Season 2 of FX’s What We Do in the Shadows has the resident vampires encounter the literal ghosts of their pasts, and Nadja’s (Natasia Demetriou) chooses to possess a creepy antique doll. Created by Jermaine Clement and based on the movie of the same name that he co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred in with Taika Waititi, What We Do in the Shadows follows a group of vampire roommates on their nightly misadventures in Staten Island. It stars Kayvan Novak, Demetriou, Matt Berry, and Mark Proksch as Nandor, Nadja, Laszlo, and Colin Robinson, the four vampire roommates, and Harvery Guillén as Guillermo, the familiar to Nandor and basically everybody’s slave.

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In What We Do in the Shadows season 2, episode 2, “Ghosts”, each of the vampires meet the ghosts of their former human selves and help them complete whatever unfinished business is keeping them on Earth. Nandor’s ghost wishes to be reunited with his horse, Laszlo’s needs help finishing what Nadja started the night she seduced him and turned him into a vampire, and Nadja’s ghost, well, she doesn’t seem to have much unfinished business. Instead, Nadja and her ghost really hit it off, so much so that Nadja’s ghost decides to inhabit an antique doll to make herself a little more tangible while she sticks around.

During a visit to the set for What We Do in the Shadows season 2, Screen Rant had the opportunity to meet Creepy Doll Nadja, as she was introduced by Paul Jones, head of Prosthetics Makeup, and learn about her creation. “Nadja is able to meet the ghost of her human self in the show,” Jones explained, “and the ghost can’t interact, so it possesses a doll that Nadia just happened to have in her collection.” Creepy Doll Nadja first appears in the season 2 episode, “Ghosts,” and she does bear an uncanny resemblance to actress Natasia Demetriou. That, Jones also explained, was entirely intentional:

The brief was just make us a creepy doll and I said, ‘Well it’ll look better if it actually looks a little bit like her, so we sculpted this and molded it and used images of Natasia as reference. And did the same hair, and Tamara from the hair department made these little cat ears. And we have the dress, and Amanda and her team helped work on the dress along with Christopher and props. So it’s been a team effort, but I was responsible for all the animatronics. So there’s two puppeteers on the day, so I do the head like this and then I have another puppeteer who does the eyes.

Jones went to say that while Creepy Doll Nadja does look like Demetriou, it’s more of a caricature version of Nadja than a true likeness. “I kind of watched a lot Family Guy while I was sculpting it,” Jones said, “and so I kind of have Natasia as a Family Guy character – almost.” The doll is animatronic, but there is some CGI involved to make it easier for Nadja’s ghost to communicate through the doll:

To get the mouth moving would have been very difficult on not so much the budget but the schedule we had. It’s a very, very, very quick turnaround on everything we do on the show. So, Bob Monroe, our visual effects supervisor said, ‘I can animate the mouth. If you give me eyes and a head movement, I will digitally manipulate the mouth.’ So when she starts talking, the mouth will be CG and the rest of it will be my animatronics.

Needless to say, the new co-star is a big hit among the cast – especially Demetriou, who, according to Jones, treated the doll like a new best friend:

In between takes, Nastasia is grabbing her and saying, ‘Come here,’ and she gets her camera out and goes, ‘OK, I’m going to Instagram this.’ She’s like saving up all this footage of her just chatting with the doll and we’re free handing it. It’s really, really fun. But it’s been such a hit. It’s been written into three extra episodes. It’s almost a recurring character now, it’s been really good.

Stay tuned for more Creepy Doll Nadja, and keep an eye out for any selfies of Natasia Demetriou and her mini-me now that What We Do in the Shadows season 2 is airing Wednesdays nights on FX.

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Sarah Moran
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Sarah Moran is a news editor for Screen Rant and has been contributing to the site since 2014. She primarily writes features and covers the ongoing development of current movies and television shows. Sarah is a graduate of THE Ohio State University where she earned her B.A. in Film Studies in 2009.

Sarah’s favorite movies range from studio era classics to the latest sci-fi and superhero blockbusters. Her favorite TV shows are animated, and she’s always up to watch a documentary. Sarah spends her free time playing too many video games and proudly supporting the Columbus Crew, the greatest team the world has ever seen.

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