Lincoln Heights.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, I\u2019m used to playing police officers, detectives – what I like to call authority figures, if you will.<\/p>\n
Do you feel comfortable in that sort of role? <\/strong><\/p>\nI do actually. It\u2019s interesting because; especially playing a detective, a plain clothes detective, it allows for a lot of my personality to kinda shine, to come out, which is a lot of fun. I sort of like to infuse Hank with a little bit of my Russell swagger if you will, and my Russell charm. It’s very much what you, as an actor, brings to the role, and so you can\u2019t veer too far off the path. You have to infuse little specific touches of your personality to make the character interesting.<\/p>\n
What do you enjoy about playing those parts? Is it that you see them as opportunities to infuse your own sense of authority over -or personality into – a character?<\/strong><\/p>\nIf you’re not playing a specific character role, a sinister villain, or a witty [cop], of some sort, that\u2019s very specific, then your gonna play the lead, what I call the leading man. It’s really about where your imagination can take you within the confines of the story. So, you have to move the story forward, you have to move the plot forward, but at the same time, if you can add just these wonderful touches and little idiosyncrasies I think that\u2019s what the audience grabs hold of. Again, that\u2019s just me infusing other aspects of my personality and that\u2019s just fun, and because the thing is that as the show grows you can take a little bit more liberty with each episode.<\/p>\n
What intrigued about the premise of Grimm<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\nAs an actor you\u2019re really happy to have a job, you know what I mean? So the fact that I could get a job, and get a part on this show that was as interesting as Grimm<\/em>… when you’re marrying these two worlds, of acute [procedurals] and the world of fairy tales, goblins and stuff like that, you say to yourself, “this can either be very interesting, or it can just flop.” Being part of something that was sort of stepping out of the monotonous world of usual law and order, and CSI, and all that kind of stuff, that\u2019s what intrigued me. I like doing procedurals, but I think the Grimm fairytales component was what really sent it over the top for me. <\/p>\nYou came into screen acting through theatre… how did you end up in The Wiz<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Wiz<\/em> was when I was in high school – I don\u2019t think that even counts. I was toiling around in New York for a couple of years – after I had graduated from university majoring in theatre, I got a role in a August Wilson play called Jitney<\/em>, and we had gone to seven cities around the country and ended up in Los Angeles. Of course everybody\u2019s dream is to bring a play to LA, and everyone figures that\u2019s the best way to get discovered and that\u2019s how I was discovered. I auditioned for a television series, and I got the part. And ironically enough, when I got the role we still hadn\u2019t premiered in New York with the play, and they told me I had to quit! I had to quit the play in order to do the TV show. I said “nope, I\u2019m not going to do that.”<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s next? Are you working on other projects at the moment?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe truth is Jack, this show is so time consuming – we\u2019re shooting nine months of the year, and if we get a second season we won\u2019t get too much time off so we wont have much time to shoot anything else. If I can get something else to fit into the schedule then I\u2019d go ahead and do that but right now Grimm<\/em> is my main focus – it\u2019s the main-stay in my career, I definitely don\u2019t have to time to be in a play right now.<\/p>\nGrimm is on Watch, every Monday at 9PM.<\/em><\/p>\nWords: Jack Mills<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oakland-born actor Russell Hornsby is the lead in NBC’s fantasy cop drama Grimm, and sat down with Wonderland to talk fairy tales, LA and his debut theatre role as the tinman in 1978’s broadway cult, The Wiz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3632],"tags":[1342,1937,50,1941,1938,1939,1940],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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