As an actor, you get a lot of scripts. Comedies, romances, thrillers, horrors — but it’s not every day you find yourself reading a script about killer gnomes coming to life and causing an absolute ruckus in a small Australian town. Even from the words on the page, it was clear the series would have plenty of blood and gore — but also a surprising amount of heart, humour and personality.
For Asa Butterfield and Megan Smart, signing on to Stan’s bizarre new horror comedy Gnomes came with a very honest first reaction.
“My first thoughts were, ‘what the hell?” Asa admits TV WEEK.
“After that, I thought ‘oh, this is really funny’ and then I got it.”
For Asa, who has been acting since he was a child but best known for Sex Education, Gnomes was unlike any project he’d done before.
“I realised it’s really leaning into that 90s slightly spoofy horror, but putting quite a modern spin on it with punchy editing we’ve seen in films like Hot Fuzz to carry it,” he continued.
“I laughed a lot reading the script and that makes me as an actor quite excited because you’re given the ammunition and tools to run with it.”
Meanwhile, Megan Smart was thrilled to be part of an Australian production willing to embrace such a wildly unconventional idea.
“It’s so different for a show. It’s unique in concept, anyway but to see something so bold and high concept come out of Australia is wonderful. It’s not something we do here all the time,” Megan admits.
What is Gnomes about?
Gnomes is about a town called Nompton which has a particular love of — you guessed it –gnomes. Each year, the town is the host of a festival for the tiny whimsical statues called Gnome-a-Palooza. On the eve of this year’s festival, an ancient evil is unlocked and brings the many, many gnomes in town to life.
It’s not long before those tiny statues are up to no good and begin murdering unsuspecting victims in town.
But when we first arrive to Nompton, we meet Senior Sergeant Arnold Kipps (Asa Butterfield), a clean-cut police officer who has lived in Nompton all his life and loves it. He’s sent into a bit of a spin when his ex-partner (romantically and professionally) Senior Constable Ellie McKay (Megan Smart) returns to town after years fleeing Nompton to the bright lights of the big city. Now, she’s back alongside her boss, Superintendent Harvey Poll (Brett Tucker) tasked with closing the Nompton Police Force.
However, when the gnomes kick off their rampage, it’s up to Arnold, Ellie and the rest of the Nompton police department to save their town from evil, murderous gnomes.
While the concept is admittedly ridiculous, it certainly doesn’t work without the actors leaning into the truth and emotions of their characters’. As a result, Asa and Megan were tasked with keeping a straight face throughout some of the most giggle-inducing punchlines imaginable. But was this always possible? Perhaps not.
“Yeah, how did you keep a straight face, Megan?” Asa quips with a sly smile.
“I didn’t! I’m just going to go ahead and say that. That was on me,” Megan admits.
“I laughed and broke character so many times. We had so many moments of having to hold it in because we were giggling like children on set. Sometimes a character you’d read on the page, you imagine it slightly differently. When you’re seeing it for the first time and it’s so much different than you imagined, you can’t help but laugh!” Megan protests.
This, combined with a short time-frame for rehearsal and Australia’s best comedic actors (Darren Gilshenan, Matt Okine, Nina Oyama and Tegan Higginbotham, just to name a few!), made for comedy gold.
Tasked with playing the straight-laced senior constable, both Megan and Asa admit that it was worth the multiple takes to make sure their characters kept their comedic cool.
“My character is like the voice of reason. She’s one of the most grounded ones in the show,” Megan explains.
“Understanding what your function is in comedy is so important, especially if you’re not always saying the punchline, you’re the set up for the punchline, you’re the eye-roll. It’s the energy that makes the whole ensemble work and sing together.”
As you might imagine for a show about a town filled to the brim with killer gnomes, the set had plenty of the tiny statues.
Did Asa and Megan steal any from set? They say they didn’t have to.
“They actually gave us some,” Megan admits.
Thankfully, the only gnomes Asa and Megan took home were souvenirs — not evidence from Nompton’s latest crime scene.
You can watch the wild and wonderful world of Gnomes on Stan.
