We have to thank a Fil-Am actor’s parents for keeping the aswang alive in his imagination.
“The horrifying Pinoy aswang will soon make its appearance in NBC’s fantasy-detective series Grimm,” reports Inquirer.net.
The report then revealed that “the idea for the aswang came from the show’s Filipino-American actor Reggie Lee (leftmost, foreground in the photo), who plays the role of Sergeant Wu, the sarcastic cop from Portland who works with show’s main characters detectives Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) and Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby).”
Lee’s real name is Reggie Valdez and he was born in Quezon City. He decided to take the screen name “Lee” to avoid casting confusion, as he was often called to play Hispanic characters instead of Asian ones.
Lee revealed that Grimm’s creators are “wonderfully collaborative.”
They had actually asked him if he knew of any monsters in Filipino folklore. “And so I gave them a list and it included the aswang — which is probably the most popular one in Filipino folklore. I mean how often really do you get a Filipino storyline in a show? Not very often. I can’t think of any. So how great for them to really focus on that.”
The Grimm episode featuring the aswang is titled “Mother Dearest.”
The plot has Lee’s character helping a couple who just moved from the Philippines to Portland. The woman is an ex-girlfriend of Lee’s character. As it turns out, an aswang had followed the couple who was expecting a child.
Expect a more fearsome aswang, as the show’s team went for broke on making it look especially horrible.
And, for a change, we like the sound of that.
Screengrab of a publicity photo released by NBC
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