Jemaine Clement has had a rich and varied career since debuting with Flight of the Conchords, from voice appearances in Moana and on Rick and Morty to appearing in Steven Spielberg’s The BFG to getting a plum role in the Avatar sequels. But his most cherished non-Conchords work may be the What We Do in the Shadows-verse. Clement co-directed the mockumentary movie with Taika Waititi, and then went on to create the FX TV version, which focuses on a squadron of vampires in Staten Island. It’s had two great seasons thus far, and while it’ll be back for a third, Clement will be a bit less involved.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly (in a bit picked up by ComicBook.com), Clement — who’s twice swung by the show as long-haired stud Vladislav the Poker, his character from the movie — was asked what on earth he has left after the wild Season 2 conclusion. Here was his answer:
The writers will have to figure that one out because I won’t be in the writers’ room next season. I’m leaving them with this big problem to work out. I think it’s a good idea to end on a big cliffhanger, we did the same thing last season. Now they can figure out how to get out of this big mess.
So that’s pretty funny. It’s almost like a game of Exquisite Corpse, kind of, with Clement helping steer the writers’ room into a wall and see if they can plot their escape. It also means What We Do in the Shadows will remain a lively and surprising program that doesn’t rest on its laurels or give fans the same-old.
Elsewhere, Clement reveals one of his Vladislav appearances wasn’t supposed to happen. “I wasn’t even going to do this until the day before, because we had trouble getting anyone in time,” he revealed. “We were hoping we’d get someone who has played a vampire before, like in ‘The Trial’ last season with the vampire council, but we didn’t have enough time. So I happened to be in Toronto, where we shoot the show, so I put my wig on again, but it wasn’t planned.”
(Via EW and ComicBook.com)