‘What We Do in the Shadows’ boss nominated for first Emmy

After five seasons of FX What we do in the shadowsShowrunner Paul Simms can finally admit that he doesn’t really care about vampires, and that’s what makes his show’s humor timeless and universal. “It all comes back to the basics: different people with different agendas that put them in conflict with each other,” Simms says of the show, in which a group of bloodsuckers descend on modern-day Staten Island to take over the New World, only to find themselves unable to accomplish their mission due to their collective idiocy.

Despite the supernatural backdrop (and occasional gore, amplified to comedic levels), What we do in the shadows is grounded in its signature sitcom quality: a group of hilarious misfits navigating their world, one blunder at a time. Simms talks to THR weeks later Shadows earned its third Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series for the way the writers incorporate the more ridiculous elements of vampire folklore into the show.

This season, the show got its first nomination for a cast member: Matt Berry, who plays Laszlo. Why do you think the actors were overlooked for five seasons?

The documentary style can seem so casual and free, but we work really hard to make it so casual and free. What I love about actors is that their improv moments are authentic – they really listen to each other and do it. There’s so much fake improv on TV right now; it’s not improv, it’s writers standing off-camera and shouting five different alts at the actor. Maybe people think it’s easy to play a vampire or something. To me, it’s a difficult way to improvise. In Matt’s case, he has to keep in mind that he’s an 18th-century British dandy who’s also an autodidact and a scientist.

The series also received a nomination for writing. What is the split between the screenplay and improvisation portions?

We work hard to get the scripts perfect, but we don’t care about them until we have one take of the way we wrote them. When it comes to editing, I just look at what’s funny. I don’t even remember what we wrote and what they improvised. We’re never in a situation where we’re like, “Here’s the idea, just fill it in.” We always have really solid stuff that they can build on or fall back on.

Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) has been the driving force for many seasons. He started out as Nandor’s (Kayvan Novak) familiar, then we learned he was a vampire slayer, and now he’s trying to hide the fact that he’s become a vampire himself. How do you build a season around his character?

From the beginning of the show, we always talked about Guillermo wanting to become a vampire. What would happen if he actually became a vampire? And our conclusion was always like, “Well, the show is pretty much over.” And then we were like, “Well, maybe not…” [We put] him in this strange state of limbo through…