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The character:Guillermo De La Cruz, familiar to a vampire named Nandor for a decade.
Only human member of a houseful of vampires onWhat We Do in the Shadows.
Former Panera Bread employee.
The actor:Harvey Guillen, 30, hasdescribedthe 1982 movieAnnieas his inspiration for becoming an actor.
Descendant of Van Helsing.
Preternaturally good at killing vampires but nevertheless desperately wants to become a vampire.
But it seemed like an interesting part of it that you hadnt seen before.
On the show, Clement felt it was important for Guillermo to be around at all times.
(Most of the people they auditioned were white guys.
It annoyed me so much, Clement says.)
Taika and I would give people clues of what we were looking for, Clement recalls.
Guillermo needed to be a human, first and foremost, with human feelings.
Harvey got it straight away.
He knew that he was the warmest part of the group.
We had some idea that he works for Nandor and he wants to be a vampire.
The first was simple: It may seem superficial, but for Guillen, the name Guillermo was key.
I thought,What a great name for someone who lives in that world.
Crucially, though, Guillen knew that Guillermo did not entirely belong in a del Toro-esque dark vampire world.
He is probably very much the opposite of that, he says.
He must be at the complete opposite of that spectrum right now.
He should be put together, but not fashionable, Guillen thought as he prepared for the audition.
You never want to wear something risque.
You dont want to rock the boat, you dont want to make waves.
Safety gets you under the radar.
The image Guillen created for his audition essentially became the character who ended up onscreen.
He was very sweet, and also he didnt seem like a dimwit, Simms says about Guillens audition.
All those hints Clement and Waititi had to keep giving other actors about who Guillermo should be?
Him, we didnt need to give any clues.
Wardrobe had a picture as a reference which was just a still of my audition tape, Guillen says.
That went to wardrobe, and they said, This.
(For centuries-old vampires, this includes both where they came from and all of their many descendants.)
The ideas started with a note from industry powerhouse Scott Rudin, one of the shows executive producers.
His main note on my pilot script was that Guillermo should have some power.
You know, find some power, Clement says.
I hated that idea, and I told him that.
It was counter to his entire idea of who Guillermo should be.
I wanted him to be the moral compass, he says.
Maybe this is a part of him that was raised Catholic.
Its one of the central tensions of who the character is: Guillermo is very modest, Guillen says.
You dont know much about Guillermo and his personal life.
Its not hard to understand why: No one ever asked him.
A couple of times in his improv, he suggested having a crush on his master, Clement recalls.
Hes very loyal to his master.
Theres a thin line of,Wait, are you in love with your boss?
You start thinking,Is this a relationship?
Is this a platonic relationship, or …?
For now, any development along those lines will remain an undercurrent.
A big part of the sacrifice to do this job is giving up any relationship, says Clement.
He is a man of hidden depths.
He has to do some pretty mucky stuff, dragging bodies and cleaning blood and things like that.
Someone who knows not to dress too nicely because hes surrounded by vampires who are very vain.
It was meant to represent fangs, says Guillen, crediting the idea to Afiley.
Once Nandor rebuffs Guillermo, the pointed shirt collars disappear beneath the line of his sweaters.
But as the shows gone on, Guillermos look has reflected his new inner turmoil.
Its not obvious until you start looking for it, but Guillermos sweaters are a barometer for his confidence.
Its not shiny or attention-grabbing.
Its just a coat.
It flaps behind him as he lunges toward a vampire.
Suddenly, it looks almost like a cape.
Its not something Guillen ever saw coming.
When the Van Helsing secret was revealed to me, I was genuinely shocked, he says.
Man, he thought, we have such fucking great writers.
