‘Grimm’: David Giuntoli Talks Directing

“Grimm” star David Giuntoli stepped behind the
camera for the newest episode of “Grimm,” his first time as director.

“I was lucky enough to get to direct Episode 3, not ’cause I was the most deserving, but because I was the most positioned. So I
was well aware of that and I kind of wanted to not squander that, and out of
respect to everybody in the cast and everybody in the crew, who’s fully capable
of directing an episode,” David told AccessHollywood.com on the show’s
Portland set back in December, his trademark sense of humor intact. “So I
really wanted to do the best I possibly could.

“So yeah, I did a lot of homework, and I had [a] wonderful
time with the actors,” he continued. “I was sincerely most nervous
about talking to them about their notes and things like that because, you know, that’s
kind of a code. It’s a very quick road to becoming hated to tell another actor
what to do, but all of them are just like, ‘Give us notes. Bring it, bring it.’
…  And it was the best, man. It was the best time of my life and my heart
was just warmed by how embraced I was. They didn’t have to embrace me. I was
getting a freebie sort of and it was the best time.”

WATCH: David Giuntoli: ‘It Was The Best’ Directing ‘Grimm’

Bitsie Tulloch, who plays Eve on the NBC series, said David
(her real-life fiancé) put in a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes
before stepping behind the lens.

“He put in that request a couple seasons ago and
because David works far and away more than any other cast member, it was really
hard for him to be able to shadow directors, but every so often he would have a
day off or an afternoon off and he was trying to stay on set and learn and
shadow the directors,” she said during the same set visit. “And this
summer during hiatus, I think we were off April through August, and we had a
long break and he was having dinner with a lot of the directors we’ve worked
with on ‘Grimm.’ There’s not one person who directs every episode, so… over the
course of 123 episodes, we’ve met a lot of directors and he was just really
taking it seriously. He read a ton of books and he, I had never seen so much
enthusiasm over the course of six seasons. He was just really in his element
and had as much energy at the end of the day as he had in the beginning of the
day. And it was really lovely too because it was very collaborative and the
whole crew knew that he had never directed before so everybody was really
invested in making sure that he did a good job and helping him out and it was a
really fun episode.”

WATCH: ‘Grimm’ Cast On Being Directed By David Giuntoli

One of the reasons it was fun is because Sasha Roiz, who
plays Renard, is also playing Nick in the episode, but
in Renard’s body. The trailer for this week teased Nick’s transformation
into Renard — “now, to finally defeat the captain, Nick will become
him!”

“It’s really fun,” Sasha said of getting to play
Nick in the episode. “On this show, I’ve gotten to play other characters
playing me a few times and that was a lot of fun, but especially this one,
which is kind of challenging.”

In the episode, Sasha is also playing his own character, so
it meant double duty.

“Playing that was a lot of work for me, but a lot of
fun, and one of the things I had to do early on was just kind of figure out how
David moves and walks and kind of conducts himself and it was really fun to try
to pinpoint that, because it’s very subtle, but when you do it in my frame, it
becomes very pronounced and so it was quite funny because there’s something
quite amusing about the idea of him being in this body and just being so much
larger and different and trying to figure it out and wearing a tie and all
these little awkward things that for him would be so uncomfortable,” he
said.

WATCH: ‘Grimm’ Stars Preview Season 6 Premiere Drama!

David said the two had a meal together to talk about Sasha
playing Nick-in-Renard’s-body.

“Sasha and I went to breakfast together and we were
trying to find little things we could do,”
he said.

“He really did a great job,” David added.

“Grimm” airs Friday at 8/7c on NBC.

(Production assistance provided by NBC.)

— Jolie Lash