The Big Picture
- Stu Rutherford, the IT guy turned actor in What We Do in the Shadows, was unaware that he would be a major character in the mockumentary, adding to the brilliance of the behind-the-scenes joke.
- Rutherford’s confusion and blank face while reacting to the absurd situations in the film make his role as Stu hilarious and rewatchable.
- The way Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement approached Stu’s character in the film remains the funniest thing they have ever done, showcasing their creativity in a way that is limited in their more recent projects.
In 2014, New Zealand writer-director-actors Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi released What We Do in the Shadows, a quirky mockumentary about a group of vampires sharing a flat. While What We Do in the Shadows was not the first movie in either filmmaker’s career, the mockumentary is arguably what granted Waititi his Hollywood status as one of the best active comedy directors. The title is well-deserved, as Waititi proved the MCU could be genuinely funny beyond one-liners with Thor: Ragnarok, and has continued to redefine the boundaries of the rom-com genre with Our Flag Means Death. Still, after almost two decades of writing and directing features, Waititi is yet to surpass what he managed to build with Clement in What We Do in the Shadows. That’s because the fan-favorite mockumentary had a trump card like no other: Stu Rutherford, the IT guy.
In ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ Stu Goes From IT Guy to Superstar
By the time Waititi and Clement decided to turn their 2005 short into a fully-fledged feature, Rutherford had already discovered his passion for cinema. Still, Rutherford’s experience was limited to small roles in indie movies, including the original What We Do in the Shadows. So, when Waititi and Clement called Rutherford to be part of their ambitious mockumentary project, the actor didn’t expect to be on screen for over a few seconds. Rutherford only imagined he would show up for a scene or two, even more since the filmmakers told the IT guy he was needed to deal with computers on set.
Anyone who has seen What We Do in the Shadows knows that one of the movie’s main characters is Stu, a human friend for the vampires who helps them understand digital technology and just stands there while the action happens. Well, Stu, the character, is actually Stu, the actor. And it is not random that both personas are IT guys since Rutherford fell victim to one of the most brilliant behind-the-scenes jokes ever pulled in cinema history.
In an interview for New Zealand outlet Stuff, Rutherford explains he had low expectations about his role in What We Do in the Shadows. As he puts it, “I assumed I would be in it slightly more [than the short film] – if you take a 20-minute short and expand it out to one hour 30 minutes, and you’ve been in for 10 seconds, you expect to be in for maybe 40 seconds.” However, Waititi and Clement had written the character Stu to be the heart of the mockumentary, a human with whom the public could relate. They just decided they wouldn’t tell Rutherford about their plan. In Clement’s words,
“When we wrote the script and made him a big part of it, we let him think he was going to be our IT guy, and told him he’d just be in a little bit. Every day he’d go, ‘So when do I help with the computers?’; and we’d say, ‘Oh, just put that costume on first.’ Because we almost keep him silent, I think, the whole time, he thinks he’s just being made fun of.”
To ensure no one would spoil the surprise, Clement and Waititi refused to let other cast members read the full script of What We Do in the Shadows. So, more often than not, Rutherford was just asked to stand in a scene, with no idea of what was expected of him, and just told to react to whatever one of the vampires said to him. In addition, What We Do in the Shadows’ cast was warned Rutherford didn’t know what would happen in each scene, so they should just roll with whatever improvisation the IT guy came up with.
Until they had to shoot that final scene in which Stu becomes a werewolf, Rutherford was barely directed by Waititi and Clement. And since the filmmakers shot more than 120 hours of footage, there was just no way for Rutherford to realize the whole story was about Stu. Only when the movie premiered did the IT guy realize that Clement and Waititi had turned him into a superstar.
Stu Is the Heart of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’
While Waititi’s career mostly comprises obvious hits, What We Do in the Shadows remains the most rewatchable entry in his filmography, thanks to Stu. There’s something special about watching Stu’s blank face while the poor man tries to understand what is happening in this scene. Knowing that was Rutherford’s reaction, as he didn’t have any script to guide him, just adds to the fun of it all. Fiction can never surpass reality regarding surreal tales such as the unexpected way Waititi and Clement decided to deal with Stu.
Stu’s awkward presence on set also helps us keep laughing at the same vampire jokes over and over again. Waititi and Clement have a knack for comedy, but the real punchline of almost every What We Do in the Shadows scene lies in the absurdity of the situations in which the vampire flatmates get involved. And since Rutherford wasn’t aware of what Clement and Waititi were trying to do, he just stood there, puzzled, not knowing how to react. For that reason, while What We Do in the Shadows might be a mockumentary, the movie also documents the actual reactions of an actor who’s just thrown on set repeatedly without instruction on what he should do. And it’s impossible to keep a straight face while watching Rutherford’s eyes question what the heck he’s doing on set.
While Waititi’s more recent productions are great on their own terms, tackling bigger-budgeted projects imposes certain limitations on creativity. For instance, Thor: Love and Thunder showed how Marvel Studios’ excessive micromanagement of their sprawling franchise could harm the filmmaker’s comedic timing. And even in more authorial films such as Jojo Rabbit, there is not so much space for experimentation, as each day on set costs a lot more, and there’s just no room to shoot 120 hours of footage that’ll mostly be discarded. What We Do in the Shadows, and the way Waititi and Clement dealt with Stu, is still the funniest thing they ever made.
Rutherford worked with Waititi again in Thor: Ragnarok, helping with technical work behind the screens. But we want to see the star return to his acting career. Hopefully, we’ll see Rutherford and Waititi join forces once again in the near future.
