On tonight's episode of Grimm, a long awaited and highly-anticipated moment is finally going to play out. Juliette and Adalind are going toe-to-toe in a big, badass Hexenbiest brawl. Many fans of the show have been waiting for this moment since the Grimm's first season, and given Juliette's recent transformation, she's finally in place to smack some sense into the petite blonde baddie that's been tormenting the gang for years.
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the set of Grimm in Portland, Oregon where they were shooting an upcoming episode of the series fourth season. During a break in filming I joined a small group of journalists for an interview with Bitsie Tulloch. On the subject of Julliete and Adalind's big showdown, she said it was so intense that Coffee's stunt double had to go to the hospital with a broken rib! She also talked about their early season five renewal, what's coming up for Juliette now that she's a Hexenbiest, Juliette's relationship with Captain Renard, why Grimm is the little engine that could, and more.
After all the trials and tribulations that Juliette has been through, what could possibly happen next to poor Juliette?
TULLOCH: Well obviously the Hexenbiest stuff is going to be a huge storyline for the remainder of the season and the big showdown that basically everybody's been waiting for for four years, between Adalind and Juliette, is in [this] week's episode. That's probably one of two of the biggest, most heavily choreographed fight scenes the show has ever done. So that's a big one.
One of the big things that they've been emphasizing, because obviously Adalind's pretty powerful herself, but as Rosalie said a few episodes ago, the Hexenbiest that are made and not born are a lot more powerful and dangerous and threatening. So that's happening. Yeah, it's really just a question of whether or not Nick and Juliette are going to be able to stay together, because Hexenbiest's are sort of a Grimm's mortal enemy, and now it's sort of how is she going to tell him? Is she going to tell him? When is she going to tell him? Really, what is his reaction going to be?
Last season it was a major question whether Nick should give up his Grimm powers and whether he should get them back, and he ultimately got them back. Do you think that Juliette will go through the same thing? Is she going to end up wanting to keep her Hexenbiest powers?
TULLOCH: I think at first, absolutely not. She's scared. She doesn't know - it's unpredictable, she doesn't know how powerful she is. She's afraid of inadvertently hurting somebody. She's not a mean person, this is definitely unwanted. Aa to whether or not she becomes accustomed to it or embraces it, that's an answer that will come up later in the series.
What about you? It seems like you have a lot more action now?
TULLOCH: As an actress this has been really fun, and the fans are loving her being a Hexenbiest because she gets to have a power now. Before it was that she was sort of adding a lot being a veterinarian, being good at research, knowing how to shoot a gun, but what you'll see and what you saw in "Tribunal" is that she's a potent force. I think right now she doesn't want it and is really just scared of hurting Nick.
How does that change the game for Juliette to suddenly go from totally human to among the most powerful creatures in that world?
TULLOCH: I don't think she really realizes how powerful she is. I think that's going to be played out over the course of this season, but she's definitely very, very badass. It's been fun getting to do the fight stuff and getting to be a Wesen for the first time. It's interesting, because one of the reasons I loved the character so much since season one is that she's the only character who wasn't Wesen or wasn't a cop or detective, so literally of the eight series regulars, she's the only kind of normal one. So I always like, "It's through her eyes that the audience is going to be viewing this." And of course all of us, like normal people, we would be freaked out if we got dropped into this crazy world. But now she's a Wesen too.
So how did you guys feel about getting the news about your renewal?
TULLOCH: Oh, we were really excited. We didn't expect it to happen this early. Traditionally it's been April or March, but the funny thing is - because our executive producers were on an airplane, so we found out via a fan on Twitter, which is insane that's how we found it. I was getting ready to go to work and David Called me. he was like, "We got picked up!" And I was like, "What are you talking about?" He said, "Check your Twitter." I'm like, "Check the twitter? Aren't we supposed to get a phone call from the producers?" But they couldn't call us, so they kind of found out when they landed, too, and it had been announced. We were all really excited. We were pretty hopeful that the show is - I had a feeling.
When the show started it was kind of below the radar, NBC wasn't doing a whole lot to promote it. What do you think about starting with not all that much publicity and here you are getting ready for season five?
TULLOCH: Well, that's what's funny. If I'm not mistaken we're the only show that was a Fall 2011 premiere that's still on the air. It always felt like we were the little engine that could. It's not like we're one of those shows that's Thursday night at 10, that get's such heavy promotion, but we consistently - and I think that's one of the great things about being a genre show, is that the fans are so loyal. Even when they've moved us around and stuff, they tried us out on a Tuesday night for a period, and our fans showed up. But yeah, it's great. We just keep plugging away. I know the show does really well internationally, and we got syndicated by TNT before we even started shooting season four, which is pretty wild.
I want to talk to you a little bit about the Juliette and Adalind fight, because I know you've been so excited for it for a while. What can you talk about the training for it and how many days you and Claire spent together?
TULLOCH: What's unfortunate about being - because I've gotten to do really fun stunt stuff before - but because I'm morphed out when I'm fighting, it's not me. It's my creature stunt double. We simply don't have the time to go through that much make up in the morning, because they need us to look like ourselves and then we morph. There was a small stunt that I did that was me pre-morph, but the rest of the time it's our doubles. And they were awesome.
It's actually such a crazy scene that one of Claire's stunt doubles bruised a rib and had to go to the hospital on the one day we were shooting it, so we couldn't even finish and they had to fly someone else up to do the scene the next day. So she actually got hurt, her double, so it was a different one they shot with the next day. It's really brutal, and it's kindof a style of fighting that we haven't really seen. It's almost messy, you could say. Because she's really powerful, but she doesn't know what she's doing. It's not like this is a finely honed skill.
So it's not just grappling, there's magic?
TULLOCH: Yeah, there's definitely some magic...and grappling, too.
Have you seen it?
TULLOCH: I have seen it, because everybody was so excited.
What did you think about it?
TULLOCH: It was really badass. Also just because it's something that's been so heavily anticipated for four years. Everybody's been wanting Adalind and Juliette to finally have it out.
I've also been interested in how the friendship between Juliette and Rosalie has developed, what do you think about that aspect?
TULLOCH: I think it's been great. Bree and I are really close friends in real life, too. Someone, I think it was Claire actually, was like, "They should have their own female detective duo spinoff called 'Cheekbones and Bangsy'", which I thought was really clever. But again, Juliette's too scared to tell anyone except Sean right now about what she is because nobody really likes Hexenbiests except for Hexenbiests. She doesn't want to tell anyone, so that's obviously going to put a strain on their friendship going forward.
I like the Renard and Juliette partnership though, it's interesting and very different from their last time.
TULLOCH: Yeah, people seem to really like it. Some people were like, "Why would you tell Sean before you would tell nick?" And some people were like, "Yeah, tell the Captain!" It's fun though, I definitely like the Hexenbiest storyline. The rest of the season is going to be pretty great.
You never have to get into all the Hexenbiest makeup, right?
TULLOCH: I never do. What they'll do when I morph - again because of the time issue - they put little VFX dots on my face...and then they come in later and do all the VFX stuff. So if my hands are in a scene, they have to dot my hands, but usually it's just latex dots on my face that are then easily removed so I can keep filming.
What can you tell us about the scene that you're shooting today?
TULLOCH: Just that Juliette goes to Renard for help and he has her help him open a book and she's desperately seeking answers and she doesn't find them and then she's livid. He's basically already said to her, "I can't believe how powerful you are. You're certainly more powerful than I could ever dream of being." So she's starting to put it together that she's a force to be reckoned with.
Grimm airs on NBC Fridays at 9/8c.
