How Kayvan Novak Came Up With the Distinctive Accent for Nandor in ‘What We Do in the Shadows’

During an interview with The Paley Center for Media, actor Kayvan Novak explained how he came up with the distinctive accent for his character Nandor the Relentless in the sublime FX series What We Do in the Shadows. Novak explained that he had developed a Polish accent a while ago just to mess with people.

I came up with the accent about 15 years ago. Yeah because I’d call people up and pretend to be a Polish guy called Yannick or wanted to get some work and I would call anywhere just to f*&k with them.

He also stated that it was a good amalgamation of the characters originally played by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement in the original films.

When I got the audition and I read it. i just I felt it was …like Jemaine’s and Taika’s character from the movie kind of molded into one, leaning more towards Taika’s.

Here’s Kovac as Nandor in the series.

Here’s the full interview with the entire cast.