{"id":10460,"date":"2022-01-28T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1550622"},"modified":"2022-01-28T10:24:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:24:09","slug":"jamie-demetriou-on-his-new-role-in-the-afterparty-playing-people-with-verbal-diarrhoea-and-the-future-of-stath-lets-flats","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/jamie-demetriou-on-his-new-role-in-the-afterparty-playing-people-with-verbal-diarrhoea-and-the-future-of-stath-lets-flats\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie Demetriou on his new role in The Afterparty, playing people with \u201cverbal diarrhoea\u201d and the future of Stath Lets Flats"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Lauren Morris\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 28 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The last four years have been somewhat surreal for Jamie Demetriou so far. The North London-born comedian introduced his character creation Stath \u2013 a Greek Cypriot lettings agent he\u2019d been working on for 10 years \u2013 to the world via Channel 4 back in 2018, and went on to pick up three BAFTAs for Stath Lets Flats<\/a>, which aired its third season late last year.<\/p>\n

Demetriou has since taken on regular roles in US shows like 2019\u2019s Four Weddings and a Funeral, Miracle Workers and The Great, and branched out into the film world with small parts in Paddington 2, Will Ferrell\u2019s Eurovision Song Contest comedy, Disney\u2019s live-action Cruella<\/a> and star-studded comedy-drama The Electrical Life of Louis Wain<\/a>.\u00a0Yet despite all of his recent success, the 34-year-old was convinced he hadn\u2019t landed a part in Apple TV+<\/a> murder mystery The Afterparty \u2013 the latest comedic offering from Oscar-winning duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so sure I wasn\u2019t going to get it that I may as well have flushed my laptop down the toilet,\u201d Demetriou says over Zoom from his Hackney flat. \u201cThe only thing stopping me was the size of my toilet and the size of my laptop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arriving on the relatively new streaming platform towards the end of this month, the comedy follows a group of 30-year-olds whose high school reunion ends in tragedy when their former classmate Xavier \u2013 a nerd who grew up to be an internationally famous popstar \u2013 is found dead at his own afterparty. Each episode is told from a different perspective, with the cast including huge names like 21 Jump Street\u2019s Dave Franco, Girls Trip star Tiffany Haddish, Parks and Recreation\u2019s Ben Schwartz, Veep\u2019s Sam Richardson, Suicide Squad\u2019s Ike Barinholtz and Broad City\u2019s Ilana Glazer to name just a few.<\/p>\n

\""Jamie\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Jamie Demetriou as Walt in The Afterparty<\/span><\/figcaption> Apple TV+<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cYou have a dream team in your head of people currently working that you\u2019d like to work with and that was an in-my-wildest-dreams kind of list,\u201d Demetriou continues. \u201cAnd then I got the part and I couldn\u2019t believe my ears, eyes, head, whole body, and then they listed the cast to me and I was like, \u2018How dare you! What are you talking about?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Sat in dark yellow jumper and a black beanie, the Stath Lets Flats star bears hardly any similarities to the character he\u2019s best known for \u2013 the incompetent, verbally-challenged yet well-meaning Stath \u2013 although whilst listening to Demetriou speak, you can certainly recognise the silly sense of humour that made the show so popular. His talent for playing socially-awkward, accident-prone losers is definitely utilised in The Afterparty, in which he stars as Walt \u2013 a sweet yet under-confident member of the group who is constantly ignored and forgotten about by his fellow ex-students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tend to play people with verbal diarrhoea and it was quite exciting, the challenge of playing someone [who] when they do talk, they don\u2019t know what to do to maintain a conversation. It\u2019s just a fun comedy game to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I believe Chris Miller had seen Stath before and\u2026 I think [The Afterparty] is an interesting filter to put the thing that I usually like to do through. I guess it\u2019s not traditional that someone would read a script and go, \u2018Oh, that person has the least lines in every episode. I\u2019ll be that,\u2019 but I was like, \u2018Oh, I think I\u2019d know what to do there.’\u201d<\/p>

