How What We Do in the Shadows pulled off that Colin Robinson finale reveal
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Warning: This story contains spoilers for the season 4 finale of What We Do in the Shadows.
Is there anything more awkward than growing up? Well, maybe growing up as a bizarre, vaudeville-obsessed teenager who emerged from the corpse of a 100-year-old energy vampire.
What We Do in the Shadows season 4 found Colin Robinson taking center stage — literally. Everyone's favorite beige-cardigan-wearing energy vampire reached the end of his life span in the season 3 finale, only to be reborn as a tiny baby. That baby was played by a returning Mark Proksch, who continued to play the young Colin as he aged up, rapidly growing from infant to toddler to sullen teenager.
In the season 4 finale, appropriately titled "Sunrise, Sunset," the now-teenage Colin has gone through a growth spurt. Grumpy and hormonal, he embarks on a literal journey of self-discovery, continuing to knock holes in his bedroom wall until he discovers a secret room filled with memories. There, he uncovers his energy vampire history, and when he emerges, he is once again the adult Colin Robinson, glasses and all.
Here, Proksch and executive producer Paul Simms open up about the What We Do in the Shadows finale and Colin Robinson's coming of age.
Pari Dukovic/FX Mark Proksch on 'What We Do in the Shadows'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Take us back to when you were mapping out season 4. What excited you most about Colin's journey from literal baby back to energy vampire? This isn't just a one-episode gag.
PAUL SIMMS: I think it was the idea of covering the whole life cycle from baby to adult in a very compressed way. We wanted to try to hit all the developmental marks. And then, when you're done doing all that, having the child not even realize that you did anything for them. I'm anticipating what's going to happen with me in the next eight years as my 10-year-old and 12-year-old grow into adults. I'm like, "I spent so much time doing things with you!" And they're like, "I don't remember that."
Mark, are you going to miss all the wigs?
MARK PROKSCH: Oddly enough, I enjoy being a bald man. I remember why, filming this. I really do not like hair on my head. It's bothersome to me.
I think we did a good job at giving fans what they wanted, as far as enough time with a developing Colin Robinson. I think they'll be happy that regular Colin Robinson is back as much as I was. But it was great playing [him]. It definitely breathed a lot of new life into the character for me.
FX Mark Proksch on 'What We Do in the Shadows'
One of the key emotional arcs this season is the relationship between Colin and Laszlo (Matt Berry). Paul, what interested you most about that dynamic?
SIMMS: Well, Laszlo is such a curmudgeon and a cynic. We started that a little in season 3, where he was being nice to Colin, and they were sort of buddies. People — at least internet people — were like, "This makes no sense! These two would never be friends!" But we knew that we had our secret reason, that Laszlo was being a man of honor and being a good friend to a man who was about to die. This season, it's sort of been the same thing. Laszlo originally stays there when he sees the baby Colin just out of a sense of duty, that this is a helpless being that needs help. Then, as the season progresses, Laszlo is enraged and aggravated by him, but at the same time… It's basically the last character you expect to see being a daddy, which is fun.
Mark, tell us about sharing those scenes with Matt Berry. It's obviously hilarious, but there's also an emotional component there.
PROKSCH: Yeah, I mean, a lot of the baby and tween stuff that we filmed was separate from when [the other cast members] filmed the scenes themselves. So, I was usually not on set with them. A lot of that was on green screen. So, when I got it, it was set in stone. I was really just reacting to what they were giving me.
SIMMS: It wasn't as set in stone as Mark says, because Mark is very funny at ad-libbing and improvising. But this was almost like a scientific experiment: How much you can actually ad-lib when you have to keep your head 30 degrees to the right, and your eyes have to look 15 degrees upward, and you can't move because the light has to match exactly the same way, and the line before you can't change, and the line after you can't change? But Mark still found ways to add new little things that fit in that were really funny.
PROKSCH: Yeah, it definitely was a challenge. Not only was it set in stone, but also, a child Colin Robinson doesn't have the knowledge that a person in their 40s has. You don't want to tip your hat and wink at the audience by giving some esoteric improvisation that only an adult would have.
SIMMS: Now that we're talking about it, this whole thing sounds like a scientific experiment designed to drive Mark mad. But somehow, he managed to maintain his sanity.
PROKSCH: It did the opposite. It was really fun.
So, do you guys feel like you have a new appreciation for old vaudeville performances?
PROKSCH: I've always had a great appreciation for old vaudeville performances.
SIMMS: Part of the whole idea of it is that it's annoying that he's into musical theater. But secretly, I really like musical theater! I do understand how people can be annoyed by it, but it's one of those things where you think about it, and you're like, "Oh, it's so corny." But then when you actually see someone tap-dancing and singing a Cole Porter song, you're like, "I love this! This is great!" So we managed to have our cake and eat it, too.
Would you ever do a musical episode?
SIMMS: If the idea was right. But I can't imagine the idea being right. I don't know, if you've got any ideas, you can get my email address from the FX people.
I mean, Mark's got this musical theater experience now. Matt Berry and Natasia Demetriou sing some great songs this season. You could make it happen!
SIMMS: Well, for the closing credits of the finale, all the cast got to sing "Sunrise, Sunset" together. That's probably the closest we'll come to doing a full musical episode.
Mark, did you have a particular era of Colin's life that you most enjoyed playing?
PROKSCH: I think song-and-dance tween Colin was probably my favorite. As a baby, you don't do too much. You just kind of sit there. But tween and teen Colin was really fun. And it was great being back to regular Colin. It was surprisingly easy to slip right back into that character.
SIMMS: There's something about Mark's body language when he was teen Colin that really cracked me up because he really looked like he was self-conscious about being too tall and hunching. It's like when you're with a teenager, and you just want to go, "Stand up straight, and stop mumbling!"
PROKSCH: The only issue, I think, is when I was a teenager, I wasn't a doughy fortysomething. That was the area that they didn't choose to correct at all, which is embarrassing to me and my wife.
Russ Martin/FX Kayvan Novak and Harvey Guillén on 'What We Do in the Shadows'
One of the other major plot points in the finale is Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) walking away from the house and taking steps to become a vampire. Paul, what can you tell us about Guillermo's next steps?
SIMMS: Guillermo has had this dream for so long, and it's what's kept him around. But also, he's such a cautious character. All through this season, we saw him trying to look out for himself a little more, including embezzling money from the nightclub. It was just the idea of seeing such a cautious character make such a rash decision. Even without knowing the details, we know it's not going to go perfectly as planned. That was the fun of it.
When you think back to season 4 overall, what was the most memorable scene for each of you?
SIMMS: It's hard. I was so happy with this season that it made it hard to write the next season. All the baby Colin stuff I loved, and it was also a relief that it managed to work. As late as the day before we started shooting the season, we weren't sure how we were going to do it or how exactly it was going to work.
I also really liked the Go Flip Yourself episode. We spent so much time in editing, making it really look like one of those reality shows and building in the fake-suspense pauses and the little graphics and everything. I also loved the night market episode because it was our biggest and most ambitious episode. I loved the storyline in that of Laszlo telling baby Colin that fairy tales are all bulls---, and it's something that adults tell children because the truth is too hard to bear.
PROKSCH: It was all very unique from my usual Colin Robinson. I had a lot of fun going on tour as teenage Colin, where I'm singing and dancing as a gawky teenager. And then, you know, Colin discovering his closet with all his past in it. I think they did a really good job. It was kind of a play on those superhero moments, where they find the cape and their uniform. And then, there's the question of whether Colin remembers anything that Laszlo did for him. I think that was done well. It's always good to leave some question marks.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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