PASADENA, Calif. _ He may be costarring as a vampire on FX's "What We Do in the Shadows," but Matt Berry didn't become an actor the highfalutin way.
No Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for him. He didn't play Shakespeare in the provinces or worship at the feet of Stanislavski.
No, the British Berry came to acting through a wax museum that specialized in horrors like Jack the Ripper, the Black Plague and London's torture chambers.
"It was called the London Dungeon, it's like Madame Tussauds, but it's a horror version of that, and you show people around," says Berry.
"You do shows, and that's where I worked on comedy and timing because you were doing 70 shows an hour to the public. You had to be good, concise and funny in the short amount of time," says Berry.
"So that was great practice for me because it was like stand-up every five minutes.
Part of his repartee was improvised. "They wanted you to stick to certain facts _ say if you were in Jack the Ripper section you had to know the dates, where the bodies were found, and this kind of stuff.
"Everything else was up to you. So it was up to you to be as funny as you can and not to fail _ which was a great discipline for me and for everyone who worked there because it was really up to you how well you did and how quickly the time went. If you weren't very funny or you weren't a great performer, you'd find that out really quickly, and it would be boring and embarrassing because it would be like dancing in the dark."
Dancing in the dark was pretty much Berry's forte till he wangled that job. After university and armed with an esteemed arts degree, Berry worked at a series of paralyzingly boring jobs.
"One of the jobs I had was to inform people who phoned what the share price was for an Australian bank. It was soooo dull. And it was up on a screen. And it wasn't even a digital reader, it was written, and every five minutes a guy would come and scrub if off and write what it was at that new minute. It was dreadful. The results would make people angry and would make people happy. It was day in, day out, and I thought I would go mad doing that. I was fired after a while," he sighs.
"Then I was working in a parking-fine office with no windows copying the books of the parking attendants. That was extraordinarily bleak, that's when I found out about the London Dungeon and got out of there."
Even the London Dungeon wasn't a lifetime goal. Berry grew up passionate about music and a bit of a prodigy. He didn't read music, but played by ear and began composing songs by recording his work on tape. His parents didn't object when he proved unremarkable at almost everything else.
"Painting and doing music, they were things I loved doing. I didn't care for much else, so I didn't apply myself to those other areas. Pretty much got into trouble," he says.
"I think that's normal for the artistic mentalities. You can't help it. It's not any kind of 'choice' that you make. It's what I want to do; this is all that I CAN do. That's the way that it is. My parents were quite worried. They were very supportive to be honest, they didn't push me in any kind of direction I didn't want to go. They just trusted that I would find (it). Because I've always known what I DIDN'T want to do. And to a parent, that looks decisive."
Because of his comic patter at the Dungeon, Berry wove some comedy into his music and, after almost 10 years of odd jobs, landed a role in his friend's series, "The Mighty Boosh." Other comedies followed like "Toast of London," for which he won the British Emmy as best male comedy performer, "The IT Crowd," and "Year of the Rabbit," which has been renewed for a second season by IFC.
Two years ago Berry found himself shooting the indie film, "An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn" with New Zealander Jemaine Clement ("A Chorus of Disapproval"). Clement and co-creator Taika Waititi had made a successful film about vampires living in modern Wellington.
"We were in Eureka, Calif. and we were stuck in a hotel together, a hotel that had been shut for the season where we filmed this movie," recalls Berry, 45.
"And he just said one day, 'Look, I might be doing a TV version of "What We Do in the Shadows" would you want to do it?' I said, 'Yeah.' And that was it. Then there was a pilot and we did the series last year. I didn't know who I was going to play. That was all up to him."
Berry portrays Laszlo, one of three vampires who reside in the nether depths of Staten Island and who must cope with their "humanity-challenged" coexistence in the show, which returns for a new season Wednesday.
He confesses he has a sweetheart, but won't talk about her except to say she's not an actress and she's funny. He freely admits he might be difficult to live with. "All artists have funny hours. If I get involved with something I can't stop. I have to continue till it's finished. For someone else it can be a nuisance."