The biggest challenge Demetriou found in taking on the role was maintaining an American accent throughout. \u201cUltimately, it is very, very difficult to improvise in an accent that is so new to you. It was a challenge that I really wanted to go ahead with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done American accents in things but usually only for bit parts and stuff. A full series of one accent \u2013 it\u2019s beneficial to me that he didn\u2019t say too much. It\u2019s an undertaking because of the amount of stigma that comes with the job of being a Brit and doing an American accent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as you do it \u2013 and I can only speak for myself here \u2013 but I would imagine any Brit who\u2019s seen me do my own voice or one of my British accents, it would become incredibly distracting and just become like, \u2018Well, all I\u2019m doing is thinking about whether or not his accent is good,\u2019 \u2013 because that\u2019s definitely what I\u2019m doing when I watch it back,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

While Demetriou auditioned in an American accent and got the role, he still did a few dialect training sessions before filming. \u201cI was very nervous about it. But ultimately, it was the least hostile environment I\u2019ve ever been in. It was truly like the dream set to be in whilst in the midst of arguably one of the worst global periods of one\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Sam\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Sam Richardson, Jamie Demetriou, Ben Schwartz, John Early, Tiffany Haddish, Tiya Sircar, Kelvin Yu, Genevieve Angelson, Illana Glazer, Zo\u00eb Chao and Ike Barinholtz in The Afterparty<\/span><\/figcaption> Apple TV+<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Having spent the majority of his acting career on British sets, filming comedies and sitcoms, The Afterparty was one of the few times Demetriou was surrounded by people he only knew \u201cfrom TV\u201d \u2013 and over time, he says he\u2019s learnt to \u201crepress\u201d the urge to feel starstruck.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so important to me to not come across as starstruck in order to make the people I\u2019m talking to not feel uncomfortable. I think that it\u2019s kind of luckily left my system a little bit \u2013 apart from when I meet pop stars,\u201d he adds. \u201cIf I was to meet any pop star, any kind of X Factor contestant or anyone like that, I don\u2019t mind unleashing starstruck hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whilst filming season 3 of Stath Lets Flats, Demetriou was in the makeup trailer, chatting to someone who was playing a potential tenant of Stath\u2019s, when he learned that the actor had been in Kingsland Road \u2013 a band that competed on The X Factor back in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to, you know, hold down how I was feeling about it because he was literally acting in my TV show, but I definitely could have spent a long two-week holiday with him asking him questions about what it was like to be on The X Factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the topic of Stath, fans will remember that the season 3 finale ended on a rather definitive note, with (spoiler alert) Michael and Eagle shutting down, Sophie (played by Jamie\u2019s sister Natasia Demetriou) moving to Greece with new boyfriend Al (Al Roberts), her father Vasos (Christos Stergioglou) and his new husband Stephen (Jimmy Roussounis), while Stath reunited with ex Katia (Ellie White) and stayed in the UK to raise baby Dina.<\/p>\n

When I ask about the future of the show, Demetriou is reluctant to comment on whether it will definitely be back or not. \u201cI\u2019m really just living in the moment. I\u2019ve completed a very kind of rocky 14 months of making stuff and I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s important to make decisions like that so soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to let things breathe and work out as and when things feel like they\u2019re right to do and if inspiration strikes or if it doesn\u2019t. I\u2019m not putting a date on anything or a kind of definite decision on anything and that\u2019s actually just a truthful answer, I\u2019m not being political.<\/p>\n

\""Stath\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Demetriou in Stath Lets Flats<\/span><\/figcaption> Channel 4<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited to allow my career to go in the direction that feel rights at any given time. I suppose, you know, I have been working on Stath for a decade. It would be good for me to, at the very least, pause. I don\u2019t know about putting a full stop, but there\u2019s definitely going to be a comma and it just depends on who big that comma is, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cI mean, it\u2019s effectively my whole adult life. Stath as you know it, I\u2019ve been working on for 10 years. The previous four years, I was doing comedy and doing that voice and stuff, so yeah, it would be good to flex some other muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether there are plans to continue working alongside his sister \u2013 What We Do in the Shadows star Natasia Demetriou \u2013 the BAFTA winner is sure it\u2019ll happen at some point. \u201cIt\u2019d be very weird to cut that off and it seems like it\u2019s working. I definitely want to act with Tash again.<\/p>\n

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