'Grimm': David Giuntoli on season 2 so far

Awkward encounters with your girlfriend who doesn’t remember you, teaching your friend about the monsters who live among us, pondering whether ghosts exist, saving people, hunting things — in season 2 of Grimm, it’s all in a day’s work for Detective Nick Burkhardt. And as the first half of Grimm‘s sophomore season comes to a close, Burkhardt’s real-life alter ego, David Giuntoli, is giving us a peek at what’s in a day’s work for an actor on the NBC show.

In anticipation of tonight’s mid-season finale, Giuntoli took a break from shooting episode 15 to chat with EW about shifts in character dynamics in season 2, what he thought of costar Sasha Roiz’s Twitter campaign to get a deleted scene released and why Nick really does have to sleep on the couch.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: There have been a lot of changes this season with new developments like Hank getting in the loop and Juliette losing her memories of Nick. What has felt most different from last season shooting the show?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: I’ve really enjoyed working with Russell Hornsby now that [Hank] is in the loop. We’ve had the ability now to have episodes of us just kind of copping it out and Grimming it out a little bit.

I loved the scene when Nick first takes Hank to the trailer, and Nick’s so giddy about getting to show his friend all his cool toys.

That was fun because Nick was taking it all seriously for a moment, and then he’s like, “Dude, you gotta see this weapon.” It’s been a great relationship to work with.

Has working with Bitsie Tulloch felt different now that it’s not all sweet, tender moments between Nick and Juliette, now that there’s more tension and conflict between the two of them?

Yeah, I think there’s some believable stuff happening. Just ’cause there’s a good relationship doesn’t mean it has to be them smiling all the time at each other. There’s a point when I’m tired of being on the couch. And it’s not all a great, perfectly wonderful boyfriend. So yeah, it’s fun to play the tension of the moment and the unsustainability of the relationship. It has a real dimension to it.

Speaking of Nick sleeping on the couch, there’s one thing I have to ask you about that seems to be bugging a lot of fans — is there seriously no guest room in Nick and Juliette’s house?

This is bothering people! Do we have a guest room? We don’t have a guest room. It’s one bedroom and a storage room, and downstairs is a bathroom, a living room, a TV room and a kitchen. So we have a bathroom, a bedroom and this big kind of storage room upstairs.

In the Halloween episode, we saw a creature that just might be a ghost. Is Grimm going to start dealing with ghosts and the afterlife, or was that just a one-off?

I like to think that we still don’t quite know what La Llorona was. I like to think that we still don’t know if she’s really a ghost. That said, Grimm is an equal opportunity stealer of stories, so we will take from any mythology that is creatively fun to play with. We’re not dealing with the afterlife any more or anything like that. We’re not getting too cerebral about that or anything. But if there’s a ghost and a killer story, we’re gonna go there.

For tonight’s mid-season finale, we get to see Nick face Adalind Schade again. How was it to work with Claire Coffee again?

Claire’s awesome. Her character’s so terribly mean, and she takes such a flirtatious joy in killing people. So her character’s crazy, out of her mind, power-hungry, literally, I guess, kind of soulless now. Back in season 1, I bled into her and her Hexenbiest soul left her body, so I think she’s desperate. But it’s a joy to work with Claire.

Bree Turner will soon be back on the show more now that her maternity leave is wrapping up. Have you gotten to meet her new son?

I have not yet met Dean. Only because she probably knows how filthy I am, and she has to get every vaccine [for Dean]. I told her instead of getting vaccines, she should just bring her newborn to the [spice shop] set ’cause she can just get a little of everything and then just get it all taken care of there. I’ve not yet met him, but soon.

Grimm has been able to take on a bit of a life of its own in the Twitterverse, thanks in a large part to a lot of the cast. What did you think of Sasha Roiz’s #ShirtlessRage campaign?

Sasha’s one of the funniest people I know. And it’s brilliant ’cause he knows that people want to see him with his shirt off, and he works it. He’s got a great figure. But he also knows that it’s so silly. He’s a brilliant actor, and then people want to see him with his shirt off. I love that he has fun with it. If only Nick Burkhardt could have the equivalent of #ShirtlessRage. I know there’s also a #CaptainNoPants, which may come into a storyline at some point. I don’t know.

Then you’ll have to come up with one for Nick.

Exactly. But no one wants to see Nick Burkhardt shirtless.

The mid-season finale of Grimm, “Season of the Hexenbiest,” airs at 9 p.m. tonight on NBC.