What We Do in the Shadows has been a blast for five season, pushing its central cast of goofball vampires to some ridiculous lengths. After a season of assuming an infant form, running a vampire nightclub, and being reunited with long-dead spouses, the newest batch of episodes brings the central cast back firmly into the real world. The interplay between them and the humans who end up in their orbit forms a lot of the comedy of the new season, and the cast couldn’t be happier for it.
During an interview with CBR ahead of What We Do in the Shadows‘ fifth season premiere on FX on Jul. 12, Kayvan Novak (Nandor), Natasia Demetriou (Nadja), and Mark Proksch (Colin) discuss bringing the show’s goofy vampires back down to Earth, the joys of exploring the show’s central cast for years, and all the ways the vampire comedy keeps finding ways to throw unexpected twists and turns at its cast.
CBR: This show can go through so many different turns or twists without warning — what’s going through your mind when you step into each new prospective season?
Mark Proksch: I mean, usually dread. We read these, and we’re like, “Oh, no. Are we going too far? Are we jumping the shark?” You always worry about jumping the shark in television. It’s not until we start production, and it all comes together when you can actually see this is actually going to work and be really funny.
Kayvan Novak: I don’t really worry about jumping the shark. I’ve always kind of delighted whenever they send us the scripts. We have to sit down and do a reading of it. I think we’re all quite excited about what we read. We look forward to actually putting it on his feet.
Natasia Demetriou: I love it. I love it when you’re reading a script — I think there’s an episode in this season, where Nandor goes to space. And I was just like, “Come on!” Like, that entire episode has been so insane, and then he goes to space. Quite often, we’ll do a read of all the scripts that we’re about to film in that block, and then you kind of forget about it.
Then cut to like two weeks later for filming, and Nandor came down behind me, and he [was] naked. Why [was] he naked? Oh, right, because he’s been in space. There’s [times] on this show where you kind of stop and pinch yourself, and you’re like, I will never see this much ridiculous around me ever again on a show. I’m never gonna see like, Mark in camo gear or Kayvan naked. It’s why the show is amazing, I think.
Mark: Maybe I had dread because I got raised by Lazlo last season.
Natasia: That’s not dread, that’s just drawing from yours and [Matt Berry’s] real life.
Since Natasia brought it up — Kayvan, Nandor going to space might be my favorite part of the new season. What was that like to jump into?
Kayvan: Actually filming it — they suspend you on a big wire, and you’re in front of the green screen. You know, you look down and there’s like fifty members of the crew looking at you, waiting for you to do something funny. Sometimes you pull it off, and other times you don’t. Then there are just fifty faces looking blankly at you again. Is that it? Is this what we’re all here for? It was fun to shoot! I haven’t seen it yet. I haven’t — does it look real?
It’s so funny.
Kayvan: Well, that’s good [laughter].
Natasia, the last two seasons you’ve really gotten to push Nadja towards these big power moves, running the vampiric council and opening up a vampire club. This season brings her a bit more down to Earth. What excited you about finding that balance for the character this season?
Natasia: I actually think the whole season was quite a little bit more of that. The last season we were in the nightclub, in the night market, it was all kind of within the vampiric world. Whereas [in] this season, we’re at the mall, the comptroller storyline, hanging out a restaurant, I don’t know — I just felt like it was a lot more vampires on the town. That’s really fun.
This is like a really basic thing to say, but when you see everyone appear in their costumes, but we’re on like a street in Toronto, it really reminds you’re filming a show about like, mythical ancient creatures, as opposed to, you know, when you’re in the house. There, it sometimes feels like it’s just a sitcom. But I like doing that stuff. Because the juxtaposition of the stuff, that we’re doing in the kind of modern-day setting, I think really emphasizes the essence of the show — which is these freaks living in modern-day America. I love bringing it down to Earth.
Mark, you’re actually back on set fully for this season, after the whole “Baby Colin Robinson” element of last season took you in a very different direction.
Mark: Oh, it was so fun to be back working with these guys in person. When I did Baby Colin, I was, you know, mostly back in Los Angeles. So I missed getting to play off of my fellow cast mates. It was really fun being back and getting to goof around and enjoy myself and hear all the disgusting jokes that these guys tell in between takes. Being humiliated by them in the flesh was really nice.
Looking back at how much the show has changed and how much these characters have evolved over the last five seasons, what would you say has surprised you the most?
Kayvan: I thought I would get better and better and better at playing Nandor — but I think I peaked two seasons ago [laughs].
Natasia: This isn’t really a very interesting answer, but it is my response to your question — I will say that I’ve obviously never had the experience of playing a character more and more. I’m often shocked that the writers can keep finding different stuff for the character to do and so effortlessly, and you’re like, oh, [Najia’s] in a Greek café. She’s in a club. She’s got a doll, whatever it is — and Kayvan’s being too hard on himself.
Like, I am shocked for all the characters that we did it again, we’re doing this now. It doesn’t seem boring. It’s always treading new ground. I just doubt I will ever be able to be in a show that maybe lasts this long, maybe. So it’s a really amazing thing to learn about, and to experience being able to come back time and time again.
Mark: I think for all of us, this was really our first show where we’ve gone this long with the same people. On-screen and off-screen, there’s a long time to settle in. And I feel like these last couple of seasons, we finally have settled in. I think we have a lot more fun playing off of each other now that we know who we are. I feel like we’re you know, firing on all cylinders. It’s easy to slip into working with Harvey or Kayvan or Natasia or Matt, and each time you get to do that and have your own episode with someone, it’s fun. You get to explore each other’s character a little more and not just phone it in.
What We Do in the Shadows’ fifth season debuts on Jul. 12 on FX.