NBC’s popular urban fantasy show, Grimm, is coming up on an important milestone. Its 100th episode will be airing in March, which typically means that the show is viable for syndication (aka reruns all over the damn place). In its four seasons and change (it’s currently in its fifth), the storytelling has become more ambitious and layered, moving away from “monster-of-the-week” and getting deeper and deeper into its own mythology.
However, that doesn’t mean that they’re staying away from beloved fairy and folk tales. Tonight, we’ll be treated to their unique take on the story of Peter Pan in an episode called “Lost Boys,” which is the third episode of the current season. In it, a group of orphaned wesen children who don’t understand what it means to be wesen (and led, of course, by a kid named Peter), take women prisoner in the woods in an attempt to have a mother.
After their previous “mother” dies trying to escape from them, the kids meet Rosalee at the spice shop as she goes easy on them for trying to steal medicine for their sick sister. Because of her kindness, they decide she’d make a great mother, and they abduct her. It’s an intense, exciting episode that allows the wonderful Rosalee, played by the talented Bree Turner, to shine.
I had the chance to talk with Turner, as well as with Silas Weir Mitchell, who plays her husband, Monroe, at Grimm‘s 100th Episode celebration in Portland. They both talked about their on-screen relationship, and Turner specifically addressed how parenthood shaped the way she approached “Lost Boys.”
Teresa Jusino (TMS):Â Rosalee is awesome, so I was really glad to see her shine in this episode. As a mom yourself, what was it like to interact with these kids in this way?
Bree Turner: It was really fun! My kids are five and three, and – especially my five year old who’s now old and has attitude, you know, and is his own person – it was really fun to have that life experience under my belt dealing with these kids. That firm, but loving approach to delinquent behavior in kids that you have to have the cojones to do when you’re a parent was really fun to play. Because I was thinking about doing this before I had children, but life experience always helps.
I loved this episode too, because what you’re saying about liking the character – what I love about her, too, and what the writers are so gorgeous at is that she’s obviously grounded in her compassion, she’s loving, she’s a peacekeeper…but also, she’s got a short fuse, she doesn’t take any bullshit, she’s not afraid to be the smartest person in the room, and just the way she dealt wtih the lead kid [in “Lost Boys”], she didn’t have kid gloves on with them. She was like You need to stop. This is ridiculous to do this to me. And I thought that was a fresh approach, where it could’ve been a little sappy, I thought it was really cool.
TMS: Something I noticed between you and Silas [Weir Mitchell] as Monroe is that your character kind of started out hard, and came from a lot of troubled stuff going on, and you’ve kind of softened over the course of things. Where I think the reverse has happened for him – especially with the Wessenrein stuff [a storyline in which his character was abducted by the wessen version of Nazis] – he’s kind of getting more protective of you, and more agitated…How are you navigating those changes as scene partners?
Turner: Being a part of the show as long as we have now, what’s really fun about this series is that these characters are in us, they’re in our skin. We’re always working very hard, but you’re living the life every day in this world, so it’s actually a really comfortable way to work. So the evolution that you’re speaking of I think just happens really organically. And as he and I get closer as people and friends, and as the characters get closer on screen, shorthand happens, and it’s really fun to play a real married couple.
I also like that the writers haven’t tiptoed around arguments and disagreements. They’re madly in love with each other, but they’re also real people, and they can disagree and it’s going to be okay. In our process together, we work really well together.
TMS: As I mentioned to Bree, I noticed that Monroe has become a bit harder and more cynical in light of his experience with the Wessenrein. For example, in Season One of Grimm, Monroe helped a young girl named Holly who had trouble adjusting to wessen life, whereas in “Lost Boys,” he doesn’t seem to trust these kids when he first meets them, while Rosalee tries to get through to them with kindness.
Silas Weir Mitchell: Well, [Holly] was clearly a child in distress. These are more the breaking-and-entering kind of kids. It’s more protective of Rosalee than it is about not trusting the kids. I think it’s a very primal thing when you have someone in your life that you want to protect and make sure they’re okay that brings out that harder edge as opposed to more happy-more-lucky. As much as it’s great to be like Yay, we’re in love! But it’s also Now, I have something to lose. So you get a little bit more cagey. Which is fun to play.
“Lost Boys” airs tonight on NBC at 9PM ET/PT.
(Images via Scott Green/NBC)
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