Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT "'Veronica Mars' Just Rolls Off The Tongue"
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 15 | Aired on 03.08.2005
CB: Now, Lilly Kane. I said in the forums that I thought Lilly being both believable and engaging was absolutely essential to get the audience totally invested in the murder investigation, and I think Amanda Seyfried has achieved that and more. What was that audition like? RT: We fell in love with Amanda, and we felt, as you say, when she's on the screen, that people would care about Lilly's death. But the crazy thing about Amanda, and I can't believe this, honestly, is that she read for the part of Veronica, and I don't remember her. CB: Seriously? With those eyes? RT: I know! I mean, I saw lots of girls, but she's so special. And when you tell somebody "You're going to have three lines in the pilot, and then you're the dead girl," the quality of the actresses that come in isn't that great. When it's a series regular or a series lead, all the best casting directors send their best people, but for the dead girl, 90% didn't want to come in and read. "Why would I want to be the dead girl?" And we kept trying to pitch them, "Laura Palmer!" But I ended up making Lilly's role twice as big as I intended coming into the season, because Amanda was so good. There was no one even close to her in the auditions. She's so alive and special, and she makes Lilly a character who can hold her own and even occasionally steal scenes from Veronica. CB: Now, some stuntcasting. You mentioned her already, so...Paris Hilton? RT: Well, Joel and I have our debates about the show sometimes, and we've gotten to a place where we're working pretty well together. But he's said to me, "You want your precious fucking show, and you won't let me promote it. Who cares if it's a great show if no one will watch it?" And Paris Hilton was in his House Of Wax movie, and he thought she would bring in viewers. CB: Well, we all understood that, and therefore forgave it. RT: Well, it was very kind, and everybody sort of knew what we were doing and what the thought process was. CB: And now you've got Alyson Hannigan. How did that come about? RT: At one point I mentioned in front of Joel that we had tinkered with the idea of Logan having an older sister. Joel, being Joel, was immediately like, "That's a fantastic idea -- get me a list of all the early twenties, hot actresses out there." And we turned over all these lists, but they were -- like, he wanted Tara Reid. And Tara Reid wouldn't come to our show. And this is where we have different philosophies, and I don't even mean to say that mine is the correct one, because I don't think that -- he raises very valid points. He says, "If you want to keep doing that precious little cult show on UPN, that's fine -- cast whoever you want. If you want people to watch, if you want to be on the air for Season 2, let me put someone in there who will bring people to the show." And it's a constant debate we have. But Alyson appeared on one of these lists, and I circled her name and said she would be great, and fun to play against Logan. When I called her and talked to her, it was a bit of a struggle to get her, but the fun part of it was that she was already a huge fan of the show, and one of the things that really excited her was getting to work with Jason. The thing working against us was the she said, "You guys are kind of the new Buffy, and will that be a real sideways move in my career if I come on the show?" She signed for two episodes this season, but we're not sure where we're going with it beyond that. If she doesn't get a pilot and get a show on the air, maybe we'll see her next year.