PORTLAND, Ore. -- After six seasons in Portland, NBC’s hit drama ‘Grimm,’ finished shooting its series finale Tuesday.
KGW dropped by the set and spoke with crew members about their experiences since the show’s pilot premiered in 2011.
“This was the little show that could,” said Grimm key grip, Bruce Lawson. “No matter how hard they tried to put us down, we always found a way.”
Like many Grimm crew members, Lawson is a Portland native who decided not to strike out to Los Angeles.
“I always thought somewhere down the line we'd be doing an Oregon-for-Oregon, a Portland-for-Portland kind of show,” said Lawson. “I never imagined in my wildest dreams it would be as a great as Grimm.”
Over six years, nearly a thousand people imagined, built and crafted Grimm. Makeup artist Ruthann Lentz — also a Portland resident — did makeup for actresses Bree Turner and Claire Coffee.
“It's just a big friendship community of people,” said Lentz. “My girls, no matter what they were doing—laying in the mud, having blood put on them — we were all in this together.”
Now together, the crew waits for what's next, as the job they've depended on for six years comes to an end.
“If a factory goes down and 200 jobs are lost, it makes the news,” said Grimm’s head greensman, Charlie Carlsen. “When a film goes away, people don't think of it as a manufacturing job but that's what we are — entertainment's the number one export of this country.”
Like an episode of Grimm, life on the Portland set brought its own plot twists. Take property master, James Eddy, one of the few transplants from Los Angeles. Grimm or not, he's decided to make Portland his new home.
“It's such a creative environment,” said Eddy. “The things I've been allowed to do here, I can't even express how amazing this job has been.”
While crew members scope out their next jobs, Oregon Film is trying to secure more state funding to attract production companies and maybe another big television series. There may never be another Grimm in Portland, but its crew can always hope for another local, fairy tale job.