Interview with Russell Hornsby (Hank Griffin) of ‘Grimm’

Unless you’ve had your head in the clouds, you’d be aware of the fantasy television show, Grimm, best described as “a procedural cop drama with a twist” – the twist being that victims and villains in the show are inspired by characters out of the infamous Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

The show, like Once Upon A Time, caters to a postmodernist-loving audience that appreciates classic tales turned on their head, where the lines between hero and victim are occasionally blurred, and where classic scenarios are thrown into modern context.

Actor Russell Hornsby, whose previous TV credits have included playing a cop in Lincoln Heights and a patient in In Treatment, plays the major role of Hank Griffin, a homicide detective in Grimm.

Here, he talks about the show’s popularity, and things that scare him in real life.

Russell Hornsby, pictured front of the cast of Grimm (above). 

How would you sum up Grimm for people who had their heads in the sand and haven’t seen it yet?

It’s basically a procedural fantasy based on the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. We’ve sort of updated the idea of the stories and we have this guy Nick Burkhardt [David Giuntoli] who is a police detective with the power to be able to see the creatures when they’re in human form.

And how would you sum up your character of Hank?

He is Nick’s detective partner. He has a wonderful evolution from not knowing to knowing about the world of the Grimms [the guardians charged with keeping order between creatures and humans]. He’s sarcastic, a little dark and somewhat aloof. Do I have anything in common with him? Well, I can be sarcastic but I’m a lot more humorous and witty in real life than he is. I’m also not as in love with love as Hank is. He’s been married a few times whereas I’ve been married one time and [laughs] I don’t let the smooth taste of a woman fool me too often.

How do you account for the popularity of the show?

I think that audiences today are a lot more sophisticated and a lot smarter than they used to be ten or 20 years ago. It’s no longer just about smoke and mirrors and it’s no longer just about effects. People want to be engaged a lot more in story. As film and television effects evolve we’re not taken by the tricks anymore. Writers are now having to go back to telling better stories.

Do you get recognised more because of the show’s success?

Absolutely. I am now officially an international face. I won’t say I’m an international name but I am an international face because my character is internationally known. People don’t know who the hell I am but they know who Hank is. So far I’ve been recognised in South Africa, London, Australia and Sweden.

How is it attending fan conventions like Comic-Con?

It’s overwhelming, to be honest. It’s fun on a certain level but it’s just overwhelming – and what I mean by that is that I’m overwhelmed by the fanaticism of Comic-Con. I appreciate and respect it because they love the show so much, but I’m not used to being made a big deal of. I come from the theatre so I’m used to getting off stage after the show, hearing the applause, maybe getting a standing ovation if you’re lucky, then you go out the stage door and there’s nothing but the sound of crickets and drunks in the alley. They have no idea who you are, they’re just asking ‘Brother, can you spare a dime?’ So this is all new to me.

Do fans at conventions ask you some tricky questions?

They ask me questions and I have no idea where they’re going with it or where I need to go with the answer. Because as Hank I don’t deal with the mythology as much first-hand – although I’m starting to now. I didn’t grow up playing Dungeons & Dragons so it’s hard for me to wrap my head around it, although I’m getting there. For the first year I was like ‘What are you talking about?’ but now I’m starting to get it.

It’s a scary show but what scares you in real life?

I’m scared of dogs and rats. I was bitten by a Doberman Pinscher when I was seven so I’m not too fond of dogs. I have this inner fear that I battle with; it’s that thing of when you’re walking home, along a country road or something like that, I have a healthy fear of a dog. And rats? I told my wife Denise early on ‘If a rat or a mouse comes into the house you can’t count on me to help’. It’s happened, too. A mouse came in and I ran for the hills. My wife ended up trapping it, but at least I had enough dignity to scoop it up and throw it out.

Do you recall hearing Grimms’ Fairy Tales when you were young?

They weren’t a big part of my childhood. I was Disneyfied as a kid. I knew the fluffy versions and so I wasn’t exposed to the true grit of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales until I got to do this show. I’ve since read 20 to 30 of them and in some ways it doesn’t surprise me how gritty they are. Europeans are a bit grittier and a little more direct, more honest, so they’re consistent with the European style. There’s a gruff, hard exterior, whereas Americans deal in fantasy. We want to act like everything is fine while under the surface people are getting killed left and right. We never want to deal in truth.

You also played a police officer on Lincoln Heights as well as on other shows but did you do any fresh research for Hank?

I’ve played so many police officers it’s one and the same. I’ve done all that – I’ve done the ride-alongs, I’ve done the shooting range stuff, I have uncles who are in law enforcement in Boston, I’ve been in the hood, I’ve seen people gunned down – unfortunately. Some things you don’t have to do research for – you just get it and you know it. On television it’s about how much je ne sais quoi you bring to the role. It becomes about your personality. After a while you have to throw research out the door and just be interesting.

You were a football player in college so what lead you into acting?

If I’d gone into football as a career I don’t know how much control I would have had over my life. I realised I’d have a little more control as an actor and at least my bones are intact. Also, my spirit is to be a performer and I tapped into that early in life and realised it was the only way I could really function and live – through some form of performance. I can’t sit behind a desk and I don’t have the patience to write, I’m a performer in my soul. I started acting in high school and friends of mine will tell you that it was consistent with my character to be an actor. I was always the centre of attention, I was always the one with a joke, I always had a song to sing… I used to communicate in bursts of music and I didn’t really learn how to speak English until I was about 20 years old. I communicated through song.

What are your all-time scariest films and TV shows?

Things like Friday The 13^th (1980) and A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) are so scary I couldn’t stand to watch them. Growing up I was more into musicals like The Wizard Of Oz (1939) and Damn Yankees (1958), although the winged monkeys in The Wizard Of Oz used to scare the crap out of me as a kid. Along with The Wicked Witch Of The West, they used to give me nightmares.