Grimm: Russell Hornsby previews 100th episode, reflects on past five years

Things are heating up on NBC’s Grimm. With the impending danger of Black Claw worldwide, Manwar the terrorist wesen on the loose in Portland, and Nick and Monroe away in Germany on a treasure hunt, the 100th special episode is sure to be an eventful one.

EW chatted with Russell Hornsby, who plays Hank Griffin, to get all the scoop on Black Claw, Adalind and Nick’s complicated relationship, and some of his favorite moments from the show over the past five seasons.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Black Claw sentiment has been close to bubbling over in Portland for a while now. Can we expect to see a huge outbreak of violence from them soon?

RUSSELL HORNSBY: I believe that it’s going to continue to fester and it’s something that we’re going to be dealing with for a while, up until the end of the season, if not into our sixth season.

Everyone was hesitant about teaming up with Hadrian’s Wall, but is a partnership with them inevitable to take down Black Claw?

As long as [they’re] all working toward the same outcome, we’ll have to work together. And then once our agendas sort of split, we’ll go back to being enemies. It’s like anything else — it’s political.

Nick and Adalind had a little hookup in the last episode. What do you think Hank would think about this budding relationship?

Hank would be very wary. I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with his past experience with Adalind, even though that might color it a little bit. It’s just that, you know, there are certain people you just can’t trust. Hank having been married and divorced three or four times, he knows that better than most. You can’t return to being good once you were evil. She’s just not one to trust. It’s one of those things where [Hank] will have to keep his thoughts to himself. When it goes awry, Hank will be there for Nick.

Let’s talk about this hidden treasure. Can we expect to find out what it is soon, or will we have to wait until the end of the season?

We should expect to see it soon, but it will also be like, “What does it ultimately mean and how do we use it to defeat Black Claw?” All of those questions are going to have to be answered as we continue to go down the road. And that’s why it’s possible that this whole issue with Black Claw may continue into next season.

In honor of the 100th episode of Grimm, what’s your favorite episode from any of the seasons?

I can’t necessarily say I have a favorite episode per se, but I think I have a favorite sequence. My time came in the first season when I was sort of dealing with the trouble with Adalind and at the same time slowly finding out that Nick was a grimm. And that first experience of seeing Monroe woge in front of me. Those were some of my favorite experiences from working on Grimm for the past five seasons.

What about a favorite memory from the set?

It’s been the whole experience, and I like to say it’s what happens before action and after cut. It’s just us telling jokes. We sing, we laugh, we play practical pranks on each other. Even though the whole time on set is just fun, I’ve just enjoyed, reveled in the moment. It’s been a fun set overall. There’s some great people who have great energy and are very giving. Coming to work every day, honestly, is a joy. It’s like no experience I’ve ever had.

So who pulls the most practical jokes on set?

You know, David is very young at heart. He pulls a lot of pranks — not necessarily practical jokes. Just like hiding people’s food or little things like that. We all just poke fun at each other. We’re family now. Now we can talk about each other without insult. No one takes it personally and we just laugh at it.

If Hank had to be turned into a wesen, which kind of wesen would you want it to be?

The goat wesen [Ziegevolk] from season 1 who ate the toad and was a lady’s man. I would enjoy being a lady’s man.

Grimm airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.