So happy in the shadows
WE FIRST SAW HIM IN FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS BUT JERMAINE CLEMENT IS NOW THE CREATIVE FORCE BEHIND A SHOW ABOUT DYSFUNCTIONAL VAMPIRES
Jemaine Clement says the new series of cult vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows will have a whole new world of monsters, as well as a galaxy of guest stars.
Clement created the offbeat comedy concept with fellow
Kiwi, long-time collaborator and freshly minted Oscarwinner Taika Waititi for the 2014 hit movie of the same name, in which the two also starred as bickering bloodsucking Wellington flat mates Vladislav and Viago.
The TV series took the same idea but relocated the action to Staten Island, New York, and follows the lives of four vampire roommates: Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), and one wannabe vampire, Guillermo (Harvey Guillen), who grapple in the modern world with their rather mundane lifestyle.
And with vampires and werewolves already in play, this season brings some new otherworldly creatures.
“There are some ghosts, zombies, and witches,” says Clement with a smile.
“A big part of this season is about Guillermo finding out that he’s a natural vampire killer (after discovering he’s a descendant of famed vampire killer, Van Helsing, on an ancestry testing service), but he really wants to be a vampire,” Clement says. “There’s a lot of action stuff for Guillermo. And Colin gets into some sexcapades,” he adds with a chuckle.
Speaking of sex, despite the embarrassment of throwing a monumentally bad orgy at the BiAnnual Orgy Event at the end of the first season – one of the worst fates that can be bestowed on a vampire – our beloved fangedones seem to have gone unpunished for this ultimate in social faux pas.
“Well, some of these things take a long time to come back around,” laughs Clement, clearly remaining tight-lipped on the subject.
Due to the popularity of the series, celebrity cameos weren’t difficult for Clement to secure. He chose actors who could reprise characters from previous vampire roles to be part of the ominous Vampiric Council, an international tribunal.
It is comprised of: Tilda
Swinton (Only Lovers Left Alive), Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood), Danny Trejo (From Dusk Till Dawn), Paul Reubens (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Wesley Snipes (Blade), who appeared at the conference via Skype. Clement and Waititi also appeared as part of the council.
But Clement is beyond excited about his latest ‘get,’ childhood hero Star Wars’ Mark Hamill.
“Mark had tweeted about the show and said he had viewing parties,” says Clement a little incredulously.
“He’s probably the biggest fan of the show I’ve ever met, from anywhere in the world.”
Clearly, the admiration is mutual.
“I went to the Skywalker ranch once and saw Mark’s own lightsaber. That was really exciting. It’s a crazy, upside-down world.”
Clement promises more stunts in season two. He says of the wirework the actors do for the wall crawling segments “there is an amazing stunt team, although sometimes we’ll have the floor made to look like a wall, so they just have to change the angle when they’re shooting”.
Demetriou, a regular wallcrawler, says: “It always makes me laugh whenever we do wire work, especially when it’s me, Matt, and Kayvan on the wires, because we are not the fittest of casts and we are not action actors.”
She adds with a laugh: “Sometimes we just look like babies dangling.”
There is an anything-canhappen sensibility on the show despite the limitations of the vampires’ lifestyle.
“Yes, there are lots of limitations and that’s why it works,” explains Clement. “Things like, if they go outside in the day they’ll die, but on the other side, they can fly, have super strength, and transform into things.”
Born in Masterton, on New Zealand’s North Island, the 46year-old Clement was raised with two brothers by his Maori mother.
“As a kid I was forced to be in nature a lot – kayaking, rafting, abseiling, camping, hiking – and I’m really glad I did it. It’s hard to make myself do things. I need my mum to make me do them,” he laughs. He graduated from Makoura College, then moved to Wellington. “When I moved to Wellington, it was like I’d moved to New York,” he says. “I come from a very small town.”
There he met Waititi, with whom he continues to collaborate, and his other major creative partnership was forged with Bret McKenzie, the other half of folk comedy duo, Flight of the Conchords.
The band enjoyed much success and released four albums, toured internationally, and their HBO series, which ran for two seasons, 2007 to 2009, earned them six prime time Emmy nominations. The duo can also boast winning a Grammy award, in 2008.
2008 proved to be a lifechanging year for Clement. He married his longtime girlfriend, theatre actress and playwright Miranda Manasadis, and became a father to their son, Sophocles Iraia Clement, who was born in New York City.
His offbeat sex appeal hasn’t gone unnoticed, and (again in 2008) Clement was declared by Who Magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest People.
When I asked him back then how he felt when he saw his name on the list, he said, jokingly: “It made me wonder about those girls who wouldn’t’ go out with me. I hoped they saw it and had some tinge of regret.”
Clement will next be seen in the sequels to James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster, Avatar, which will be released in 2021 and 2023.
His other roles have included Men in Black 3 (2012), and voice work for Despicable Me (2010), Rio (2011), Rio 2 (2014), Moana (2016), and The Lego Batman Movie (2017). He currently voices the role of Mobot in Wellington Paranormal, another mockumentary comedy he co-created.
But it’s the disgruntled vampires in What We Do in the Shadows who appear to be where his passion lies.
“I love seeing their mundane ways, and the freaky stuff they do.” He laughs. “I really love that they get really worked up about small things. It really is the most fun.” WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, THURSDAY, 8.30PM, FOX SHOWCASE