Shayne Fox interview: ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ production designer
When looking back at her favorite sets from season five of “What We Do in the Shadows,” production designer Shayne Fox reveals that the most challenging set to design was the Belfry Tower in “A Weekend at Morgan Manor.” It was the most challenging, “because we actually built a practical tower but because our studio ceilings were not that high, we had to build two towers so that they can have a good ascent. Then there’s a stunt that happens and they reveal another room,” she tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). Her favorite one to design was the urgent care center for familiars in “Urgent Care.” “When I ended up seeing it all together and watching the monitors and watching them shoot it, that’s a satisfying process when things just magically come together in a bit more embellished and interesting way than I thought it was going to be.”
“What We Do in the Shadows,” which airs on FX, is based on the movie of the same name from Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. The show follows four centuries-old vampires (three regular and one energy vampire) who are currently living in Staten Island along with a human familiar who helps them maintain everything. The vampires are Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Colin (Mark Proksch) and the familiar is Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). Since premiering in 2019, the show has amassed 21 Emmy nominations including two for Best Comedy Series (2020 and 2022).
Fox received her first Emmy nomination in 2020 for Best Production Design as the set decorator for the episodes “Resurrection,” “Collaboration” and “Witches.” She received another nom last year in the same category but this time as the production designer for the episode “The Night Market.”
When looking at all the sets that she designed throughout her time on the show, she views the night market from the episode of the same as one of her all-time favorites. “That was a big one. I mean, it was just more volume of stuff. It wasn’t really like a big design moment. It was just 18 50 foot trailers of set dressing and we built a bunch of structures that were like 20 feet tall so could get this to fill the space.” She also hints that one of the sets from the upcoming final season (which just finished shooting) that she had a lot of fun with. “There’s a really, really, really fun set that took it to the next level for me personally and aesthetically and design-wise.”