‘What We Do in the Shadows’: Matt Berry on Creating Lazlo’s Hilarious Inflections and What’s Next After the Series’ End
variety.comJoe Otterson TV Reporter Matt Berry has been a staple of British comedy for two decades, thanks to his memorable roles in shows like “The IT Crowd,” “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace,” “Snuff Box” and “Toast of London.” And although he has been a part of other American productions before, it’s his role as Laszlo Cravensworth in the FX comedy “What We Do in the Shadows” that has brought him acclaim across the pond, including his first Emmy nomination for actor in a comedy series.
Berry is more than just an actor, though. He is also an incredibly accomplished musician, with nearly a dozen albums under his belt.
So perhaps it is only fitting he learned about his Emmy nomination while he was in the studio working on his latest. “I was playing drums, and I could see that something was going on with the phone because it was leaping around the table,” Berry says. “To be honest, I didn’t remember that was the day [the nominations] were going to be announced, so I didn’t know why the phone was leaping around.” The call was coming from Berry’s agent, who was in tears when she told him that he was up for the award alongside Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Martin Short (“Only Murders in the Building”), Steve Martin (“Only Murders in the Building”), Jeremy Allen White (“The Bear”) and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (“Reservation Dogs”).
His celebration upon hearing the news? “I just sort of continued to play the drums,” he says. “What We Do in the Shadows,” which is based on the 2014 New Zealand mockumentary film of the same name, follows four vampires and their human familiar living together in a house on Staten Island.
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