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By Abbie Bernstein
Actor Sasha Roiz has been doing film and TV work for over a decade, but over the last few years, he’s made a career of being smooth, dangerous and enigmatic. He was a regular on Syfy’s CAPRICA as expatriate Tauron gangster Sam Adama and had an arc on WAREHOUSE 13 as a deadly manipulator. Right now, Roiz is playing it more enigmatic than ever on NBC’s GRIMM as Portland, Oregon police captain Sean Renard. David Giuntoli’s title character, police detective Nick Burkhardt, has the ability to see the secret faces of supernatural beings, but even he doesn’t know about his boss’s secret side. However, the audience can see that Renard is calling the shots with some of the deadliest creatures that a Grimm might ever encounter.
Roiz is a well-traveled gentleman who was born in Israel, raised in Montreal and studied acting at the Guildford Conservatory in England. Despite his recent slate of intimidating roles, he doesn’t seem the least bit sinister in person. Instead, he obligingly steps to one side to answer questions at an NBC press event about his current and past characters.
After playing some criminals, was Roiz looking forward to playing a cop, albeit an unconventional one, in GRIMM? “The interesting thing is that he’s got a lot more to him besides [being a] cop,” Roiz replies. “The cop I think is really the tip of the iceberg. It’s the stuff that’s going to be revealed very soon that’s really exciting.”
It took viewers a while to realize that there was more to Captain Renard than meets the eye, but did Roiz know about his character’s secrets when he got the role, or did that come as a surprise to him after he was cast? Roiz says he surmised this from the start. “I believe that there was definitely something in my character that’s going to be a big deal. He’s quite a large-sized character who’s going to definitely command some control over Nick as a character. I think it’s just a very interesting storyline that is going to create havoc in Nick’s life.”
CAPRICA was a production that most of the actors, Roiz included, were very enthusiastic about. Regarding its cancellation after eighteen episodes, Roiz says, “We were all sad. I was just out with [CAPRICA cast mates] Paula [Malcomson] and Alessandra [Torresani], we’ve remained really good friends, and we can’t help but lament it a little bit. We all had very high hopes for it, as I think a lot of the fans and the network did, but sadly, it panned out the way it did. But I still feel like we left a mark. Certainly, we left a big fan base and an impression on people and I think it’ll be a little bit of a cult favorite.”
In addition to the serious folks he’s been portraying, Roiz has had a few comedic changes of pace, showing up in a recurring role on FX’s IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA and in a hilariously sleazy beauty pageant host, who’d formerly been a TV family sitcom actor, on the “Pretty Dead” episode of ABC’s CASTLE. Was the latter character meant to be Charlie Sheen, or perhaps Bob Saget, who starred in 192 episodes of FULL HOUSE? “It’s just between the two,” Roiz says, deadpan. Somewhere in between the two of them.”
Did Roiz do any research for that role? Now he laughs. “It’s fun research. No, it was great and CASTLE’s a great group of people. We had a lot of fun on that and they just let me go wild on it.”
GRIMM has the distinction of actually filming in Portland, as opposed to dressing up part of Los Angeles or Vancouver as that city. Is working in Portland different from working in other locales? “Yeah,” Roiz says. Every place is quite unique. Portland is great. It’s a beautiful city. It is very much its own place and I think they chose it for that reason, because it gives off a particular impression and it really assists us in telling these stories. It does have a fantastical kind of element to it. Just the look of the nature [in the outdoors sequences] is very helpful in telling the GRIMM tales.”
Speaking of the tales that inspire the GRIMM episodes, does Roiz have any favorite fairytales from his childhood? “I grew up on Russian fairytales,” Roiz replies, “so there are a bunch of really interesting Slavic fairytales that no one seems to know of yet, but maybe they’ll use [them next season].”
In GRIMM, we know what Nick, his Blutbad pal Monroe (played by Silas Weir Mitchell) and presumably Captain Renard see when one of the human-seeming creatures commits a supernatural act. Does Roiz have any opinion on what a regular person would see if witnessing the same incident?
“I think they would be seeing the person imbued with perhaps a physical level that is a little beyond our regular capability,” Roiz opines, “so it would almost be like an adrenaline charge or something like that. Whereas [Nick and Renard] can see the actual identity of the person, we would just see someone with a momentary ability - super-natural [as opposed to supernatural] strength or speed or aggression.”
Does Roiz find there’s anything different in playing a character like Renard, who’s in a supervisory capacity, as opposed to than playing someone who’s on his own, or taking orders from someone else? “Just maintaining a certain status,” Roiz replies. “It’s really about maintaining a status that commands respect and attention.”
Although not a police captain, Roiz’s WAREHOUSE 13 character Marcus Diamond, was fairly commanding. He was also, Roiz recalls, “a pretty nefarious character, wreaking a lot of havoc for the police.”
Given the roles he’s been getting lately, does Roiz wonder if there’s something about him that says “nefarious” to casting directors?
The question causes Roiz to laugh again. “I’m not sure. Yeah. There’s just like the smell of sulfur every time I enter a room.”
Well, Sam Adama in CAPRICA actually seemed pretty straightforward, right? Roiz reserves the right not to agree entirely. “Yeah, he was straightforward, but even then, he had his edges for sure. But I don’t know - I guess there is something about me that attracts me to these characters.”
Perhaps it’s more fun to play characters who have big secrets? “It’s really case by case,” Roiz says. “All characters are flawed. Some of the characters, like on CASTLE and PHILADELPHIA - comedic characters are fun. This [GRIMM] is fun. As long as it’s a well-written character,” Roiz concludes, “it’s a good time.”
By Abbie Bernstien
Buzzy Mag Entertainment Reporter
