Trivia / What We Do in the Shadows (2019)

• Ability over Appearance: The character that became Guillermo was initially pictured as a few decades older, but Harvey Guillén's acting was seen as a natural fit and they rewrote the character to accommodate for this casting.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Almost everything specific about Guillermo's character beyond his backstory and his name were created by his actor Harvey Guillén. This article describes how the creators ordered the makeup and costuming department to completely recreate the character look that Guillén made up for his audition.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Nandor is a warlord from the Ottoman Empire, and his actor, Kayvan Novak, is ethnically Persian.
  • Nadja is revealed to be from the Greek island of Antipaxos in the third season, and her actor, Natasia Demetriou, is ethnically Greek-Cypriot.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • It was Tilda Swinton who pitched the idea of her vampire character intersecting with What We Do In the Shadows with Clement after both of their vampire films had played at SXSW and subsequently agreed to make a guest star appearance in the show when Clement came up with a story that could work with that pitch.
  • Similarly, Dave Bautista became a guest star after Kristen Schaal mentioned that Bautista would do anything to be a part of the show.
  • Matt Berry himself was extremely eager to join the show because he viewed it as fun, absurd, and a form of escapism.
  • Mark Hamill is a huge fan of the 2014 film, and often raved about it on his Twitter account. When he was offered a role in the series, he didn't hesitate for a second.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Matt Berry is an accomplished musician, and the show frequently has Laszlo playing piano and other instruments as a result. A few of his songs have actually been used as the end theme of an episode! Couples with Actor Allusion in Season 3, Episode 10, where he starts playing the theme to Toast of London on the piano.
  • Remember in Season 3, Episode 2 where Laszlo, Colin, and Guillermo all disguise themselves as Nandor? Nandor wasn't overdubbed, that's Kayvan Novak doing the voices for all three in his body! He's gained fame as an impressionist in his native England and has voice acted in quite a few animated films.
• The Danza:
  • Arj Barker as Arjan the werewolf.
  • The Vampiric council turns out to consist of actors who have previously played vampires as themselves as vampires.
    • Tilda Swinton as Tilda (Only Lovers Left Alive)
    • Paul Reubens as Paul (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
    • Evan Rachel Wood as Evan (True Blood)
    • Danny Trejo as Danny (From Dusk Till Dawn)
    • Wesley Snipes as Wesley (Blade)
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Harvey Guillén identifies as queer and his character Guillermo is revealed to be gay as of season 4.
• Real Song Theme Tune: 1966 folk song "You're Dead" by Norma Tanega, again. Several of the Ending Themes are also existing published songs, although a few are stock music intended to sound like songs from various genres.
• Referenced by...: In the 2022 Homestar Runner Halloween cartoon "Homestar Runner 2022 Costume Pack Now Available", Strong Sad dresses up as Guillermo, and at the end of the cartoon he asks if he can be turned into a vampire now. Strong Mad also yells "Bat!" like Laszlo does when transforming into a bat, but it's the hair of his costume that transforms and fly around instead.
• Role Reprise: "The Trial" sees Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh, and Jemaine Clement return in the roles of Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav from the original film.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Clement explained in an interview that they were originally planning to do the same joke from "The Trial" about an actor who played a vampire really being a vampire in the show's universe for the second season finale (ideally Antonio Banderas to really tie together the Interview with the Vampire reference in the episode) but nobody was available to come to location for shooting in that limited time. As such, Clement reprised his role as Vladislav as a Call-Back to fill in the role.
• Special Edition Title: Several times in Season 3 and 4:
  • In "The Casino" the photos in the opening are replaced with footage of the vampires traveling to Atlantic City.
  • "The Wellness Center" has the title song covered in Nandor's native Farsi, as the episode opens with the housemates preparing for his Ascension Day celebrations.
  • "The Portrait" where Colin Robinson dies has all of Colin's photos torn out of their frames or covered up in sticky notes.
  • The opening sequence of the episode "Go Flip Yourself" is replaced by that of the titular Show Within a Show.
  • For the Season 4 finale "Sunrise, Sunset", the title music is replaced by Laszlo singing a cover of the titular song from Fiddler on the Roof. As well as that, all the photos of Colin in the opening are replaced by photos of Baby Colin.
• Star-Making Role: The series launched Harvey Guillén to stardom.
• Throw It In!:
  • Just with the film, Jemaine Clement stated on Twitter that there's a lot of improv in the series.
  • Harvey Guillén came up with the surname "de la Cruz" for Guillermo just to make the character feel more real to him than if he had Only One Name — which Jemaine Clement instantly approved, because it fit so well with his as-yet-unrevealed heritage as a vampire hunter.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to an interview, Waititi and Clement tried to get Robert Pattinson, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise, Alexander Skarsgård and Brad Pitt for the Vampiric Council, but they were unavailable. Cate Blanchett did want to do it, but since she hadn't ever played a vampire, they didn't want her.
  • Jenna was originally planned to have a bigger role in the series. However, the performer's other acting commitments have put the kibosh on that.

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