David Giuntoli went from playing the adored Nick Burkhardt on Grimm for six years to playing Eddie Saville on ABC’s A Million Little Things, a character that isn’t the most liked by fans of the show – he was sleeping with his best friend’s wife before said best friend committed suicide. However, Giuntoli, 38, was drawn to the role, regardless of the twisted story line.
“Nick Burkhardt was a hero. He was a lawman, and he would do anything to protect his loved ones and there was no sacrifice too great that he would not shoulder to help the community or his loved ones. Eddie Saville on the other hand, very flawed, so awash and burdened by his own demons that he often makes the wrong choice,” the actor said on this week’s “Watch With Us” podcast. “Reading A Million Little Things, I knew they were interested in me for Eddie and I read it and I’m like, oh this guy’s great. He’s in a position that’s so different from Grimm.”
He continued: “Then I read the last two pages of the pilot and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, he is sleeping with his best friend’s wife. Uh, this is gonna be interesting. I don’t think people are gonna love this guy. How are we gonna pull this off?’”
He continued: “In short, I was very drawn to the differences that the character Eddie has, the differences between Eddie and Nick. You don’t wanna play the same thing over and over and over again. The industry will only view you as a certain thing and Eddie couldn’t be farther from Nick Burkhardt.”
The finale of Grimm aired in March 2017. In February 2018, Giuntoli was cast in the ABC pilot and it was one he was pushing for. “I held my breath and said no to other things that were very similar to Nick Burkhardt,” he told Us.
During the podcast, Giuntoli also commented on Eddie becoming a father for a second time on the show, his relationship with Delilah (Stephanie Szostak) and his future in music. He also talked about getting his start in reality TV. In 2003, he was cast on MTV’s Road Rules, then went on to compete on The Challenge: The Gauntlet.
“I wouldn’t say I knew that I wanted to be an actor when I did Road Rules,” he told Us. “I didn’t even understand that acting was a thing you could do. I was in finance. I was in the Midwest. My parents were always very supportive of me, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. We certainly didn’t understand that or have any sense of the roadmap to becoming an entertainer for a living. Road Rules was something that kind of happened on a whim. They were auditioning people at the school where I went, Indiana University. I was at the bar where they were doing interviews and I went in and I got it. It was really fun. It was one way for me to get off of the track that I was on.”
Listen to Giuntoli’s full interview for free on the “Watch With Us” podcast above and subscribe here. A Million Little Things airs on ABC Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET.