Apple TV’s adaptation of Michael Buckley’s hit novel series, The Sisters Grimm, had a breakout first season last year, earning a perfect 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Returning on October 2 with a six-episode second season, the series continues to follow Sabrina and Daphne Grimm as they learn more about their new home, Ferryport Landing, where fairy tale characters and magic are real.
In anticipation of the Season 2 premiere, we had the pleasure of speaking with Prince/Mayor Charming himself, Abubakar Salim, about his character’s journey.
With your background and experience voice acting in a variety of more adult series and video games, how do you attune yourself to a character like Charming, who has such an extensive canon in folklore and fairy tales, on The Sisters Grimm, which is so family-friendly?
Abubakar Salim: Taking into consideration the thousands of renditions of Charming that we’ve probably seen or digested either actively or passively through stories of who Prince Charming is, my process with Charming is one that is quite simple.
It’s literally “play the truth of the scene and do the best of what you can.” And what I mean by this is that to add too much to a character and to try and add too much, be it either character or performance, to it, it detracts from the simplicity and ridiculousness of who the character is already and what’s been written. You let the audience paint the picture of the Charming you’re portraying.
The one thing that is really great about this job in particular as well is the writing is so well done; it’s done half of the job for you. You just have to rock up, show up, and do. Tell the truth.
That has been one of the great things about playing this gig specifically. With a lot of other roles, there is an element of having to do the legwork to play into the fantastical aspect and paint the picture of the world that way.
With this, because the audience already has an idea and understanding of what the Grimm tales are to a degree — even though this is a different take on it — you still get an idea. That’s what’s been quite fun: you’re working with the audience and asking, “How do you take this?”
Charming, as portrayed in The Sisters Grimm, is an archetype of a hero who sometimes struggles to be heroic. His nature and his inclination are two separate things. As he continues his journey from Season 1, where do you feel his heroic instinct lies?
This is what’s so great about this piece. Look at the “modern man” or the “modern guy” today. This idea of feeling this sense of “Yeah, I know my stuff. I’ve got everything on lock. I know who I am, what I need to do.”
In truth, we have no idea what we’re doing. We’re all trying to figure out who we are and that identity, but there is this pressure that we feel in regard to trying to ensure or present ourselves in a way that feels like, “Yeah, this is the archetype. This is what a man is supposed to be and what they are, and this is how I’m going to behave.”
The interesting aspect is that, in the extreme, it’s these Prince Charmings that go and save these damsels in distress. That’s your role. That’s who you’re supposed to be.
When you watch this show, you realize that Charming is not good at that at all. [laughs] Terrible at it. You wouldn’t trust him with anything. But that’s the point of it: to challenge these archetypes and figure out, “Who are you really? Who is Prince Charming?”
It really dives into that. Really questions that. That’s why a lot of people connect and resonate with The Sisters Grimm because it looks at these Grimm tales — these stories that we thought we knew and understood — and turns them on their heads. Then it’s like, “Actually, there is something else here that we need to mine and pick.”
We see a softer side of Charming in Season 2 through his longer interactions with Snow White, who has evolved from the typical damsel in distress in her fairy tale. Do you think Charming has it in him to grow into someone worthy of this new Snow?
Yeah, I think so! I’m always a big believer that people can change and people can evolve and adapt. This idea that once you’re set in your ways, that’s it: I don’t know; I don’t agree on that.
People are always changing. Charming has that ability. Now, whether he believes that in himself, that’s the real question.
With Season 2 specifically, you explore that a bit. Season 1 is really him making the same mistakes over and over again, thinking that he knows it, but he doesn’t.
Season 2 really challenges that. He learns that by looking at the girls, seeing the journey that they go on. These kids who he hated to begin with are probably the biggest teachers that he’ll have in his life.
At its heart, The Sisters Grimm has this feminist theme, this girl power piece. How does Charming see himself when surrounded by the Grimm women — Relda, Sabrina, and Daphne — who are strong personalities in their own right?
It’s funny. I, as Abu, have grown up surrounded by women. There’s my mum and then my sister. She’s got three daughters. The majority of my cousins are women. I’m surrounded by women. The fact that I am a boy in this family is a blessing. Even now, I have a daughter! It just follows me.
Either you take it on the chin, you accept it, and you’re like, “Okay, cool. I’ve got a lot to learn here,” or you try to fight it and see yourself as “special” or different.
Charming is of that mentality that to be challenged — especially by the sex/gender that he’s normally used to saving — is quite jarring for him because he lives in a world of, not necessarily stereotypes, but of how a story should play.
Even if it’s not the little girls, it’s kids. Why do these kids have it screwed on better than he does? That’s the reality in which he’s having to face and accept.
He’s struggling with it, whereas I learned very quickly to just ride the wave, realizing you’re just going to go on this journey and you’re going to learn something different.
It’s beautiful because the stories that we are told show things in a very skewed kind of way. To then be challenged by the realities of what life actually is is quite exciting.
Season 2 sees Charming give the girls a magical item to help them in their quest to find their parents, only for Sabrina to use part of it for a greater good. Does Charming understand why she sacrifices her personal quest?
Absolutely. If anything, that is probably, deep down, the only thing that he understands and knows, especially what it takes to be a leader.
When it comes to having that responsibility, it’s something that you can tell people till you’re blue in the face, but in truth the only way that you can experience it or understand it is by going through it yourself.
That’s the one moment I feel that Charming is like, “Yep, okay, cool. These girls are genuine. They’re legit. Real. They’re not here for their own self-gain.” It’s a moment that is really beautiful to watch.
