It’s another day at work in the Northwest Portland soundstage where “Grimm” films. Inside are the sets that, to viewers of the NBC show, look like cozy Portland houses, an Old Town spice shop and a Portland Police precinct headquarters.
Here, in a dingy waiting room outside the sets, crew members go in and out. Cast members walk into a wardrobe area wearing one outfit, and emerge wearing another.
But this December Tuesday isn’t an ordinary day on the job. It’s a media visit, and the assembled reporters are here to talk to cast members about the end of the road for “Grimm,” which will return for its sixth and final season on Jan. 6.
The cast and crew are working on Episode 12, and, after a holiday break, will return in January to film the series finale.
And then, the work of making “Grimm” in Portland will be over.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Silas Weir Mitchell, who plays Monroe, the reformed Wesen, as the show’s supernatural creatures are called. But this group, Mitchell adds, “is more sweet than bitter.”
While fans have begged for the show to go on, Mitchell said that, while the cast members will remain friends, and the fact that the show is ending is sad, “it’s also time.”
“Grimm” tells the story of Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli), a Portland Police homicide detective who learns that he’s a Grimm, one of an ancient line of criminal profilers who can see the Wesen creatures lurking beneath seemingly ordinary humans.
Since it debuted in 2011, “Grimm” has juggled elements of TV crime procedurals with its Brothers Grimm-influenced fanciful tales of strange beasts, some of whom, like Monroe, are good guys. But plenty more are evil, and have unleashed all sorts of mayhem on Portland.
“Grimm” didn’t just spotlight Portland’s locations — from pleasant, leafy neighborhoods to dark, menacing forests — for primetime viewers on Friday nights. It became an unlikely “little show that could” for NBC.
Never a ratings monster, “Grimm” managed to hold its own despite disruptive scheduling moves, and built a devoted fan following in the U.S. and internationally.
But in August, the network announced that the sixth season would be the last for “Grimm,” and that the show’s number of episodes would be cut from 22 to 13.
While members of the ensemble cast sound wistful about “Grimm” finishing its run, they’re also grateful for the opportunity to craft a final season.
Mitchell said it’s been nice to “close the book, as it were,” and bring the fairy tale to its conclusion. Though fans want to know everything about Monroe and his pregnant wife, Rosalee ( Bree Turner ) — who’s also a Wesen — Mitchell refuses to drop any hints about what the final season brings for the fan-favorite duo.
The show, Mitchell said, isn’t about Monroe and Rosalee. “It’s about all of us.”
Like many of his castmates, Mitchell said filming six seasons of “Grimm” in Portland is a big reason why the show has been a memorable experience.
“It’s like finding a new home,” Mitchell said. “There are many, many less pleasant places one can be sent to work, because in this business you go where the work takes you. And to be taken to a place where you feel at home, and the people have welcomed you, and the climate is your kind of climate…”
He pauses, and added, “I’ve got Scottish blood, so I don’t mind fog or rain.”
As the day went on, cast members were called in to film on the soundstage. In one scene, for example, some kind of scuffle breaks out at Monroe and Rosalee’s house.
But we can’t give away too much about what’s coming up, or what plot twists “Grimm” has in store for Season 6.
Cast members are careful not to drop too many hints, either.
“It’s a season of surprises,” said Jacqueline Toboni, who plays Trubel, the young Grimm Nick took under his wing, and helped mentor.
“I just read the finale,” Toboni said. “Get your tissues ready, because I was bawling, crying. We definitely lay it all out on the line. The payoff is really quite something.”
Mixed emotions
As Season 6 begins, Nick and his friends are dealing with the fallout of the Season 5 finale. That busy episode saw the demise of the Portland branch of Hadrian’s Wall, a resistance group committed to fighting Black Claw, an international conspiracy of evil Wesen itching to dominate the world.
In one of the more improbable “Grimm” plotlines — and that’s saying something, considering the characters include Nick’s ally, Bud (Danny Bruno), a Beaver-like Wesen refrigerator repairman — Nick’s boss, Portland Police Captain Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz), teamed up with Black Claw to win the office of Mayor of Portland.
As if that isn’t enough drama, Season 6 also picks up the story of Nick’s baby with Adalind (Claire Coffee), a witchy Hexenbiest who’s gone from villain to Nick’s love interest; Eve (Bitsie Tulloch), who was previously Nick’s girlfriend, Juliette, who then turned into an evil Hexenbiest before coming back as a deadly warrior for Hadrian’s Wall; Diana, the powerful daughter of Adalind and Renard; and an ancient stick that Nick and his Scooby Gang cohorts, including Portland Police colleagues Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby) and Sgt. Wu (Reggie Lee), are trying to figure out.
We’ll have to wait and see how the last episodes play out. But for now, cast members are alternating between feeling sentimental and in denial about closing the book on “Grimm.”
“I haven’t had an opportunity to really think about it,” Hornsby said. “I think that about two or three weeks after the show has wrapped, when I’m by myself in my home for a couple of days, I think that’s when the emotion will hit me.”
Actors are conditioned to “move on to the next thing,” Hornsby said. It’s only when you have some time to yourself, he said, that “you’ll get emotional,” thinking that “you invested so much of your life into the project, but also into the city. It’s been the most memorable experience I’ve had in my life.”
Like Hornsby, Roiz has found ways to contribute to Portland, notably by Roiz’ involvement with OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, and his fundraising work for the Grimmster Endowment, which helps patients’ families pay for uncompensated costs associated with treatment.
Roiz has come to feel at home in Portland, he said. “This is the longest span of time I’ve lived anywhere as an adult,” he said. “I have a home here and I really have a sense of community here, which I’ve never had before.”
A member of the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation board of directors, Roiz said he intends to keep his home in Portland, though he’ll need to be based in Los Angeles for work.
But, he added, “I have a whole life here, and I’d like to maintain that for a while. I can see myself raising a family here too, at some point.”
Tulloch, who’s engaged to her costar Giuntoli, also bought a home in Portland.
“I just love it so much here,” Tulloch said. “David and I talked about what to do after the show, and for the time being, we’re going to keep (the house) and see if it’s possible to kind of fly back and forth between Los Angeles and Portland. Because we just totally fell in love with the city.”
Giuntoli is also feeling the love for Portland, and feeling reflective about “Grimm” ending.
“It’s much like graduating college or high school,” Giuntoli said, and remembering that feeling of how this “was never going to end. Because at times, it feels like it’s never going to end, in a good and bad way. And then, the closer it gets to the end, you’re like, ‘Oh God, no!'”
Not only is it tough to deal with the prospect of losing “this group, this family, the people who are the fabric of my day,” Giuntoli said. On top of that, it’s also, “Hey, you’re unemployed!”
“So it’s going to be quite an adjustment,” Giuntoli said. “But I’m just in love with everybody who I’ve worked with — and one romantically.”
Humor aside, “I’m glad that I’ve had this time,” Giuntoli said.
“I’m glad I get to feel sad about this.”
