Kristen Bell Discovered Her Comedic Chops During Veronica Mars
Back in 2004, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" had ended, and fans were ready for another female character who was clever, capable of dealing with difficult circumstances, and prone to quipping snarkily at villains. Viewers soon found her in Veronica Mars. Played by Kristen Bell, Veronica had been through hell after being assaulted and the death of her best friend, Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried). Her father, the town sheriff (Enrico Colantoni), accused the wrong man, and all of a sudden, Veronica was on the outs with the rich and popular crowd at her high school.
As such, Veronica began acting as the school's private investigator, all while dealing with mysteries in her own life. Add in a love/hate/chemistry-filled relationship with Lilly's former boyfriend, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), and you have a recipe for a cult hit that was still so popular years later that it was brought back as a crowdfunded movie and then another season of the show.
Kristen Bell has gone on to be a part of a few things you might have heard of, like voicing the role of Anna in "Frozen" and "Frozen II," "Gossip Girl," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," and "The Good Place." Her comedic timing is pretty flawless, too. In a 2020 video interview with Vanity Fair where she broke down her career, Bell said she actually discovered her comedic chops while working on "Veronica Mars."
'These beautiful sassy one-liners'
As Kristen Bell explained in the interview, she felt like she had "earned her stripes" during "Veronica Mars," commuting back and forth each week from San Diego — where the show was shot in its early seasons — to Los Angeles, where she lived at the time. It also helped her develop her comedy skills, despite being a series that deals with some dark subject matter:
"'Veronica Mars' was kind of where I discovered that I could do comedy because prior to that, I was doing guest stars on TV shows, and there were all really dark roles, and I was very much into acting, and they just wrote these beautiful, sassy one-liners on 'Veronica Mars' that were the things you wish you said. Like when you get in bed at night and you sort of punch yourself and go, 'Oh, I should have said that to that guy. That would have been the perfect zinger.'
"That was the language Veronica Mars spoke in, so it was very empowering to play this girl that was wise beyond her years and always fought for the underdog. I think I discovered a lot about my personality and who I wanted to be through playing Veronica."
Veronica's banter with her father is still some of the best in film and TV history, giving us madcap comedy vibes that bring to mind "His Girl Friday" and "The Princess Bride." In a 2019 interview with GMA, Bell said, "It feels like this will be on my tombstone as one of the best parts of my life that I get to play this character that I, personally, love so much." She added that she would be willing to portray Veronica "until [the show] becomes 'Murder, She Wrote.'"
'I hope we're still friends after I taser you'
"Veronica Mars" had some of the best one-liners on television, like "I hope we're still friends after I taser you," and "Football: the systematic violation of the Geneva Convention made into a sport. I'm surprised the A.S.P.C.A. doesn't protest," though it's the comic timing that makes it. All of Veronica's lines have more weight because, even though they're funny on the face of things, Kristen Bell's performance is rooted deeply enough that you can see how much pain is behind them. You get that Veronica's humor is a defense mechanism to deal with her mother's abandonment, the betrayal of her friends, her assault, and the bullying she's going through.
That combo of pain and comedy is something Bell has taken to other projects. She's spoken before about using the cancelation of "Veronica Mars" in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," where she plays an actor whose show has been axed. (By pure coincidence, Bell actually found out about "Veronica Mars" being canceled right before shooting the scene in question.) She also took her rooted brand of comedy to "The Good Place," where Eleanor Shellstrop uses humor and one-liners to cover her insecurity and sadness about her history. "Veronica Mars" is definitely worth a rewatch, but be warned: The final season will break your heart.
"Veronica Mars" seasons 1-4 are currently streaming on Hulu.