By Christina Radish
Neptune’s resident bad boy, Jason Dohring, promises that the season finale of Veronica Mars, the UPN series about a high school P.I., contains the best action-packed half-hour that the show has ever had. He assures that fans, who are anxious to learn the identity of the perpetrator responsible for the bus crash that killed the driver, a teacher and six students, will be satisfied with the conclusion of the mystery.
“I couldn’t believe what I was reading,” says the 24-year-old Southern California resident, who plays Logan Echolls, in an exclusive interview with MediaBlvd. Magazine. “We all kind of knew what was happening, but then there were other things that we weren’t expecting. It was just like, ‘Oh, my God!’ A lot of things get very solved, and things come back up that you weren’t thinking about. I think it’s very heartbreaking, and should be very exciting.”
The oldest in a family that includes younger identical twin sisters, Kirsten and Kelsey, and younger identical twin brothers, Robert and Jonathan, Dohring has been acting professionally since he was eight years old. Working primarily in commercials until he was a teenager, he admits to not even knowing for sure that he wanted to get serious about acting until a couple years ago.
{quote_top}“I got offered an audition for Veronica Mars, and I auditioned for Duncan. I played it a little bit dark, and I don’t think it was supposed to be like that. So, they said, ‘Actually, I think you should read for Logan.’ I had really prepared Duncan, so I was a little upset. I went out in the hall and worked on it for a bit, and came in and read for Logan. As an actor, it actually turned out to be the more exciting role because there’s all the action, just being the evil guy, but having so much fun. There was great joy in playing that with no liability of harming anybody.”
Dohring says that he originally saw Logan as a beach kid, very loose with his body, so that’s the way he approached him in the pilot. “As far as acting goes, I was brought up that, whenever you play something very intense, the body has a tendency to ridge up and become solid, tense and stiff. I wanted to go against that, for the purpose of art, because it doesn’t look cool. You can still be very intense while keeping everything loose and free-flowing, and I think it makes it more interesting.”
Once Logan’s family history was introduced, that helped solidify things further for Dohring, in his understanding of such a complex and complicated character. “I think (show creator) Rob Thomas did a really cool thing in episode 6, when he put in the backstory of what happened with Logan’s family. All of a sudden, it gave the audience an understanding of what this guy is about and why he’s like that. From then on, people were on the fence with whether he’s good or bad. It showed that his behavior might now be justified because of his dad. That gave him another side.”
{quote_middle} Now that he has been living with Logan for two seasons, Dohring says that the thing that he likes most about the character is his intelligence. “He’s a bright guy, and he has an understanding of language and wit. He also has compassion for people. He’s been there and he understands what it’s like to get treated badly, and I think he sees that in people, whether he takes responsibility for that or not.”
Over the course of the series, one of the things that fans have responded to most is the dynamic between the show’s title character, Veronica, and her ever-changing relationship with Logan. From an acting perspective, Dohring says that he relishes the opportunity to work with such a gifted talent as the show’s star, Kristen Bell.
“I’m in love with that girl. There are just some beings that I’m very attracted to, and I find that with her. Just the way that she is, I want to help her so much. It’s like, when you see a little kid or a cute dog and you think, ‘Oh, my God, I want to take care of you,’ and you have an immediate affinity for them. I just want to take care of that girl. I love acting with her. It’s just a beautiful thing because she plays. If you put something out there, she’s right there, and she’ll match whatever you’ve got. She’s terrific.”
When the relationship between Veronica and Logan shifted from adversaries to friends to something more, it showed viewers yet another side to Logan and, whether they want to see Logan end up with Veronica or not, it has left audiences anxious to see how that storyline will play out.
