While What We Do in the Shadows boasts plenty of big personalities, perhaps none is as flamboyant as Doug Jones‘ beloved vampire Baron Afanas, an ancient, all-powerful being who graced the Staten Island mansion in the show’s pilot and has had our hearts ever since.
Although he’s decamped to a quiet life in suburban New Jersey, The Baron still brings the drama every time he appears on Shadows, whether he’s regretfully sampling pizza or driving around in a children’s toy SUV.
**Warning: Spoilers ahead for What We Do in the Shadows Season 6, Episode 9, “Come Out And Play.”**
In the show’s latest Season 6 episode, “Come Out And Play,” The Baron is honored with an Eternal Lifetime Achievement award. Unfortunately, the celebratory night takes a dark turn when Jerry (Mike O’Brien) flips on him, calling out The Baron for vampires’ failures to conquer the New World. However, The Baron reveals he knew about Jerry’s (RIP) plans all along, shocking the Staten Island crew when he beats them back home and reveals his own plot to kill Jerry before The Monster took care of the job himself.
While chatting with DECIDER, Jones said his cocky character is such a joy to play because he’s “just as dumb” as the rest of the vampires, “but he doesn’t know that.”
“No matter what state he’s been — and I’ve had four different looks on the show — no matter what look I’ve had or how pathetic, when I was broken in half and charred with one arm, he still thought he was fabulous,” he told us.
Jones also revealed how he feels about fans lusting after The Baron, his anticipation of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu after playing the titular character himself, and his reaction to this episode’s very special co-star, Alexander Skarsgård, who returns to his True Blood roots as a vampire in Shadows.
In a statement shared with DECIDER, Skarsgård said, “I’m afraid I have no recollection of shooting this episode as Dr. Laszlo Cravensworth apparently hypnotized me at the wrap party. But I did wake up with an intense physical attraction to Dr. Cravensworth and found his extraordinary wit, charm and intelligence absolutely disarming. I have since started a YouTube fan page for him. It’s called ‘Because you’re Cravens-worth it’ Please like, follow and subscribe.”
Read our full conversation with Jones below.
DECIDER: The Baron is definitely one of my favorite characters.
DOUG JONES: [Baron voice] Thank you, my darling.
I know we don’t see him a lot on the show, but we do get such a clear sense of who he is, and I was just curious how you went about shaping that character who has limited screen time but such a distinct presence.
Thank you. Well, I think, going all the way back to Season 1, when they first introduced me in the very first episode, the other vampires helped define who I was with the reverence they had for The Baron. ‘Oh, he’s here!’ And they were afraid of me. And so when I stepped out of my coffin — stark naked, with no genitalia, if you remember correctly.
Of course!
And lightning goes off and I have all these effects going, he’s just so full of himself. And the other vampires support that. So the journey from being so like, ‘I’m the leader of all vampires and we’re conquering the New World,’ and I didn’t know that Staten Island wasn’t the entire New World, you know, he’s just as dumb as the rest of them, but he doesn’t know that. And taking him all the way to this this final season where now we realize that we didn’t conquer the New World and I’m being called out for it. All these other vampire gangs around the New York burgs are are gathering to celebrate me, and then I realize they’re not celebrating me. And Jerry is doing a little bait and switch to call me out and defame me in front of everybody. So that’s like a wake up call that I’m supposed to be this fabulous, all-powerful leader, and they don’t think so? What the heck’s going on? And it just kind of stirred my world up a bit.
So he’s been a joy to create. No matter what state he’s been — and I’ve had four different looks on the show — no matter what look I’ve had or how pathetic, when I was broken in half and charred with one arm, he still thought he was fabulous. So now that I have my full arms and legs and my own face back, he’s every bit as fabulous and gets to show it off. So I think he’s just kind of narcissistic and unaware, and I find that so charming and funny.
Obviously his goal was to take over the New World, but the vampires really flopped that mission. If they had been successful, what do you imagine it would look like?
