Why Guillermo and Nandor Can’t Quit Each Other According To What We Do In The Shadows’ Kayvan Novak And Harvey Guillén

As What We Do In The Shadows approaches the end of its fourth season, it’s easily still one of the funniest and most imaginative shows on TV. This season our favorite pack of Staten Island vampires have been takes with a variety of new challenges… parenthood, club ownership, and in the case of ex-warlord Nandor and his vampire-killer familiar Guillermo, love and independence (respectively).

I spoke with Kayvan Novak and Harvey Guillén about love, fighting through a broken rib, birthday surprises, road trips, and whether or not Kristen Wiig is guesting in Season 4.

[To Kayvan] For Nandor, this season starts out all about companionship. He’s looking for home, for companionship, love. What’s his journey like in Season Four?

Kayvan Novak: Well, from what I remember, his journey is he’s still looking for love, and what helps him on this quest is that he finds this gem, and this lamp, and so he has all these wishes. That enables him to go on this crazy journey where we get to kind of see and experience all the things he’s been going on about for the last few seasons about his 37 wives, and where he came from, and blah, blah, blah. His backstory comes to life because of this Genie, played by the wonderfully talented Anoop.

You think he might come back?

I think he’s gone, I don’t think so. Well, you never know… And I couldn’t tell you about the rest of his journey, because I can’t remember. He’s the same man… look, he’s Nandor. What’s he going to do in his journey involves being Nandor. Nothing’s ever going to change, let’s be honest.

Absolutely. Harvey, Guillermo’s had such an interesting arc this season, long fed up with his treatment in the house. At the same time, he can’t quit Nandor. Let’s talk about that.

Harvey Guillén: [To Kayvan] Yeah, I wish I could quit you! [To me] I think that he’s built a bond with him. I mean, at this point in the show it’s been 13 years. That’s a long time, and that’s all he’s ever known. He’s grown to have love for him, and I think they both have love for each other. It’s just… he has a hook on him. Every time he threatens to leave, he pulls on Guillermo’s heartstrings. ‘I want you to go on an adventure with me, around the world!’

And it’s like… he’s about to kill him because they’re gonna fight in his room, and he pulls out ‘wait, now you proving yourself worthy!’ and then it’s like, ‘what are you talking about?’ All of that. He always finds a way into his heartstrings, and Guillermo, leading with heart and empathy, likely falls for it because he does think that Nandor cares about him. And I think he does, you know… he really does, so he’ll go along with that.

He sees the mess they made of the house in the season, and there’s a child involved now, and he just couldn’t live with himself if he left a child the way that they’re letting him eat out of a dog bowl, and running around. The idea that there’s a child now involved… you know, don’t bring a child into this mess. [It] just got crazy. And then now Nandor has asked him to be his Best Man, so there’s all these, like, fudge [moments] like, ‘okay, once I get these things out of the way, I’m out of here.’ ‘Once I find him a wife, and once I’m his best man, and once this child is okay, and I feel that it’s safe and protected, I’m outta here.’ So it’s only a temporary Band-Aid that he’s putting on, and if that runs its course, and he still feels a certain way, then he’s going to take action. So will that happen? You’ll have to find out.

That’s a great tease. [To Kayvan] From Nandor’s side, he clearly does care for Guillermo, but it’s complicated. Where’s Nandor with regard to their relationship?

KN: Well, I guess that, by asking Guillermo to be his best man, it’s clear that he’s just by the skin of his teeth coming up with excuses to keep Guillermo around because… I think he’s made it clear that he doesn’t want to make Guillermo a vampire, or he cares about Guillermo too much to make him a vampire, to curse him with this life that he… just like, ‘you don’t need this in your life, man, you don’t need this.’ Especially, you know, he’s got Van Helsing blood…

I like him as a vampire killer! He’s more effective, bodyguard, vampire killer, but now that he’s made him his best man, but his wedding that hasn’t happened yet because he hasn’t found anyone to ask him to marry him yet… it kind of it smacks of desperation on Nandor’s part but it’s also quite sweet and endearing that he would do that. So you know, it’s evolving for me as more of a bromance.

For both of you, what is your favorite scene that you shot this season?

KN: The Night Market, I’m doing the fight. The whole process of learning, the choreographing … the fantastic stunt team led by Tig, it was fun learning that huge fight in front of that huge crowd of people in that huge warehouse that we filmed in four huge nights. And then the end of it was my birthday, and Harvey brought me a mariachi band and a pizza truck, a Dim Sum van and some cakes. Man, it was amazing. It was like Christmas came early… it did, because it was November 23, so it was quite a week. And I guess that yeah, for me, that’s the most memorable.

I don’t remember a lot of stuff that we shoot actually, I don’t remember the line learning and the waiting and the going on set and the improvising. I don’t remember a lot of that, but this was very memorable because it was so rewarding to do and I’m so glad I got to do it with Harvey.

HG: I love the Night Market scene and think it’s one of our best sets. Kayvan nailed it. Doing all the stunts, we did a little before in the past. Kayvon’s such a trooper, he committed to everything… he actually got injured during one of the stunts early on when he was doing a wrestling scene, and he literally kept going with a fractured rib like he didn’t know he had a fractured rib, and he just kept doing it and kept going. ‘I’m gonna go for another one, another one,’ and then it wasn’t till days later that they’re like, ‘oh, your rib’s fractured.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, okay. Okay, cool, man. Okay, right, right, right, right.’

KN: Right, right, right.

HG: [laughs] And he was a trooper, and we’re like ‘…what?’ And he’s just like ‘yeah, man, that’s fine. It’s fine, I just can’t sleep.

KN: I was drunk on English gin at the time.

HG: Yeah! [laughs] We just felt like he’s such a trooper, we felt so bad and it was Kristen Wiig and her husband, and myself. We had a dinner that night and that’s when we found out that his rib was franctured so…

KN: [laughs] Kristen Wiig?

HG: Kristen… [laughs] Kristen SHAW!

KN: [cracking up]

HG: Kristen Shaw… oops! Spoilers, Kristen Wiig’s in this season, I just let it out! Kristen Shaw and her husband and I, we just made him soup and stuff he’s such a trooper. He kept going and shooting the rest of that week like nothing happened, and at the end of the week we found out what was wrong. But the Night Market is one of my favorite scenes. Later on there’s a scene with Guillermo’s family that I’m really excited for.

I saw the photos of you both at Disneyland! That looked like fun

HG: That was Kayvan’s first time ever! He’s never been to Disneyland.

KN: Best day out ever, it was. Harvey just pulled out all the stops.

Are Nandor and Guillermo ever going on a road trip together at any point?

HG: That’d be a fun idea for a future episode! I think they’re always on a little adventure together. The wedding is an adventure. It’s like Laurel and Hardy, doing some comedy wherever they go… yeah, it’d be fun to see them go on adventures. People were saying that we have to see them go to Disneyland at night, like the night version of Disneyland. That’d be fun, do vampires do that? But some kind of road trip adventure would be fun.

What We Do In The Shadows is available on FX and Hulu.