Exclusive: On the set of Play It Again, Dick , the latest installment in Veronica Mars ’ ever-expanding universe. But it’s far being from the last, if Kristen Bell has her say.
CWSeed
A half-dozen lights, just as many cameras, and 20-plus crew were members stuffed into the living room of an unassuming home in an equally unassuming south Los Angeles neighborhood. Between the equipment and the bodies, it was basically impossible to move an inch as the camera focused on Kristen Bell and Ryan Hansen. Just then, the director called action and Hansen launched into an explanation of how — and why — a heinous crime was committed, the kind of speech Veronica Mars fans have come to expect Bell's Veronica to deliver.
In the middle of Hansen's monologue, Bell tried, but failed, to stifle a sneeze. While that would render the take unusable on most Hollywood productions, director Viet Nguyen let the scene play out before cut was yelled and he walked up to an apologetic Bell. "That was great," Nguyen said with a mile-wide smile. "I'm actually going to use that take."
Such is Play It Again, Dick — a Hollywood-skewering webseries that doubles as the latest extension of Rob Thomas' Veronica Mars franchise. Revolving around Hansen's attempt to capitalize on the cast's resurgence in popularity following the 2014 feature film, the series, running on The CW's online content portal CW Seed, once again reunites the cast, this time under very different circumstances.
Embracing an absurdly comedic tone, Play It Again, Dick — which chronicles the misguided production of an even more misguided show-within-a-show centering on self-professed playboy Dick Casablancas (Hansen), now a private investigator for hire — calls for each of the actors to play a slightly skewed version of themselves, as well as reprise their beloved Veronica Mars character. "It's like fan porn," Hansen told BuzzFeed News with a laugh. "It's a fun way to see everybody be goofy, but still have the characters together."
CW Seed
Initially designed as a promotional tool for the 2014 Veronica Mars feature film, Thomas realized the concept's potential after The CW expressed interest in funding it. "It was supposed to be a really guerilla-style shoot before the movie came out," Hansen said. "Then, when The CW wanted to make it, Rob decided if his name was going to be on it, we should really do it right."
Five months later, with scripts completed for eight episodes, the cast gathered in that unassuming two-story home, just south of Wilshire Boulevard, for a chockablock eight-day shoot. On this day, the fifth of the shoot, Bell and Hansen were on hand to film the series' climax. The day's big scene featured Hansen, who literally unmasked the perpetrator (yes, with some shades of Scooby-Doo), delivering the aforementioned monologue as Bell — playing Bell playing Veronica Mars — stood passively to the side, simply existing to offer ego-fluffing compliments and marvel at Dick's detective skills through gritted teeth. That is, when she could keep her sneezes at bay.
Joining Bell and Hansen in the scene were Percy Daggs III (Wallace Fennel), Amanda Noret (Madison Sinclair), Lisa Thornhill (Celeste Kane), Ryan Devlin (Mercer Hayes), and Rob Buckley, a Mars universe newbie. Additionally, the webseries also brought back Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls), Chris Lowell (Stosh "Piz" Piznarski), Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars), Daran Norris (Cliff McCormack), Francis Capra (Eli "Weevil" Navarro), and Kyle Gallner (who played the late Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas). Most are juggling two characters — the actors play themselves as well as the characters in the titular show-within-a-show — while others only appear in the fictionalized universe. The result is a high-concept, if slightly confusing, endeavor that vexed even the actors when pressed to explain.
"Ryan's version of this Wallace is different from Rob's version of Wallace because of Percy's ambition to be very different from the other Wallace," Daggs told BuzzFeed News when asked to explain his character. "The version I play of myself here wants to be a badass a bit more. He wants to break out and do something different; he doesn't want to just get the file, he wants to get in the car and help get the bad guy."
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