TV Goodness Q&A: Grimm’s Bitsie Tulloch and Sasha Roiz Preview Part 2 of Season 2 [INTERVIEW] 

After last week’s excellent spring premiere “Face Off,” we know the following: Adalind is pregnant, Renard wants to work with Nick to keep the key safe, and Nick is an integral part of the plan to end Renard and Juliette’s mutual obsession. Oh, and Hank is out of the hospital and Rosalee is finally back. So what’s next? How is Grimm going to continue to raise the stakes? TV Goodness participated in a press call with Bitsie Tulloch‘s Juliette and Sasha Roiz‘s Renard. We discus some series highlights so far as well as what viewers can look forward to for the rest of the season.

Q: Why do you think the show is so successful?

Bitsie Tulloch: “Because it’s fun. I think this is something that all the cast have been saying ad naseum, but it’s true, is that the show has a little bit of everything for everybody. For people who like procedurals you have that, you have the romance. It’s funny, especially with characters like Silas Weir Mitchell’s character and Reggie Lee’s character, they’re pretty funny. And then, you have the fantasy, you have the sci-fi, you have these monsters, you have the visual effects. There’s really a lot going on.”

Sasha Roiz: “I think we struck a really delicate balance where there’s so many different styles at play and there’s so many different things that can appeal to the viewers. But I think ultimately we also don’t take ourselves too seriously. Like, there’s a humor to the show that underlies the entire thing. So it’s just very palatable. I was impressed at how wide a net they could throw and how varied our demographic can be.”

Bitsie: “…people are familiar with these fairy tales so it’s sort of fun to tune in and see how they’re being reinterpreted in a modern way.”

Q: What’s your favorite thing about your character?

Sasha: “I like and dislike how secretive Renard is because on one hand it’s really fun to play. On the other hand, sometimes even I don’t know what he’s up to. Like, he’s just very – he’s just a very mysterious character and the writers keep me guessing because we don’t always know. So it’s a very difficult balance to strike sometimes but it also keeps me very engaged as an actor and viewer.”

Q: How has your character changed?

Bitsie: “…waking up in Season 2 in a coma and then having…this big empty hole where this man once lived…has been sort of crazy and I have to say you have not seen the worst of it. What goes on with Juliette gets much worse before it gets better. So [the writers are] starting to lay out what’s going to happen the rest of Season 2.”

Q: Favorite Wesen?

Bitsie: “…I loved the ice beaver [Danny Bruno]. He’s fantastic. They’ve written him into a pretty major recurring [character] just because he’s just so lovable and it’s nice to have a Wesen that’s not necessarily a scary blood thirsty Wesen.” As far as the scary ones, “I really like… the saber tooth tiger Wesen from the first two episodes of Season 2.”

Sasha: “I don’t think anything would make Bitsie happier if they wrote in a french bulldog Wesen. She would be in heaven, [a] sort of a lovable, sloppy, slurpy french bulldog. I like the reapers, I like what they represent mythological[ly], the scythe that they carry, the fact that they come in to reap revenge, and that they’re after the Grimms and they have this very specific purpose in the world. I also like my own character in a way. I like the hexenbeast but what I love about it is that I – we never had any half breed[s] before. And so the fact that you could cross pollinate, you could have all these part creatures, part Wesens, that makes it really interesting for me. And I’m really curious to see that develop and to see that whole sort of other culture that exists that just ha[ve] a trace of Wesen blood in them.”

Q: What has been your most difficult scene so far?

Bitsie: “Mine hasn’t aired yet. There’s a lot of really, really intense emotional stuff coming up for Juliette, just really heavy and pretty serious. And so that’s probably the hardest that I’ve had to do but I don’t think – that episode is something to look forward to I guess.”

Sasha: “[Face Off] was pretty hard for me. I think it was challenging on all levels because physically it was a lot of…Bitsie spoke about a lot of fight choreographies and sequences and long hours. And then emotionally as well, it just kind of took Renard to every…sort of realm of emotion and so it was pretty challenging.”

Q: Even though Juliette and Renard are under a spell, is there any real affection there?

Sasha: “[I’ve] got to be honest. I think that it’s forced us into a situation that is probably pretty unnatural. Not to say that [Juliette’s] not an attractive woman but I don’t think that Renard would even allow himself to even venture in that territory if he was not under the spell.”

Bitsie: “The truth is they barely knew each other. The assumption is they may or may not have met at a couple work functions. So who knows if [the writers] want to sort of play with this more down the road but the reality is when they first came under the spell they didn’t really know each other so this sort of lusting and obsession really is, for lack of a better word, manmade…it’s chemical. Not chemical in like the pheromone way, chemical like literally poison and they’re both under a spell kind of a way. No love at first sight.”

Q: What’s next now that Nick knows about Juliette and the Captain?

Sasha: “…it’s going to be very delicate moving ahead. It’s really Nick’s choice at this point whether he wants to move ahead, whether he wants to stay Portland, or whether he wants to…deal with me with her. So there’s going to be a lot of fallout and that’s going to occupy…the remainder of this season to see what will transpire and how pieces will fall and – where they fall I should say.”

Q: What was going on between Renard and Adalind in “Face Off” and what’s going to happen moving forward?

Sasha: “…it’s very antagonistic and…she’s definitely a thorn in my side and she’s out to thwart all of my plans. She’s also incredibly conniving and manipulative just the same as I am I suppose – or Renard is. And so she knows how to play him. What I love about some of the writing is you really don’t know who’s playing who[m] sometimes. I think there’s always a turn of the tables and so it will be interesting to see what transpires. But she certainly has presented herself at a very difficult time for him…he’s very vulnerable at this point and so she’s found a weakness and her timing couldn’t be better.”

Q: When will be learn more of Renard’s backstory?

Sasha: “I think we will uncover more about the royal bastard, which is my favorite terminology these days. We’ve already introduced members of his family. We’ve already displayed and will continue to display more things from the old world and how things work there and had worked there and continue to work there. And so you will get some more on him and the world that he comes from. As far as police work, I don’t know. I mean we’ll have to touch upon that but I think if I was to wager a guess it’s probably because it’s a great way to have a certain level of power and authority which is really all he’s after.”

Q: Anything else you can tease?

Sasha: “…for Renard there’s going to be a real challenge in keeping the Grimm loyal, keeping the Grimm in Portland, keeping the plan that he had concocted for so long in place, keeping Adalind at bay. And making sure that we c[an]continue as a police force and continue as…this mythological team to keep outside influences and forces at bay from encroaching on our domain.”

Bitsie: “…what happens in the rest of Season 2…has been really fantastic. I mean literally every episode once we got back from our hiatus…they’re really doing huge episodes that are just very grand in scope. I’ve read some of them and been, like, are you guys crazy, there’s no way you’re going to be able to shoot this in eight days. [There’s] new Wesen and…they’re delving deeper into not just the mythology or the way that we’ve been referring to the mythology, but literally mythology, almost like a God-like creature. They’re really going in new directions and the episodes really…get better and better.”

Grimm airs Fridays at 8/9c on NBC.