NBC’s Grimm is currently in the middle of one of the show’s best seasons to date. Characters have undergone major shifts, and none more so than Juliette played by Bitsie Tulloch. And as Tulloch explained in a conference call with journalists, she couldn’t be more pleased with what the writers have come up with for Juliette and how her character has evolved over the course of four seasons.
Can you talk about getting into your character as a Hexenbiest? How much is digital and how much is makeup?
Bitsie Tulloch: “I just finished an interview and someone was asking how much fun was it to shoot the scene with Claire, and I said we really need to give credit where credit is due. Because it takes so much time to actually get into prosthetic makeup, we simply don’t have the time to do it. So when the characters are morphed, that was our stunt doubles. Also, that was a really intense scene to film. And, you know, the first time they started shooting it, Claire’s double fractured a rib. So we had to reshoot with a different double the next day.
What happened when we morph is that we’ll shoot the scene, and then everybody kind of has a different way that they morph. Like I have a little bit of a head toss and I hiss. I don’t know that anyone else really makes a sound, but I’ve always sort of interpreted it like snake-like. I always hiss and I kind of toss my head. But when that happens, they apply little yellow drops with latex on top of our makeup. And then they’ll remove them and we’ll continue the scene. So, that’s what happens with the morphing. If you go onto my Instagram and my Twitter, whenever I’m ADR I kind of take pictures so that people can see what it looks like during the process of the VFX team going in and sort of painting me in as Hexenbiest.
As far as psychologically, and it has been such a great storyline because there’s such a push-pull with her where at first she really didn’t want. She just wanted to have her normal life back. But now that she’s sort of learning how to control the Hexenbiest within, she’s realizing just how powerful this makes her.
And to an extent, as much as she’s been able to contribute to the Scooby squad as a veterinarian and then also as somebody sort of good with a gun. This is the first time that she has sort of supernatural powers. So it’s really the question going back and forth of, ‘Do I want to be normal again and be with Nick? Or do I want to stay a Hexenbiest because this is kind of fun?’ And I think the Hexenbiest are pretty wicked.
She’s definitely going to the dark side and that’s the intention. I think that’s really where they’re going with the character at least in the immediate future and for the rest of the season.”
Do you want her to stay Hexenbiest?
Bitsie Tulloch: “I think it’s pretty fun. You know, I’ve had pretty crazy arcs for my character since season one. Season one she was rather passive in order to serve the story, with Nick kind of hiding everything from her. And then season two she was in a comma and lost her memory and had this love triangle with Renard. In season three she finally found out and was able to kind of join the Grimm gang and that was a really fun season.
But this has really changed everything. I was really thrilled when I saw the first script. We had no idea and I remember texting with the cast and everyone was like, ‘What?! This is so crazy. What an awesome idea.’ And, yes, going forward it’s adding a new element to the series for sure.”
Why do you suppose Juliette wants to stay with Nick? How do they get over this latest wrinkle in their relationship?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Well I think the reason they’ve stayed together thus far is that there’s a lot of love there. And, you know, it’s been one of the things in both of their lives that even though it’s sort of wreaked a lot of havoc, you always go back to home. I think he represents home for her and vice versa. And they’ve so far kind of managed to get through everything together even if it’s been tough. So the initial question is how are they going to handle this because this is the craziest thing obviously they’ve had to deal with.
Because the Hexenbiest are mortal enemies of the Grimms, they just want to kill them and vice versa which is why Juliette took so long to tell him the truth because she was terrified both that he would have a gut reaction and go after her and kill her.
Also, it’s been made apparent to her by this point that she’s incredibly powerful, more so than Adalind or Renard who are both Hexenbiest could ever dream of being. And she doesn’t know how to really control it yet, so if he started to attack her and she morphs into a Hexenbiest could she kill him. So, I think that makes sense.
But really the question going forward is can they live like this or not. I think she’s kind of given up hope because she looks in the mirror and all she sees is this ugly monster. And she hasn’t really embraced it yet so she’s like, ‘I can’t handle the way that you look at me when I look like this and this is what I am now.’ Juliette tried with Henrietta and there seems to be no cure, so that’s really the question going forward. It’s almost becoming like a Romeo and Juliette situation where, yes they’re in love but they can’t really be together the way it is right now.”
Could you talk about the collaboration with the writers? How much have they clued you in as to where this is going to go?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Sometimes we know more and we have a little bit of a heads-up. And then sometimes what I’ve found with the showrunners, Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, is that they’re really open to ideas and stuff. It’s very much a collaborative process, but a lot of the times stuff changes because the show moves pretty quickly. […]They go on Facebook. They go on social media, and they see the stuff that the fans really like. They’ll give them more of that, and so the Hexenbiest has been incredibly popular among the fans so don’t expect that to be going anywhere anytime soon.
I think sometimes they sort of like seeing the cast reaction to crazy storylines, you know? I remember nobody knew maybe either the beginning of season two or season three, whenever Hank found out. We were all like, ‘Wow, that was early.’ We didn’t know he was going to find out that early that Nick was going to tell him. And then there have been a couple other storylines, the thing with Adalind being pregnant… That was another one that happened, honestly, part of the reason that happened is that Claire Coffee actually got pregnant.