SITCOM ACKNOWLEDGES ITS DNA
It's an old story: Poor, struggling wannabe collides with a rich and famous idol. It's such an old story that ABC is borrowing it from the Israelis who borrowed it from, well, ancient history. The new show, "The Baker and the Beauty," is about an ordinary Cuban baker in Miami (Victor Rasuk) who meets a gorgeous international superstar (Nathalie Kelley).
One of the sitcom's executive producers, Dean Georgaris, outlines its complicated genetic pool. "I looked at the great family comedy dramas, so things like 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' or going back to something like 'Breaking Away' or even a little touch of 'All in the Family' _ stories where every family member was a character and then certainly 'Notting Hill.' Right? That's the other half of the show, or 'Roman Holiday,' that fantasy that every single person has. It's why 'Cinderella' is the oldest and most famous story of all: what it would be like if all of a sudden the world's most famous woman walked into your life."
Viewers can catch the pilot's rebroadcast on Saturday.
FILM FESTIVAL MOVES INSIDE
It is such a good idea. Have a film festival featuring old, classic movies instead of new ones. The Turner Classic Film Festival usually takes place in Hollywood in the spring, but this year that's not going to happen because of the coronavirus. You can't attend the festival no matter how deep your devotion to Burt Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe or Kirk Douglas. So the festival will be coming to you.
Starting Thursday through Sunday, TCM will offer evergreen feature films collated from past festivals along with knowledgeable hosts, luminary guests and some special cinematic events.
The armchair fest offers a couple of new generations the chance to find out what all the shouting was about back then. Opening night on Wednesday the network features "A Star is Born," the 1954 version starring Judy Garland and James Mason, also the appearance of the only woman to win two back-to-back best actress Oscars, Luise Rainer.
She was filmed at the festival in 2010 when she was 100 years old. Her 1937 winning film, "The Good Earth," will air that night.
The 24-hour fest continues with wonderful movies like "Sounder" with Cicely Tyson, "Singin' in the Rain," "A Hard Day's Night," starring the Beatles, and "Night Flight." This movie, which stars John Barrymore, was out of circulation for 50 years and will be introduced by his granddaughter, Drew Barrymore.
Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" will air on Saturday. Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, will co-host this screening. Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" will also air Saturday.
Bogdanovich, who directed "Paper Moon," "The Last Picture Show" and "Mask" tells me he managed to glean some advice from Hitchcock.
"I asked him a question about why he'd done 'Dial M for Murder' (which was a play). He said he didn't have a picture at the time and wanted to keep his hand in, so he took the stage play and shot it. He says, 'If you take a hit play, just shoot it. Don't open it up. Don't try to make it cinematic. Just shoot it the way I would.' Brilliantly."
DAVID TENNANT STARS IN GRIPPING MYSTERY
Another gripping mystery is surrounding actor David Tennant as the four-part "Deadwater Fell" streams on Acorn TV. Many may remember Tennant as the youngish Dr. Who or as the investigator in the suspenseful "Broadchurch." He's back, this time as a highly respected physician whose family is stricken by a shocking tragedy in a placid Scottish community. The show spins out in weekly episodes on Mondays.
Tennant says his fascination with performing dates way back to his childhood. "I remember I was very small watching TV as a 3- or 4-year-old when I first had the notion (to be an actor) _ which does seem preposterous when I think back now. I think a 3-year-old couldn't have had the idea. But I did. My parents expected I would grow out of it, and when I didn't grow out of it and continued to pursue it, they tried to gently suggest some other things I might want to do," he recalls.
"They always said, 'You're going to do what you want to do, but in pragmatic terms, it's a fairly stupid career.' I think it's one of those things you end up doing because _ for whatever reason _ you feel you have to. And you feel you can't do anything else. They tried a gentle persuasion: maybe I'd rather become a teacher or something else. But once they realized I was fairly set on it, they've always been very supportive."
