In season two of NBC’s sci-fi fantasy series Grimm Bitsie Tulloch’s character, Juliette, was still dealing with her loss of memory. She couldn’t remember anything about her relationship with Nick (played by David Giuntoli), and she found herself attracted to Nick’s boss, Captain Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz), for no apparent reason. It was a strange season for Juliette, however, by the season two finale, things were looking up.
At the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con, Tulloch talked about what we can expect from season three, playing a veterinarian and now being one of the Scooby gang who’s learning about this secret world of fairytale creatures.
Bitsie Tulloch Grimm Interview:
Now that she’s familiar with this other world, are we going to see you and Bree Turner’s character interact more? Will she be helping you understand this hidden world?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Juliette, as a doctor, as a veterinarian, hasn’t been able to utilize that that much and Bree’s sort of like a Wesen nurse, I guess. She’s the one who knows all the cures for the various Wesen ailments and whatnot, but certainly going into season three you’re going to see Juliette’s integration and it will not be easy I would assume.
There are going to be a lot of obstacles because I think it was very intentional that in the season three finale when we got into the spice shop Juliette says, ‘What kind of Wesen are you?’ to a human. It’s basically setting up for the fact that this is not going to be smooth sailing. She doesn’t know the world. Yeah, it’ll be a little rocky. But it’s nice to finally get in on the action and be able to help out and get dirty.”
Did you think it would take that long in the storyline for you to find out?
Bitsie Tulloch: “No, I really didn’t. I was thinking early season two because I knew by the end of season one what the intention was, but I was like, ‘Well I’ll come out of a coma and then I’ll remember.’ And then it was like, ‘Oh no, I’m going to come out of the coma and slowly lose my mind and start lusting after somebody I don’t know and not remember Nick and piece it back together.’
I’ve always sort of thought of it as like this million-piece puzzle that she was painstakingly putting back together. But it’s nice, I think, that it’s very telling that there’s a solid foundation of love between the two of them. And the fact that they’ve been through so much and been torn asunder, and then coming back and together discovering this. As I said before, it’s not going to be easy for Bree.”
Are you hoping that your character will be doing more as a veterinarian or that she’ll be getting into more of the action?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Both. I had so much fun shooting the gun it was hard for the props guy to pry it out of my hands. It feels … It’s very heavy. There is something really satisfying about shooting that scene and I have finally been able to do some more stunts, which is really, really fun.
But on the other hand, I love animals. I think that’s probably one of the reasons because I never shut up about my dog. All the scenes that I’ve shot in the past with horses and cats and dogs, it’s just been such a pleasure. They’re little furballs. They’re incredibly smart. The cat in the cat scratch scene his name was Moe, and you would say, ‘Foot Moe’ and the scene obviously was cut out and he would have his claws out kind of slowly, and then right before he went like this, he would retract them. So incredibly smart…I mean, this was a smart cat. And then they had three other ones that looked like Moe, but Moe was definitely the superstar.”
Is it a total surprise the direction the show has gone? When you read the first script, did you picture where you are now?
Bitsie Tulloch: “I really thought that she was going to get integrated into this sort of Scooby gang earlier. I really think that Jim and David did a wonderful job drawing that out. I think it’s interesting; it was causing a lot of conflict. Obviously, you need conflict on a drama and him having to fight everything with her.
As far as the storyline overall…it’s hard. There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of sort of smaller subplots that you have to deal with, so certain things that you think are going to be given precedence don’t. You have to deal with the seven royal families and all of that stuff. Then you have the Grimm story and they’re doing a really good job. I think one of the things they’re intending to do moving forward is also make it more international. It’s a show that’s really loved internationally. They want to do more some fairy tales that maybe were not familiar with.”
What do you think it is that viewers have really latched onto about Grimm because there are passionate fans out there?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Well, first of all, I feel like sci-fi fantasies and your genre fans are really hardcore. They’re really die-hard. They are attentive. They’re really smart. They watch the show. They have an eye for story; they have an eye for characters. They know the characters really intimately. They really let themselves get involved.
So first off, the fact that we were a sci-fi fantasy genre show already sort of was amazing because you would hope that you have that kind of built-in fan base. I think one of the reasons the show has done so well is that it’s fun. It’s not incredibly hard. It’s not serialized show; it’s episodic. Hopefully everybody is watching every episode, but you don’t have to have.
It wouldn’t be the end of the world if you missed one, and you know there’s a lot going on. You have drama, action, and spawning the fairytale aspect. There’s sci-fi, there’s cool FX and I think it’s also really nice to sort of guess the first 10-15 minutes. Usually if it’s a better-known fairytale, to guess which one it is and it’s just that familiarity with the format of a fairytale. Having this protagonist who is coming up against all odds, basically trying to find his way home, and I think that that’s a journey that everybody can relate to.”
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Grimm season three premieres on October 25, 2013.
