Original-Cin Chat: A Vampire, Alien and a Fish-Man Enter a Toronto Bar - And They're All Doug Jones

By John Kirk

You haven’t been hugged properly unless you’ve had a hug from Doug Jones, a gangly 6’4” actor made to look even taller when playing an alien onscreen.

One such embrace preceded our interview for the final season of Star Trek: Discovery.

If you’re a Discovery fan, you know the warm, friendly Jones from his role as Saru, the Kelpien first officer turned captain turned Ambassador who ended his run on the five season show in June.

And if you’re a fan of the FX vampire comedy, What We Do in The Shadows, then you’ll know him there as Baron Afanas in multiple different forms.

Interplanetary lovers Tara Rosling and Doug Jones in Star Trek: Discovery

Both shows were shot in Toronto around the same time, and often, between takes, Jones would be running back and forth between the sets. Original-Cin had a chance to catch up with Jones and touch base now that he is on a restful hiatus from his busy schedule in Hogtown.

For fans of Jones’s work, it was a thrill to see him more fully revealed in S5 of What We Do in the Shadows.

“It’s such a great show. It started as a full prosthetic job as in the very first episode in Season 1. I was in the six-hour make-up application from head to toe (playing the Nosferatu), stark naked with my saggy old skin and genitalia. But then Jemaine Clement (the Flight of the Conchords comic and showrunner) said they were having too much fun with me and asked if they could write me back for a return. I said, ‘After a vampire burns up in the sun, if you can find a way to bring me back, yes!’”

Jones transitioned from a full prosthetic, pointy-eared vampire to a somewhat burned version of that creature, broken in half with no legs and only one arm to show up again in Season Four for Nandor’s wedding. He gets burned again in Season Five, but be apprised that our friend the Baron will re-appear in Season Six.

No stranger to multiple physical transformations, Jones gave us a sly hint as to the form he will take for Season Six.

“Let’s just say magic abounds on the show! That’s all that I’ll say!”

We asked Jones to take us back how he managed to land the role on WWDITS.

“I never had to audition for WWDITS, bless their hearts. If you saw the film, then you saw Ben Fransham who played the Nosferatu, Petyr, in the basement. That was shot in New Zealand. But the pilot was shot in the US, and Ben was the one who suggested me. It was a huge compliment because I was a big fan of the show.”

WWDITS finished filming in May and Discovery’s last season ended in June. We talked about the wedding between the Kelpien Saru and the Vulcan President, T’Rina (played by Canadian actress Tara Rosling). This noteworthy plot twist didn’t seem to get a lot of attention, as this was the final episode of the series and there was a lot going on. Jonathan Frakes – who directed the episode -  told us that this was a relationship he had enjoyed seeing develop over the season, and was sorry it didn’t get more attention.

“Well, it may not have gotten a lot of attention from write-ups, but the fans went nuts over it. It was very sweet to see all of the love on social media,” Jones says. “Every time I’m at a convention the fans tell me the wedding was so beautiful. But it might have been because we don’t exactly see the wedding ceremony in the episode. When we picked it up, you saw us at the wedding reception, all lavish and done up – Tara in her gorgeous gown and me in my own frock.

The real Doug Jones

“But the fan anticipation, like Frakes was saying, was huge. It was over a couple of years. We first met in S3 and I was the host that showed her around the ship, and Tara Rosling is such a magnificent actress (we call her Judi Dench because she’s just that good) that we really connected as actors and found ourselves in a camaraderie in our mutual characters. We were both dignitaries, cautious with our words and gelled as characters and actors. It was such a quiet courtship.”

In fact, it might have been Doug who was responsible for the relationship.

“At the end of Season Three, I asked one of our showrunners, Michelle Paradise if this was going to be a continued love interest for Saru. And she replied: ‘Hmm.’ Like they hadn’t thought of that.

Both Tara and I thought it was rather obvious, especially at the end scene of that episode, where she’s about to beam out and we were all done. She gives me a ‘Long Live and Prosper’ and Saru mirrors that and when she’s gone, Saru looks out the window. So, I thought that had to be all scripted and didn’t anyone think that there was going to be a romance? The ball got rolling in Season Four, building up to the handhold at the end.”

As Baron Afanas in What We Do in the Shadows.

What was it like working with Tara?

“When it comes to showing emotion, less is more for a Vulcan. Saru tends to wear his heart on his sleeve, but in an innocent way. Those were two puzzle pieces that fit together sweetly.

In Season Five, we see it all open up when she asks me to marry her. That was another cheer we got from the fans. Tara and I get along so well. We laugh all day. It’s great when you’re playing a romantic connection with another actor who you like so much and are so friendly with. We were very generous with each other, with how it was filmed, scripted. Neither one of us are re-writers. We take the material we are given and we do it respectfully with each other in mind.”

We had to ask what it was like managing a kiss with all that make-up?

“That first kiss, there had been such a build-up, and Jonathan Frakes and Olatunde Osunsanmi were competing with each other to see who would direct the first kiss between over our characters! Olatunde won. But before that, Tara had sent me a text about how we were going to do it. I sent her a text with the clip of Sally Hawkins kissing me in The Shape of Water and said maybe this would help!”

(Yes, Jones also played the Fishman in Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water).

There was a lot of shifting gears between Star Trek: Discovery and WWDITS.

“With both shows being filmed in Toronto, I was able to hop back and forth between the two. Both casts are amazing. I was a recurring guest in WWDITS, so I was there one to three times per season, and it is a different feeling from being a series regular. When you’re a regular you build a family – I was the oldest actor in Discovery, I was the Grandpa! Family is established.

But when you’re a guest, it can get that you feel like the cousin. But WWDITS is a different animal. I had been there from the beginning, but I would repetitively come in again and again, so I was the visiting relative that they loved! It was always ‘Doug’s here!’ and you’re working with the funniest people in the world being written by the funniest people in the world. So, this combination is just – we giggled every day, all day. Such a different vibe from trying to save the galaxy to laughing at vampires in every way and form, being as loud and as over-the-top as you can? That’s an actor’s dream.”

Was it in the foreseeable future to have Doug back in Toronto again?

“There are always so many films there, as you know. I have two indie scripts that I’m reading right now and my love of Toronto is the crews I get to work with. I filmed The Shape of Water and Crimson Peak there, and with these four projects I’ve seen the same crews there over and over again. The same AD’s, DP’s the catering service!

My script supervisor, Zoë Bigio was on Star Trek: Discovery and she finished off WWDITS with me. What happens when you get that familiarity, you get someone who is a writer/director on the side and they really want to work with you. I’ve been approached with a couple of scripts that these folks have given me. So, nothing budgeted and scheduled, but creatively and artistically, yeah. There’s always a chance I would film in Toronto!”    

Doug Jones has been a fan favourite for years. From Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy to the present days. He’s been a superhero (Silver Surfer), a zombie (Hocus Pocus) and a member of Starfleet.

He’s an actor who modestly appreciates his fans and is a big fan of Toronto. If he could hug it, he would.

Thanks to Coolwaters LLC management for setting up our chat.