Percy Daggs III – A Partner In Crime

Q.  What are the current projects that you are working on?

A.  Right now my current project is “Veronica Mars,” that’s what I’m working on.  I’m also working on my own projects at home but other than that “Veronica Mars” is what I’m working on.

Q.  What can you tell us about the premise for season two of “Veronica Mars” with last years revolving around the murder?

A.  I don’t know how much I can mention on that and divulge, I forgot what Rob Thomas was telling me as far as what I could and couldn’t say.  There is a brand new premise as far as how Lilly was murdered, there is a new murder in the year that we follow.  I think that’s the most I can say, cuz I don’t want to get myself in trouble.  It’s a lot like the Lily Kane murder, finding suspects for that, who did it, and a lot more of that.

Q.  What can viewers look forward to this year with Wallace’s character?

A.  We got a lot of good stuff in store for Wally, Wally Fennell has a lot of good stuff going on.  He’s got a girlfriend now, he’s got a young lady who comes in next to him who kind of gets his heart.  They go through some things, he’s got some serious stuff happening to him too, you can expect him to solve a case on his own this year.  I don’t know what’s in store for the rest of the season, I’m playing episode by episode as well.  I’ve got some big stuff coming up, there is a young lady and you may see Wallace playing basketball at camp and I know he’s getting more hands on as far as the private investigating, being a P.I.   So, I’m looking forward to what they have in store for him the rest of the season.

Q.  Wallace and Veronica have such a tight friendship.  Will they grow closer or will new friends expand their circle?

A.  Between Wallace and Veronica, they ride or die for each other until the end.  That’s the way it will be, but their friendship is tested this year a couple of times.  The beginning of the year it’s tested, well I can’t even say a couple of times because it’s just at the beginning of the year it is tested, who knows what happens.  Well, I know, but I can’t tell anybody.  They go through some things, but there are new people that come in.  Veronica had a new friend in Meg last year and they were on and off and they did their thing.  Wallace is loyal to his home girl and he knows other people but there are no new people that will come in.   

Q.  Do you have a most memorable moment from filming season 2?

A.  Oh man, there was a scene I did in a recent episode and after my first take I got a standing ovation from the cast and crew.  That hasn’t happened to me before and the fact that I was doing more this year than I was last year.  This type of work that I did in this episode is very different from last year.  The first time that you get to see Wallace not happy, not smiling, very hurt.  You know there is drama to it, there was a very nice scene and I worked hard to do my best at it and the cast and crew let me know what they thought of it.  That was pretty special because that has never happened.  I’m really hard on myself, I’m really critical, I like to put my best work out there.  So, to get a standing ovation from the writers, directors, producers and my fellow cast members, that’s my most memorable moment.

Q.  What originally made you want to be a part of this show?

A.  Originally I had my goals as to where I want to get in my career and my life and the show is definitely a blessing I couldn’t pass up.  Having an opportunity to be a series regular, my first series regular, it’s been a long grind.  I’ve been doing this since I was fourteen years old and growing up I wasn’t always positive that acting was something I would take off at.  I always did everything, weighed my options, you know every time I would go another way, I would be brought back here.  I would always get brought back to acting.  Also the script, when I read the script, Wallace in a lot of ways is very opposite to me, and in a lot of ways he’s really similar.  So,  there are things that are opposite that are challenges playing that character and what that character goes through.  Not having too many friends and being in a new place and a new city, that definitely made me gravitate towards it.  Then I met Kristen Bell and I figured she’s a talented actress and to be able to work with her, and the cast and the crew and on my first show, is definitely going to be a great experience and growth with her, to work with her.  She’s a person in Hollywood, I think that one thing that separates our show from a lot of shows, as far as people on the show, and work for the show, especially the cast members, is that it initially was everybody’s first series regular.  It was mine, Kristen Bell’s, Teddy Dunn, Jason Dohring, it was our first series regular.  You don’t usually get that lucky to have that many characters like that and also be so grounded and down-to-earth in who they are and where they come from.  Kristen is definitely like that, I’m like that, Teddy Dunn, a good friend of mine from the show, he’s definitely like that.  We just, I think I got lucky, we don’t have those Hollywood type of players who are very reclusive or jerks, or the way some people tend to be I hate to describe them in those words.  Sometimes people in Hollywood aren’t necessarily the kind of people you want to be friends with because they deal with things kind of different.  So, we’ve got a lot of down-to-earth people that are cool. 

