Interview with Reggie Lee of Grimm – Part 1

Michael: I’m going to change direction a little bit, Reggie. Quite a few people — including some of our own writers — have compared Grimm to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Now, this is a show I have not watched and I’m kind of vilified for that. But you know what? I have big shoulders and I can handle it.

Reggie: [laughter]

Michael: “They” are calling it a male version of that cult show. I was curious if you’ve seen Buffy and if you have any comments along those lines.

Reggie: Well … you know we were all kind of speculating. As actors on this show, we have a very tight cast and it’s not often you have that where you have six people get along really well. And we kind of speculate how we will move forward. I’ve seen quite a few episodes of Buffy, actually and she’s got her “posse.” We were speculating if maybe this would go that direction, if David Giuntoli who plays Nick would have his group who helps him solve crimes because they know what’s going on. In my speculation I definitely think there’s a flavor of that because of where these guys have come from. I don’t think they’re going to take it that direction because they’ve been there before. I think they’ll take it in a completely different direction and give it some different curves. I agree with you in that it’s similar but I don’t think they’re going to go down that path.

Michael: You guys are unique with the way you’re approaching it … I didn’t know what to make of the show the first couple episodes. But the mythology has been there and the show has really come unto its own. But there’s naturally comparisons to Buffy as well as the other show, Once Upon A Time.

Reggie: I think I saw one episode of OUaT. When we were first starting this show before anything ever aired and we were at Comic-Con, there were so many questions about comparisons. And we just kept saying it’s so not that. Here’s the thing: OUaT happens in two worlds and ours happens in one world. We’re talking about our show being in the real world and how you deal with that in the real world. I believe theirs flips back and forth. So it’s definitely in a different direction.

And Michael … to expand on what you were saying before: Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, especially Jim who’s so high on story — I believe he was an English Lit major — he’s so great with story that this particular story line in the mythology? They were in it from the beginning to go that direction. With Buffy they’ve got this posse and they go and solve crimes. With this there are going to be so many conflicts that happen. That’s what’s going to be the juicy part eventually in season 2. They’re going to really, really dig into that. We’ll see where it goes, but it’s really going to differentiate it from anything they’ve done before like Buffy or Angel.

Michael: With regard to the conflict, there have been a couple stories this season thus far where the conflict has been at a 9 or a 10 and has been really surprising to me. “Three Coins in a Fuchsbau” was one of those where I was gushing over that episode. That was an incredible episode with regard to story, especially with the Hitler reference in there. I never even saw that coming outside the little mention. But you guys got it goin’ on when it comes to conflict on a couple levels …

Reggie: That was a great! It was written by David and Jim. Well … everyone writes it, but they basically came up with that story. And man, when I read that last page I was like “No! You’re kidding!” That was the best, to me, episode yet in terms of mythology. You really got a sense of where they were going, specifically what was going on with the captain and with the coins and all that kind of stuff. Suddenly, some history started surfacing in terms of these characters and what this being a Grimm really was all about. That’s where I hope they go. I think it is there hope and there wish to go that direction. There’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen … there’s a lot of people that need to chime in. Sometimes I think they can’t go full force for what they really, really want but I think having this first season under our belt people are starting to see that there’s really something to this series, there’s something that could really happen here. People are starting to catch on. We’re all really excited about where it’s going to go. Sometimes we get episodes that are more procedural heavy and specifically I go “Aaaaw, no! I want more of the other stuff!”

Michael: Well … there’s got to be a little give and go with regard to the procedural and the mythology. But you’ve got a nice little mix going and we’re enjoying it.

Reggie: Thanks, Michael

Clacked by Michael Noble
on Mar 30, 2012 @ 19:24 EST5EDT