Well, you know, I’ve always wondered about that. Like if you conquer all humans and that’s what we feed on, what’s left? And do we all then just die a slow death, kind of like Tom Cruise‘s Lestat character in Interview with the Vampire. You know, when he hadn’t been sucking blood for decades, he was withered and small. Is that what would happen to us if we ran out of humans by conquering all of them? I don’t know. Or do we farm them and and keep humans alive so we can feed on them, but now we control society? And maybe that’s what we were after. I don’t know.
And in this episode, The Baron mentions that he had plans to kill Jerry before The Monster did it. How do you think he would have gone about that? I’m assuming it would have been very theatrical.
Oh, I’m sure. What I love about The Baron is when I get to flick a hand and people fly away or I make them rise. Jerry thinks he’s all-powerful, but I think The Baron really does have a hidden power that, even through the goofy he still is the powerful one. So he might have been able to crush Jerry’s head like the monster did. It would have been explosive and theatrical for sure. But I would have wanted to do it probably in front of people so that I would get the recognition for that. Because he loves recognition and applause.
Yeah, of course. And I know at the end of this episode there’s a fun Alexander Skarsgård cameo, which I was so surprised and excited by. What was it like to have another actor from a legendary vampire show on set with you guys?
When I heard he was coming, I was like, ‘Yes, this is great.’ Because, you know, this show has brought in people from other vampire properties over the years to do cameos. And so here we have a tall, strapping, beautiful, pretty vampire from a dark, brooding, young show. And here we are, a bunch of goofy doofuses. What a great mix that was, to have him show up in it, and to find out that Alexander Skarsgård is hilariously funny. That was a real treat because my character and he got to banter back and forth for a bit. And so I felt quite honored that I was what he got to interact with while on the show. And this whole arena of vampires that were all of these background actors didn’t know he was going to be there that day. So that was a surprise to everybody when you walked in and they were all, ‘Oh!’ It was like royalty had stepped onto the set. It was really quite a lovely moment.
Like you mentioned, there have been so many cameos on the show over the years. Are there any actors who played vampires or been in vampire projects that haven’t been on Shadows that you wish you could have worked with on the show?
Golly. Well, they’re all dead now. [Laughs] If we could have had the original Nosferatu, Max Schreck, that would have been hilarious. Or Bela Lugosi as Dracula, maybe even Willem Dafoe. That would have been a good one from his Shadow of the Vampire days. So many options, aren’t there?
Speaking of Nosferatu, are you excited about the Robert Eggers remake? I know you starred as Nosferatu as well.
Right, yes, I am, actually. The Robert Eggers version of Nosferatu with Bill Skarsgård, speaking of Skarsgård, playing the title character comes out on Christmas Day in theaters, and then my version, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, just came out on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. So they’re within two months of each other. So it’s kind of like unfortunate timing, and yet celebrated timing. Let’s have a season of vampires, shall we? I’m very looking forward to seeing Eggers’ take on it as a filmmaker and what Bill is going to do with it as an actor. I’m really excited.
I love vampires, so I agree. Can never get enough! I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but on Reddit people are kind of thirsting for The Baron. And I was wondering what your response to all this “sexy Baron” love is.
As a 64-year-old skinny guy, it’s hilarious to me. But I think sexy is what we make it, isn’t it? And these other vampires on the show have always thought The Baron was just delicious, right? And all of them have had an affair with him — which is odd with no genitalia. How I was able to pull that off, I have no idea. I loved in Season 4 when I was rejuvenated to officiate Nandor’s (Kayvan Novak) wedding and I upstaged the bride because I was so fabulous. But at the reception I was walking across the room and the other vampires are at a table watching me going, ‘I just had him in the room. My gosh, he’s beautiful.’ That’s where the funny lies, is that I’m not the sexiest thing in the world. But they talk about me as though I am. That’s funny.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
New episodes of What We Do in the Shadows air Monday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX. Next-day streaming is available on Hulu.