"I like the evolvement that Logan has had, but I also like him being a total asshole. I like to keep it somewhat ambiguous, where it’s somewhat redeemable, but there is good and bad to him. Some people like him, and some people really don’t. Mothers will come up and say, ‘You’re the worst character. I hate that character.’ And, some people say, ‘You’re my favorite character.’ It’s great to have a really serious, honest scene, and then you can do whatever you want and have fun and be a jackass. This character is unbelievable because it’s somewhat limitless, depending on what mood you’re in, or who the latest relative it is that died. It could go any way at any time because it’s a very opinionated character.”
Along with the pleasure of working with Bell on a regular basis , Dohring has also had the opportunity to work alongside such recognizable faces as Buffy the Vampire Slayer alums Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan, as well Hollywood veteran Harry Hamlin, who plays Logan's father, Aaron Echolls.
“He’s cool. He would tell me great stories. He’s been around. I thought he was awesome in Clash of the Titans. He’s just been in business a long time, so he has stories about directors, and stuff that he’s heard about Marlon Brando. He would just tell me stories about how he dealt with different sets and different people. It’s just great to pick up knowledge about the business. The more knowledge you get for something, the more control you’ll have over it.”
{quote_bottom}The only thing certain about Veronica Mars is that, by the end of the finale, Veronica and the rest of her classmates will have graduated from their senior year of high school, leaving the possibility of storylines for the next season endless, as these young adults venture out into the world.
“I’m going to have to sit down with the writers and find out what’s going on in this next season. I have a couple of ideas already. It could be a whole new start on life, which is great. I think Rob has some really terrific ideas for season 3 that I think people will love a lot.”
Although the new CW network has yet to confirm their line-up of shows for the fall season, it is close to a sure thing that Veronica Mars will find a place on the schedule, having been a fan and critic favorite from the start.
“I didn’t know who was watching. It was wonderful to get such a great response because we were doing work that we were all happy about. When the first couple of shows came on, we would go over to each other’s houses and watch it, and it was just fucking joyous.”
With the show currently on hiatus, Dohring has taken advantage of the free time by focusing his energy on learning more about his craft. “I’m taking acting class three times a week now, which is great because I’m rehearsing scenes and bringing them back to class and learning. I’m discovering amazing things about acting that I can’t wait to bring to the third season.”
Dohring, who lives with his parents when he is not filming in San Diego because he loves being close to his large family, is also hoping to play more character roles in the future. “I’ve got a couple of things that I might be working on for the hiatus that I think will be pretty cool because they are way different than Logan. I’d like to try a little bit of everything. A young pool shark character would be awesome to play. I’m drawn to characters that are intelligent people.”
One such role that Dohring was drawn to was that of Timothy McVeigh, the man responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, for Dreamland. “After doing some research on him and listening to a couple of his interviews, you kind of agree with some of the stuff he says. Obviously, what he did was very wrong, but soldiers go into war with the idea that all Iraqis are bad, and then you kill one of them and you think, ‘Holy shit! What the fuck are we doing? This guy’s just like me.’ As a person, when people mention Iraqis, you immediately think they’re the enemy, but not everybody is like that. You’re telling a story, but having a purpose for it is important. Timothy McVeigh was a person. He was living. What happened that led him to do what he did? I didn’t want to glorify what he did, but I wanted to find out what the story was about.”
Being totally focused, both professionally and personally, Dohring attributes the success of his career, his marriage and his life to another passion in his life -- that of Scientology. As a result of the recent rise of publicity, thanks to superstar Tom Cruise speaking about it, every opportunity that he gets, there are gross misconceptions about the Church of Scientology that Dohring helps people will discover are just not accurate.
“The misconceptions occur with people who haven’t ever read a book about it, or don’t know what it’s about. They’re taking someone else’s false opinion of what it is. Just for me, it saved my acting career. I became a professional through Scientology. I was like, ‘Fuck this. I’m not going to be a dilettante anymore. I’m going to be a professional.’ I also totally attribute that I’ve never done drugs to Scientology. And, my marriage has been saved already because of it. I understand acting better because Scientology is the study of life. I know that whenever shit’s not going well, I can just look to something in Scientology and it corrects itself and handles my life, and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s cool.’”
