Chosen One of the Day: Stu from What We Do in the Shadows

Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's 2014 horror comedy What We Do in the Shadows has entered a new phase with the launch of a spinoff show, also titled What We Do in the Shadows, on FX. The show switches out the movie's cast and setting, which means we get a whole new crop of misfit vampires staying undead in the modern world. It also means we get no Stu.

Stu! The sweet prince of What We Do in the Shadows. As a human thrust into the world of the supernatural when his friend Nick is turned into a vampire, it's only a matter of time before IT guy Stu (Stu Rutherford) finds himself an exsanguinated corpse. Look at those red, red cheeks, after all. But, dammit, everyone likes Stu so much that they just can't do it. 

He teaches Vladislav (Clement), Viago (Waititi), and Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) about YouTube, eBay, and texting. He saves Vladislav's life. And he teaches his vampire friends a lesson in tolerance when he's turned into a werewolf. If Stu's a werewolf, can werewolves really be that bad?

The best part, though, about Stu is that he actually just is... an IT guy named Stu. A friend of Waititi and Clement's, Stu Rutherford was hired to do tech stuff behind the scenes. According to Clement, "When we wrote the script [we] 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." Rutherford, who had a seconds-long role in the short film on which Shadows was based, thought he'd be in the finished movie for about 40 seconds. Instead, he became one of the main characters. Isn't that just so Stu!

And What We Do in the Shadows isn't the only Waititi movie Stu (the real guy, not the character--the character is a werewolf now and probably would have trouble keeping to a 9-5 work schedule) has contributed to. The scene in Thor: Ragnarok where the Valkyries fight Hela utilized a lighting rig invented in part by... Stu!

Truly an icon among men.