Q.  What is it about this show that you think has captured such a big audience?

A.  I think it’s a lot of different things, I think the father daughter relationship between Rico (Enrico Colantoni) and Kristen, Veronica and Keith.  I think that’s special, because you don’t really see, I think that the female heroine draws in a lot of teenage girls.  I think being a single parent is an interesting thing, especially raising a daughter under their circumstances, with the father being in detective and police work, I think that’s just interesting to watch.  Having a young, African American male and a young, white girl be best friends is interesting to watch.  We have different nationalities, we appeal to every person, you see real people in there that you can relate to.  Being from a city like that, a very affluent city without a real defined middle class and all of the shenanigans that go on behind the walls, as far as Sheriff Lamb and the politics of that city.  I think that when you put all of that together it’s a very nice combination and I just think people can relate to it.  It’s also interesting to see the exaggerated part of it, seeing a young, teenage girl being a private detective in high school.  That’s not something you see on TV, the whole Nancy Drew stuff.  Her being in high school I think grabs your attention. 

Q.  There definitely is a lot of chemistry with the cast on the show.  Is it like that off camera as well?

A.  Yeah, for the most part.  We don’t always work together all at the same time.  Off camera we all have an amazing chemistry, me and Teddy Dunn we get along very well.  We became close friends during throughout last season, I don’t really get to see JD, Jason Dohring too much, he’s a married man.  He’s got the family life going and everything like that, off camera we don’t have any problems.  It’s probably a rare thing, we don’t really get into too many fights, too many arguments.  If anything, we get into intellectual conversations, we are all pretty cool, we all get along really well.

Q.  What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

A.  I do a lot, I have three or four very close friends, they take me in different directions.  In my spare time I like to watch movies, I like to play video games, I like to read, I like to go to amusement parks.  I like to play basketball a lot, I love playing basketball, and that’s what I do.  I like to go swimming, I just bought a house and I got a nice pool back there.  I like to hang out at home, I’m kind of a homebody.  I’m really close to my family, I’ve got a seven year-old brother who plays Darrell Fennell on the show actually.  When I get free time I like to spend time with him and influence him, he looks up to me a lot.  I have an eighteen year-old sister too, I gotta stay on her because I’m that over protective big brother, I have to make sure she isn’t hurting and handling her life right.  Spend time with my mom and my pops, in a lot of interviews I speak about my mom, me and my mom are very close and so are me and my father.  My dad has four sisters and my mom has three sisters and three brothers.  So, I come from a really big family.

Q.  What is your latest obsession, are you into any particular sport, book, or activity?

A.  NFL season, that’s what I’m into to.  When the NFL rolls around, that is what grabs my attention.  I’ve been enjoying that lately and I’m pulling for the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  I’m trying to stay loyal to them and I’m enjoying that.  The new thing I’m enjoying, I’m enjoying writing again.  I was in college, I was in and out of school before “Veronica Mars” came.  I was really into writing, script writing, so I’ve just been really involved with that lately.  That’s my new fascination right now I guess you would say something like that right now.  Yeah, that’s it, outside of that.  I really love working with kids, I work at a basketball league that helps out average youths by trying to get them jobs and stuff like that.  I’m trying to start a basketball league for little kids, work in my community.  

Q.  What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?

A.  To all of my fans and supporters thank you for watching “Veronica Mars.”  It’s been great, it’s getting a lot better, we’ve been working really hard to give you guys a great show.  We really appreciate all of the love because we were a show that wasn’t expected to make it.  We were the underdog and always root for the underdog and I love being the underdog.  So, we fought hard, we have been fighting hard with our backs against the wall and if it wasn’t for our fans and supporters we wouldn’t be working.  I wouldn’t even be working on “Veronica Mars” and I appreciate them and I love them very much and they are the reason why I am doing what I’m doing.