A direct-to-video release that serves as a prequel to the Freddie Prinze Jr- Sarah Michelle Gellar starring “Scooby” films, "Scooby Doo : The Mystery Begins" fixes on how the Mystery Inc. gang – Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and of course, Scooby - came to be a unit. CLINT MORRIS caught up with the new 'Velma', Hayley Kiyoko.
How did you get involved in the production?
I auditioned for it about a year-and-a-half ago. I've been acting since I was in the 7th grade, and have been actively involved in the entertainment industry ever since, so the opportunity was presented to me. It was actually very exciting, I mean it's Scooby Doo!
And you were familiar with the series obviously?
No, I have never seen a Scooby Doo ever! [Laughs] No, of course I am, everyone knows who Scooby Doo is. I watched it when I was young. I actually didn't realize it's been around for 40 years though. I was very excited to play Velma - I never thought I'd get to play her.
Did you try and emulate Linda Cardellini from the previous films, or base your performance more on that of the cartoon Velma?
I really just based it off of the cartoon because we wanted to do it Old School - take it back to the beginning. We also wanted to make this one more modern and real-life, rather than bright colours and so on - whatever they usually do when they take a cartoon and make it a live-cartoon. We wanted to keep this one more grounded than the previous films.
How did you go acting with Scooby?
We actually had a 3'5 Great Dane stuffed animal. There was a guy whose job it was to basically be the stuffed animal and walk it around. But for some of the scenes we just had a red laser beam to look at. Shaggy had the most one-on-one scenes with Scooby, we were lucky enough to be working together most of the time.
How did you get along with your human co-stars?
Surprisingly great! We all met at the screen test, and I remember we were looking at each other, thinking ‘Wow, this is it! This is going to be the group!'. We're all around the same age, so we used to go out for dinner and hang out after shooting. We're all very different but we're all really compatible. That was very comforting, because it would've been torture to spend seven weeks with people you don't get along with. They became my family.
Do you stay in touch?
Yeah. Now that we're doing crazy publicity for Scooby Doo I've been seeing them at least once a week. We would try and catch up with each other after shooting, but we all have very busy and interesting lives, so it was difficult - but we did catch up occasionally.
How close to Velma are you?
Um, I don't where huge black, bold glasses. I also have short, kinda rock-star hair - bleach-blonde streaks in the front of my hair. So we don't look alike, but we're similar in a way - I'm very goofy, I don't care what other people think of me, and I'm independent. It was fun to play Velma because she's such a unique character - there's nobody quite like her on the universe.
What have you got up next?
Recently I've been doing Waverly Place for the Disney Channel. I'm also in a group called The Stunners, and we're releasing an EP in October. I'm really excited - it's all happening around the same time!
