This upcoming pre-Halloween weekend is looking pretty grimm for David Barerra…
The Mexican American actor is set to guest star on a NBC’s supernatural crime drama Grimm, which takes place in a world where characters inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales exist.
Barrera will appear on the show’s Halloween-themed episode, which will feature an appearance by telenovela star Kate del Castillo as a mysterious detective from Albuquerque searching for a child abductor.
The episode, titled “La Llorona,” is loosely based on the Latin American legend of a woman who drowned her children. According to legend, a beautiful woman named Maria kills her children by drowning them; in order to be with the man she loves. When he rejects her, she kills herself. Challenged at the gates of heaven as to the whereabouts of her children, she isn’t permitted to enter the afterlife until she finds them. So Maria is forced to wander the earth for all eternity, searching in vain for her drowned offspring, with her constant weeping giving her the name La Llorona.
Barrera will portray a resident named Luis Alvarez, whose son is taken by La Llorona.
“The detectives and I spend the rest of the episode searching for him and trying to catch La Llorona,” says Barrera of his guest role. “It’s a really creepy episode, especially if you grew up with the legend of La Llorona.”
The deeper Grimm’s main character Nick (David Giuntoli) digs into the case, the more he realizes the pattern of the kidnapping matches those in the famed “La Llorona” legend, a story with its roots intertwined with his own family’s Grimm history.
Barrera – whose television credits include appearances on Heroes, CSI: Miami, Boston Legal, Medium, Nip/Tuck and 24 – enjoyed sharing screen time with his fellow guest star del Castillo.
“Kate was a really nice and approachable person,” says Barrera. “I had met her once before on the set of the PBS series American Family. She was really easy to talk to and is a very talented lady.”
The spooktacular episode featuring Barrera and del Castillo will air 9:00 pm on NBC. Friday, October 26 at 9:00 pm on NBC.