If you’ve seen the first two episodes of Grimm – and if you haven’t, you should – you must have noted the standout character of Monroe, played by Silas Weir Mitchell (Burn Notice, Prison Break). Monroe is a blutbad, which (according to Grimm) long-ago humans corrupted into the name “Big Bad Wolf”. In his case, however, Monroe is a reformed blutbad who keeps his primary nature at bay through meditation, a good diet, and Pilates.
Mitchell is one of those actors you see often in all of your favorite shows, but can’t quite place him. You’ll be able to place him now, as he is one of the principal players in the new series. His character is a treat to watch. He was kind enough to take time out of his day to answer some questions from the press.
Shakefire.com asked him what he likes about the role:
Silas Weir Mitchell: What really does attract me to the role is the inner conflict. That is rich territory for an actor to have that kind of secret, you know? Not only to have a secret but to have a secret that you’re trying to, you know, deal with on a daily basis. It’s not just a secret from the past. It’s a secret that in every breath you’re trying to maintain. And that’s really fun to play.
I also think the mythological elements of the story are very compelling. Because I really feel like in a lot of ways the “creature” element of the show quote is really to my mind an expression of the sort of mythological underpinnings of, not to get high falutin’, but really of the human psyche. We all live in a world where there are monsters, monsters are real, you know and you look at murderers and people who are on death row and people who have done terrible things, like the Richard Ramirezes of the world and the Sons of Sam and those people. And I feel like the creature elements of this show in a lot of ways are addressing that sort of mythical darkness, because if you bring myth into it you can discuss it in broader terms and not just make it about the procedural element which is a huge part of the show.
Long story short, I think the mythology and the inner conflict.
Joe Hummel asked what kind of research he did that influenced his character:
Silas Weir Mitchell: The research I did was really reading. I’m presently at arm’s length of a book that was written in 1933, it’s one of the classics, this is no joke, on lycanthropy and werewolfism and all that. And it was written in – let me see here, yeah it was written in 1933. And you know it’s got like – there are pages of it that are in Latin and pages of it that are in like middle French, it’s really fun.
Because the werewolf, like I was saying to the last caller about the mythological elements of this, the werewolf is a real thing. I mean there are stories that are not just like occult lore where you know in France in the 18th century, you know there was a guy who terrorized the French country side running around at night stealing children and mutilating them. And what’s our answer to that? Who do we – you know what is that? And one of the ways of addressing that is to say you’re a monster, you’re a werewolf, you know?
And so the research was for me was reading these stories sometimes when these were real. It wasn’t mythological then. I think now we recognize that the werewolf is a myth. But the research of reading stories from a time when the werewolf was a real thing is pretty intense when you really put yourself in the shoes of someone who believed that a transformation took place and that a beast roamed the hills.
When SciFi Mafia’s turn came:
SciFi Mafia: I love the show and Monroe is absolutely my favorite part of it, I really enjoy what you do with it. I was wondering if there’s any makeup involved in your transformation at all or is it entirely CG?
Silas Weir Mitchell: No, it’s not, it’s both. The idea is that it’s CGI on top of makeup but you still can tell that it’s my face. I mean there’s a lot of stuff that goes into it but the three ingredients really are prosthetics, computer graphics and my face.
Because the idea is that when someone morphs, they don’t just turn into a werewolf like generic, or you know someone is like a – you know I don’t know, a beetle creature or you know whatever. They don’t just turn into a beetle, they turn into their beetle, you know what I mean?
SciFi Mafia: Sure.
Silas Weir Mitchell: They turn into what they would look like as this creature so they really make an effort to fuse the prosthetics and the CGI in such a way that you can tell that it’s me underneath it.
And that they do that with other creatures that are coming down the pike.
SciFi Mafia: Which totally makes sense if they’re supposed to be, you know, “human-looking” to everybody else all the time.
Silas Weir Mitchell: Yeah, those are the rules. I mean it really is to me, if you think of it in terms of a murderer or a kidnapper or something, that they look like a human. You look at Charles Manson, you see a human. But if a Grimm looked at Charles Manson they would see the beast that the guy is underneath the human mask. That’s only if you have the perceptive powers of a Grimm.
SciFi Mafia: Great. And just real quick, what’s the prosthetic process like for you?
Silas Weir Mitchell: Long, that’s what it’s like. It’s like long.
SciFi Mafia: Oh sorry about that. Well I’m really enjoying your part in the show and I can’t wait to see more of it, thanks so much.
Silas Weir Mitchell: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
LenaLamoray.com asked him what he could tell us about the upcoming episodes:
Silas Weir Mitchell: All I can tell you is the episodes get – they get sort of deliciously dark and creepy. And NBC is letting us go there so to speak which I think is fantastic.
Excellent news! We are up for “darker,” and it did hint at that last week. One word: “arm.” Keep it coming! Thanks so much to Silas Weir Mitchell for taking the time to speak with us.
Grimm airs Fridays at 9/8c on NBC.