Bree Turner was pregnant season two and they shot around it and this time they were like, ‘Are we really going to shot around another pregnancy? Or is this actually kind of a blessing in disguise? We could add a sort of new element to the show using her actual pregnancy.’ So sometimes stuff just pops up and they’re responding to it.
But yes, the Hexenbiest thing I didn’t know about. The season finale for this season is the biggest game-changer we have ever had. I mean, people will lose their minds. There’s going to be…gosh, I don’t know what I can say without giving it away other than yes, we’ve never done anything this big on the show before. So that’s going to really change everything going into season five and the Juliette Hexenbiest storyline has a lot to do with that. The reality is going forward you’re going to see a lot of the push-pull with psychologically wanting this power. I think it adds a really interesting element to the story for her to turn really, really dark.”
If you could be any Wesen which Wesen would you be?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Well I like the Wesen I am right now, that’s for sure. It’s fun getting to walk into these scenes and basically just kick ass. And, you know, she has power over everyone. I mean she’s just stronger and faster and she could have easily killed Adalind if she wanted to. I don’t know that she was mentally prepared to do that yet. So, that’s always been really fun.
Prior to becoming a Hexenbiest, my answer was always Mauvais Dentes which was the saber tooth tiger from season two just because I like how sort of quiet and powerful and stealthy that character was. It always reminded me of that sort of viral YouTube video of the Ninja cat who you turn the camera away and then it’s three feet closer to you. It’s just really spooky. So I used to say the Mauvais Dentes but right now I’m obviously really enjoying this storyline as the Hexenbiest.”
Can these guys ever get a break and have a really good period between the two of them?
Bitsie Tulloch: “No, I was just saying there’s no conflict in stability, really. I don’t know that a stable, loving relationship makes for great television. So it’s funny because the fans constantly, you know, until we actually did the Adalind and Juliette fight that was the biggest thing everybody wanted was for Juliette to have it out with Adalind and kick some butt. And so she did that. Now all I’m really seeing is Nick and Juliette need to get married. They should just get married already.
It’s kind of fun seeing the fans come to Juliette’s defense. ‘Well, Nick better be understanding about this. Like look at how much he’s put her through.’ So that’s been really fun for me. I’m like yes, he’s put her through so much. Like, ‘Come on man! You’ve got to be understanding about this.'”
But yes, at some point you hope. I don’t know that they’re planning on doing it anytime soon because the writers are having so much fun with this sort of darker character. You would hope that at some point maybe they’ll get married…and actually have like one day of rest.”
How big of a role does Juliette have in this season’s finale?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Everything. She is going to cause major, major problems for basically everyone involved. The reality is she misses Nick and she loves him. But she just can’t imagine a way for them to be able to stay together under the circumstances. She’s been told by numerous people now there’s absolutely nothing she can do about it. And so what else would you do? I mean, you have to embrace your new life. She has to go forward with that. She is dead set on embracing it and she’s like, ‘If this is how it’s going to be, then I might as well be the best Hexenbiest I can.’
There’s a darkness to that that’s going to seep into her veins. You’re not going to really see the sort of sweet, loving girlfriend that everybody’s gotten used to for the last few seasons.”
You talked quite a bit about the changes and what might be coming up with Juliette’s continuing changes, but do you see her losing her humanity through this? Is that going to be less and less of a quality?
Bitsie Tulloch: “I think the more that sort of evil takes hold inside her and she realizes that there’s really nothing she can do to get back to her normal life… Like I said before, she really needs to embrace it. This is not a human character anymore. She’s a witch. She is kind of a monster but that’s her new reality. That’s the new normal for her, so to speak. I think that, yes, I mean if we’re going to a really, really dark place, then that is what it would entail.”
We haven’t seen that all the characters know about her change. Is she worried about reactions from Rosalee and Monroe in particular?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Yes, for sure. I mean that’s something that’s going to be resolved and sort of played out through the rest of season four. Initially of course, she has to do deal with Nick’s reaction. But, yes.
It’s scary. Her friends have known her to be one way for this amount of time. And then all of the sudden she’s [a Hexenbiest]. They’ve all, as a group, collectively basically been hating on Hexenbiest for years and now she is one. She’s one of those people. And the reality is too is that there’s probably a little bit of resentment because they did this to her, you know? They asked her to do this for them because Rosalee and Monroe were coming under so much fire and in order to protect them, Nick needed to get his Grimm powers back. The only way to do that was to use Juliette as a vessel, and she agreed to do it.
But, you know, she would never have done that if she had known this would be the side effect. This was not something that she’s initially really excited about. I think that’s something that going forward is going to be pretty complicated.”
Is there anything else other than the finale that you can tease that’s coming up?
Bitsie Tulloch: “You haven’t seen the last of the Royals. There’s a new Royal who’s coming to town who’s kind of taking charge. So that’s a storyline that’s coming up. Obviously dealing with the whole Adalind being pregnant storyline is coming up. And then it’s definitely a big episode when there is a final reveal with Juliette and her friends and their reaction to that. Then, really, it’s kind of about her going to the dark side going forward.”
