings so much to the character as well as to the script that's not even necessarily down on paper. It's just very exciting and fun to work with him; that's how I feel.
SWM: That's such a lovely thing for you to say about me, Bree. For me, working with Bree is delightful because she’s all in,too. There's no bullshit or fussiness with her. Bree is interested in the honesty of the story, and when you work with actors who are interested in the honesty and truth of it, then you look at him or her and they're playing the same game as you, so you're both on the same field. It's not like you're trying to play badminton and the other person is bowling.
With Bree, I really feel like we're on the same team. That’s true of the whole cast, which is what makes Grimm sort of special in my heart above anything I've done before, the fact that we're all on the same team and playing on the same field. Bree and I we know that we can trust each other and we're both playing the same fun game. That's really a delight. It makes it a joy to go to set when you're all playing the same game.
BT: Thanks, Silas. That was nice.
SWM: Well, it’s the truth, Bree.
What do you guys think of the fact that your characters are really sort of the normal ones and sort of the grounding for the other characters on the show? Do you find that sort of odd or ironic or what do you think about that?
SWM: That's a good question.
BT: I think Wesen know history in a very different way than non-Wesen, and maybe what you're saying is the grounding is coming from experience and being around for a long time. I just think there's a lot of historical weight that comes with being a Wesen that non-Wesen maybe don't quite understand, I guess.
SWM: Yes, I would totally agree with that, and just back it up with the idea of I think there's a sense of worldliness to our story where Wesen actually know how the world works. The non-Wesen are looking at the world in a certain way, and the history they’re witnessing or reading about is actually a whitewashed version of what most Wesen know to be true. So I think the anchoring element is exactly what Bree was saying; there's an historical element to it as well as a kind of, “we know the truth.” There's a wisdom to it, like, for example, Hitler supposedly wasn't just Hitler, which we’ve seen on the show.
What is it about your character that you each love?
BT: Well, I love Rosalee's compassion. She's dealt with a lot of complications in her life and is someone who comes from a very fractured family and a lot of sadness. What I think has been a very cool journey from the introduction of Rosalee to now is that when she came on the scene, she was a person who did not understand her strength and light. Rosalee comes from a family of healers and apothecaries and is the one who’s the most gifted in this world, but was the most fearful of her talents.
I think her choosing to hide out was a way to escape the responsibility of who she is and the true strengths inside herself. In coming back to Portland and befriending Nick (David Giuntoli) and meeting Monroe, it's been a journey of reinforcing her confidence as a healer and an apothecary. Last season was her understanding her strengths and talents and owning them as well as opening up her heart and finding love again and trusting another person.
What I think has been really fun about season three is her going back to the struggle that she was dealing with in terms of her relationship with Monroe and allowing another person to really understand who she truly is and not being able to hide from those issues anymore. Rosalee is such a beautiful spirit and embraces her complications and is very quiet and still about them now in this new phase of her life. I think that takes a lot of bravery and trust, which I see as being very cool. Jeez, Louise, that's a very long-winded answer to a very short question.
SWM: That was so intense. I see Rosalee in a whole new light now, and it's a beautiful warm, glowing kind of safe light.
BT: Can you add some things?
SWM: I cannot. What would I add to that? Talk about gilding the lily, I have nothing to add.
BT: No, no, no, about what you like about Monroe?
SMW: Oh, you know, we've all heard what I think about Monroe a thousand times. If it’s just a matter of what I like about him, then I will go talking on for another hour-and-a-half because I love living inside that man's head. I can tell you that he has a deep fear of pickled vegetables. Even though he’s a vegan, it's that vinegar thing that freaks Monroe out. That's something that nobody has known about him until now.
Bree, I'm really enjoying the developing relationship now that Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) is part of the Scooby Gang, Are we going to see more of that the rest of the season as it plays out?
BT: Yes, definitely. We just did a standalone web series that's going to air around Valentine's Day that focuses on Juliette and Rosalee and their friendship. It's really fun and playful and a bit of a departure in tone from the show but we had a great time. We kind of got to express all our girliness that we can't really quite do in the world of Grimm.
As noted above, photo copyright of NBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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