‘I’m gonna be awesome’
Jason Dohring had to get a little cocky to get prime TV roles
PROFILE. You can tell a lot about a man by the shoes on his feet — or, in actor Jason Dohring’s case, the shirt on his back. In his “Veronica Mars” days on UPN/The CW, Dohring was a connoisseur of Los Angeles resale shops. Now that he’s starring in the new CBS vampire drama “Moonlight,” it’s all Beverly Hills and Giorgio Armani.
“I decided to show off my quasi-wealth,” he says with a wry grin, wearing a striped, collared designer number.
Showing a little of that sarcastic, cocky side actually turned out to be a good thing for the 25-year-old.
“I had been [acting] for a while, and I always liked it, but there was a point where it was like, ‘That’s it — I’m gonna be awesome. I’m not messing around anymore,’” Dohring says.
His “Veronica Mars” character, Logan Echolls, was arrogant, with an endless sense of entitlement, but one of the most conflicted and memorable teenagers on the small screen in recent years. When the critically lauded series was canceled, Dohring says he felt unemployment panic.
“I worried more than was warranted,” he says. “Actors always worry about their next job, even when they have three lined up.”
He was offered the part of Josef Konstantin in a flurry of last minute recasting for “Moonlight.”
“[Producer] Joel Silver had this character rewritten from a 60-year-old Croatian guy to a 23-year-old, and they thought of me,” Dohring says, a lingering hint of pleasant surprise in his voice.
As Josef, Dohring portrays the dark, sexy, Anne Rice side of vampire lore. He’s countered by the series’ lead, reluctant bloodsucker and good-guy private investigator Mick St. John (Alex O’Loughlin), who even goes so far as to inject blood to suppress his instincts. Josef will have none of that.
“Hell no, Josef doesn’t inject blood,” Dohring says. “He mainlines. He has concubines around him at all times that he drinks from. ... He’s a billionaire hedge fund trader.”
He sounds like an Armani guy, too.
“Moonlight” airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on CBS.