‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Cast and Showrunner Look Back: ‘It Was Such a Slow Burn’
When the cast and showrunner of “What We Do in the Shadows” talk about their impeccable FX comedy, two words keep coming up: fancy room.
This is the formal, technical, and maybe even industry term for exactly what viewers will suspect; the ornate sitting room of the Staten Island mansion where a group of vampires gather to lounge, fight, and occasionally hypnotize a private school principal to the point of irreparable brain damage. For showrunner Paul Simms and actors Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, and Mark Proksch, who all gathered together for a PaleyFest panel on October 19, group scenes in the Fancy Room were among what they’ll miss most now that “Shadows” has wrapped filming.
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“Those were the scenes where I’d feel probably the most nervous going in,” Novak recalled of the early seasons. “‘Oh wow, these guys, it’s gotta be good, and I can’t fuck up.’ Then I’d fuck up. And I’d realize it’s okay to fuck up. Further on, you get more relaxed and you trust people more.”
“What We Do in the Shadows” is rich with talented improvisers, including Season 6 guest stars Mike O’Brien, Tim Heidecker, Zach Woods, and Steve Coogan (a big get for Simms, who also tried for Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise but was politely deferred — “and now they missed their chance”). Even before “Shadows,” they were all well-rehearsed in finding, pitching, and testing out bits, and moving on quickly if something doesn’t work. Season 6, Episode 1 includes a favorite of Novak’s: Nandor saying “Can I get a beep-beep?” during a house meeting to the motor scooter-driving Colin Robinson (Proksch, who obliged on-the-spot). Proksch presented R-rated material for “Laszlo’s Roast” in Season 5, just to make his castmates break “at the most disgusting that have ever come out of my mouth — knowing full well they would never, my parents would never see it.”
With Berry, his most memorable improvisation on the show has to be Laszlo’s distinct pronunciation of random words.
“It’s not anything that’s sort of planned,” Berry said (though the writers have tried, and “it just gets ignored”). “It’s just to amuse myself. If I’ve been saying that line more than once, then by the fourth time, I’m kind of fed up the of saying it. So I have to say it some way that’s gonna amuse me. That’s all it is. No trick to this, I’m sorry to say.”
To Berry’s point, about both improv and scripted comedy: “You have to look as if you just had those thoughts… And I’m not finding it funny, I’m finding it either irritating or sort of confusing. That’s where I do it from.”
Since 2018, the series has been nominated for Creative Arts Emmys across a variety of categories, using a regular sitcom budget to create period costumes, detailed sets, intricate prosthetics, and much more.
“The set informs how you get up, how you move around, you believing yourself to be 400 years old,” Berry said. “It’s 360 for a lot of the time, so you are inside the house. The attention to detail within the house — because you just see stuff that’s on the wall, but there’ll be stuff written at the bottom of the paintings. There’s detail absolutely everywhere, and that really helps.”
Another huge element was the stunt team, who have helped execute fights between superhuman creatures and quite a bit of flying via wirework (one thing the actors won’t miss much). Simms praised the stunt team for setting a high bar on what “Shadows” could accomplish as early as the start of Season 1, when Laszlo’s cape gets caught in a cab door and subsequently drags him down the street.
“The writers was saying, ‘So how long is this going to take?’ I’ve been doing this for a while; I said ‘We’re going to be here till 4 a.m.’ And very first time it worked.”
Simms went on to praise various department heads by name — Paul Jones’ work with prosthetics, Shayne Fox’s production design, Laura Montgomery’s costumes — “all those people up there figured out a way to really stretch our Canadian dollar. Really, it’s such a joy to work on something and almost be able to write it the way you would an animated show, where you’re not worried about how are you gonna do it… It really is what made the show possible.”
And though it’s not the kind of show that will be saying goodbye with hugs and tears, human emotion is sneaking in. Berry convinced Simms to do a GoPro video of the set which ends with the vampires entering. Novak has amassed quite a collection of Nandor paintings, and held on to his fangs. Proksch said he took one of Colin’s sweaters (“I’m out of a job!”), and Simms held on to so much that his wife might be concerned (including the very realistic severed prop head of Sofia Coppola).
With the series wrapped (though Simms is still editing), the whole team now gets to enjoy sharing it with fans and witnessing the love for their work out in the world.
“We film up in Toronto, and all you see the entire time is each other,” Proksch said. “[At] Comic Con, or these moments, it’s really nice to hear reactions to the show, and the show would not have made it six seasons without word of mouth. It was such a slow burn fans, and those were the comedies I liked growing up, so it was kind of neat to be involved.”
Before addressing the fans in the room, Novak took a beat.
“I mean, you guys,” he said, before switching seamlessly into Nandor’s (apparently Polish) accent: “You fucking guys.”
What We Do in the Shadows” airs Mondays at 10p.m. on FX and Tuesdays on Hulu.
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