What We Do In The Shadows: Interview with Cori Gonzalez-Macuer

What We Do In The Shadows started as a bunch of friends getting together to make a short film about some vampires in Wellington, riffing off each other and exploring Courtenay Place in fangs and ruffled Elizabethan shirts.

That was back in 2005. Nine years later, that short has been spun into a critically-acclaimed full-length mockumentary that follows a group of vampires as they try to navigate modern society.

Among them is Nick, a new vampire who won’t shut up about it. This loudmouth is played by Billy T Award winner Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, who was in the original short.

Ahead of What We Do In The Shadows’ New Zealand release tomorrow, he talks about working on the original short, the mean streets of Wellington circa 2005 and his recent comedy show Hell Will Be Easier.

In What We Do In The Shadows you’re playing a vampire who’s only recently been turned and he’s a bit of an arrogant douche about the whole thing, it’s fair to say.

Yup.

Was this much of a change from your involvement in the original short film that Jemaine and Taika made in 2005?

Yeah. From memory I don’t think I was that much of a douchebag in the first one. It was a bit of a smaller part, but then they made the part a bit bigger and, yeah, you can kinda see my true colours in this one.

And you’re playing a different style than the other leads – they’re all playing archetypes of different elements of vampire folklore. What were you shooting for with the role?

I think the douchebag thing comes into play, especially at the start when I first become a vampire. I was just trying to play someone who’s very new to it and who thinks he’s kinda got the hang of it but doesn’t, really, and kind of stuffs things up for the others, kind of gives them a bad name.

So it’s a film largely built around improvisation, right?

Yeah.

So what was the process you guys adopted for this film?

Well, Jonny [Brugh, who plays Deacon] and I… so Taika and Jemaine wrote the script, but we didn’t see a script pretty much the whole time we filmed. So we knew there was a script, and we could see that Taika and Jemaine had it on them. But yeah, it was just that they’d tell us what the scene was, they’d set up the scene. They’d just put in a few kind of key points that we had to get in while we’re in it and then we’d do that. We had a lot of time to play around.

How long would you usually riff on a scene?

Oh, I don’t know, there were some takes that went on for ages. Like, from what I hear there was 125 hours of footage that they got, so that’s, like, a hundred movies. So each take was different. I can’t remember too much but there’s probably a lot of different versions of every scene and it was pretty fun.

The film also involves a lot of improvisation on the street – there’s this one scene in the trailer where you’re just running around Courtenay Place hollering that you're a vampire at anyone who’ll listen. What’s the difference for you between improvising in a public space and improvising in the safer space of the people that you’re working with?

A lot of the improvising that we were just talking about, that was done in the studio where it’s a closed-off set and all of the crew members are there and everyone knows you’re there to make a movie. For stuff that we did around Courtenay Place, it was pretty much just one camera which was across the street, hiding in a cafe, filming me. No one knew that I was filming – I was just running around, literally going into bars and yelling out that I was a vampire, and people were like, “What?”

Considering the success they’ve had, they’re still just the most chilled-out guys – they involve their friends in their films and it’s just a really good vibe. Trying to one-up each other.

Was there much of a difference between improvising on the street in 2013 in Wellington and improvising on the street in 2005?

Yup, heaps. I think when we did it in 2005, a lot of stuff we knew we wouldn’t be able to put in. We just got abused, pretty much. I think they’re not as close-minded as they were back then. Wellingtonians on a Friday night aren’t, anyway. We got called everything under the sun.

You’ve worked with Taika and Jemaine a couple of times now, both on this and Eagle vs Shark, and I’m sure there are other things not captured on film that you’ve worked with them on. Has the dynamic for you guys changed that much in the last seven years?

Na, not really. They’re just awesome guys and they make it quite easy. Like, I’ve worked on other stuff that’s not with friends and it’s not stressful but you’re always kind of doubting whether something’s going well or whether people like you there or whether you should be there. These guys aren’t like that. Considering the success they’ve had, they’re still just the most chilled-out guys – they involve their friends in their films and it’s just a really good vibe. Trying to one up each other.

There’s also a lot of people involved in the film who are quite heavily involved in New Zealand’s theatre and comedy scene. Obviously you mentioned Jonnny before, and there’s Jackie Van Der Beek as well, people like Ben Fransham and Madeline Sami and others. Does that have an influence on the way that you guys work?

Yeah, I think so. Like I said before, everyone’s kind of known each other for a while. Whether it’s through people that I’ve known through stand-up or just working in, like, short films or doing stuff on like 7 Days, everyone’s just worked with each other for the last few years on something at some stage. So coming into it, you already had chemistry with people, I guess.

And does that influence where you take the improvisations and the scenes? Knowing each others’ energy?

Yeah, yeah, and especially after. Maybe at the start of the shoot it was a bit of still kind of getting into things. But towards the end of it, I think that was the best part, just not knowing where everything was gonna go, where every take was going. Especially me and Jonny, we have a lot of scenes together, we kind of hate each other [in the film], so me and him played off each other quite a bit during filming, which was pretty cool.

What We Do In The Shadows isn’t the only improv-based mockumentary you’ve been involved with; you and every stand-up comic at the time were involved in A Night at the Classic a few years ago.

Aww yeah. I forgot about that.

So how did What We Do In The Shadows differ from what I presume is a more hard-edged experience in New Zealand television, churning out x number of episodes?

I think it wasn’t too different in the sense that Night at the Classic was also done in the way that everyone knew each other and it was all just friends making it and everyone knew each other. Personally, I was just playing myself in that, more a kind of extended version of myself, and it’s the same with this. Like, I’m not that much of a douchebag but I’m still playing a young guy trying to fit in the scene, I guess. It wasn’t too different. It was longer – the TV show was shot for longer – but apart from that it wasn’t too different.

You’ve also just recently wrapped Hell Will Be Easier, which was your first stand-up show in three years. What brought you back into that arena?

I guess I kinda missed it. I stopped in 2011, was the last time I did it. I was like, “I’m never doing this again, I'm over comedy”. But then I moved back to Wellington, just kind of got away from the Auckland comedy scene, and started doing other stuff. I went back to uni and then once I’d finished there I thought “I think I’m in a bit of a better headspace to go back and do it”. So I went back and did it and yeah, it’s good! I enjoyed it and I’m probably gonna try and keep doing it now, before I get sick of it again.

So what’s on the horizon?

I don’t really know. I’ve got a one-year working visa for the States that I’ve got ’til December to use, so I’m gonna do that. And yeah, just see what happens.

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