Exclusive Interview with Jason Dohring of Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars fans…are you ready?  I said…are you ready?  It’s finally here!!  My long awaited interview with the one and only Jason Dohring.  As a huge Veronica Mars (and Logan Echolls) fan, this was a blast.  What was supposed to be an email Q&A turned into one of the best hours of my life.  Me…chatting it up with Jason Dohring?!  

A special thank you goes out to Jason for talking to me…on his day off none the less.  He was really easy to talk to, sweet and funny.  There’s a level of excitement in his voice when he talks about the show, and Logan that was just really cool. 

As for me…well, I was a bundle of nerves.  This was my first phone interview, and it just happened to be with one of my favorite TV stars.  So bear with me.  The interview is long, and probably could be edited down, but I wanted to share everything I could with all of you.

Give Me My Remote: So I before we get started, I wanted to take a minute to thank you. I was one of the Bloggers that came out to the set for the Veronica Mars Bloggers Press Day.  It was a great day, so thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us.

Jason Dohring: Yeah, it was so cool that you guys came out.  It was so great.  I was bummed I wasn’t able to get there until the very end, but I was glad I got a chance to talk to everyone.

GMMR:  Well you were the last surprise of the day, so it was quite a thrill.  You know, since the moment I first mentioned on my site that you were going to be answering questions for us, the response has been crazy.  You have a lot of fans out there.

JD: Oh that’s fantastic.  I love to hear that.  Dude, it’s so cool to know that so many people are interested in the show because it means so much to me and my life, that it’s so good to meet others who are so into it.  That is so cool.  Thank you.

GMMR: The critics really love the show, but we need to get more eyeballs in front of those TVs on Wednesday nights.  Can’t they just move Lost already?

JD: Ha ha…that would be nice.  I think it will be good though when the CW thing happens.  I think that will be really good for our show.  With launching a new network, it will give our show quite a bit of visibility, and they’re talking about putting us behind Gilmore Girls or something like that which would be very good.

GMMR: Yeah, that would be a great match, as both shows have such a similar fan base.

JD: Totally.  You know it’s funny because when I first started on the show, I never really knew anyone watched it, so it’s great to see all these fans that really follow it.  Ya know, it means a lot, because when we’re on set it’s not like we see any fans or anything, so you almost forget that 2-3 million people are actually watching it.

GMMR: So do you have any idea when you might hear about a Seasons 3 pickup and your move to the CW?

JD: You know what, I don’t know.  Well the season will start in September so I guess we’ll know before then…ha ha.  I’ve heard all these press reports and they all seem to mention our show, so that’s good, right? 

GMMR: So I have a few questions about our dear Logan.  Over the past year he’s lost his mother to suicide, found out his father allegedly killed his girlfriend, got dumped by Veronica, he was accused of murder, and now his best friend Duncan takes off.  How’s Logan doing?  How do you think he’s handling all of this?

JD:  You know, it’s almost f’ing unfathomable to think of what that would really be like.  I don’t know anyone that has had that bad of a life.  Anyone one of those things could ruin a person’s life.  I don’t know, I just hope that there are points of pleasantness that can keep him sticking around.  And that really begins with Veronica, and her kindness.

I think what’s funny is that he always gets what’s coming to him.  Like a terrible thing happens to him, but he’s like that to other people.  So it’s like in real life…what goes around comes around. He treats people like shit and then wonders why that stuff is done to him, you know what I mean?

GMMR: Yeah, it’s a bit of karma as they say

JD:  Yeah, that’s exactly right.  But it’s kind of lost on him at this point.

GMMR:  Whether he’s being snarky with Veronica, or a hard nosed brat with those is a position of authority, there is always a certain vulnerability to Logan, isn’t there?

JD: Yeah, I was just talking to a friend about this over lunch.  It’s funny because I think he really has an idea of what’s fair, what’s right, what’s wrong, but what he does with that, I don’t know, I just don’t think takes enough responsibility.  The thing with Logan is, he understands humanity, and the kindness of people, and although he doesn’t always react to it in the right way, he definitely sees it in every situation.

As an actor, the more I learn about people, and really start looking at life, the more I grow as an artist.  If you are aware of that in what you do, I think it all comes through in the character.

GMMR: One thing we love about Logan is that he never really holds back.  Is that something that’s written on the page, or something you bring to him as an actor?

JD: At the beginning, when Logan was really hard and nasty, I would get a note saying things like “Have fun” and try to lighten it up or whatever. But I think in the first half of season 2, he’s had more of a nastiness to him.  As the character if you see things in through a tone of hate, then everything around you seems very hostile.  You end up lashing out at everything, which I know is not always the most charming trait in the character, but you got to just have fun with it, and hope that it brings more of a human side to it.

GMMR:  Logan is pretty unpredictable.  You really never know he’s going to react to a given situation, but I guess that’s one of my favorite things about him.

JD: Yeah, I like that too. Have you seen Murder in the First? Gary Oldham has a few scenes like that in the movie where he’s just walking around and all of a sudden he just smashes a mirror.  It’s so unexpected, but then the scene just continues and you’re like…what???  I love that stuff.  It’s just great, and I love when Logan is unpredictable like that.

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