Get clued in by the women behind Daphne & Velma
By Andi Ortiz
Daphne & Velma is ready to give a voice to the women of Mystery, Inc. At C2E2 2018, we sat down with the women behind the movie.
Mystery, Inc. was a talented group of sleuths. Together, they managed to unmask some truly bad guys. But, let’s face it: without Daphne and Velma, they wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far.
Now, we’re getting the chance to see how the ladies came together in Daphne & Velma. Its appropriate tagline: “Before Scooby-Doo, these BFFs had a clue.”
The film is a Blondie Girls production, along with Warner Brothers and Blue Ribbon Content. Blondie Girls was founded by Jennifer and Ashley Tisdale, in the hopes to bring more empowering, female-centric stories to life.
Daphne & Velma is a shining model of that vision. With this movie, women are as vital behind the camera as they are on screen. Along with having the Tisdale sisters as executive producers, most of the creative team was led by females. Daphne & Velma even found a female director in Suzi Yoonessi.
“That fostered a lot of room for play,” Yoonessi noted. “So with the actors, I feel like we had a very safe zone and no idea was a bad idea.”
Some of those good ideas included impromptu nods to the original cartoon. “There’s a moment that Velma loses her glasses, and that was all improv, not scripted. That was the genius of Sarah Gilman,” Yoonessi said.
Gilman herself added that she was proud that that moment got in, and especially happy she was able to sneak in a “Jinkies!” as well.
Though there are those classic homages, in this movie the men of Mystery, Inc. don’t appear. There’s no mention, no glimpse of Fred, Shaggy or even Scooby. That was a decision that was made early on, according to Peter Girardi, the Executive Vice President of Alternative Programming for Warner Bros. Animation & Blue Ribbon Content.
Daphne & Velma was always meant to be solely about its titular characters. Alexandra Davis, Vice President of Development & Production at Blue Ribbon content, noted that they particularly wanted to hone and focus on a realistic female friendship.
That part came easy for the movie’s leading ladies.
“For the first, like, three weeks – and we only shot for four, just to give you an idea – we did everything together,” Gilman, who plays Velma, said excitedly. “If we weren’t filming or sleeping, we were eating together, we were hanging out together, we were going on adventures together. It was amazing working with Sarah.”
Both Sarah Jeffery and Sarah Gilman starred on Disney Channel — Jeffery played Audrey in Descendants and Gilman played Delia in the series I Didn’t Do It. Despite working with a lot of the same people, the two had actually never met before Daphne & Velma. Gilman admits she did her homework, asking her Disney friends about Jeffery, and got nothing but encouraging feedback.
When the two finally did meet — ironically, at the airport just before filming began — Gilman describes it as a Stepbrothers moment. They clicked immediately, and it stuck. It’s that natural friendship that drives Daphne & Velma.
Both heroines are headstrong, smart and passionate. For executive producer Jennifer Tisdale, that’s the defining aspect of Daphne & Velma. Their dynamic makes for more than a few winning moments.
But the real winning moment for Tisdale was the reaction her 8-year-old daughter had to the movie.
“The first time she saw it, and sat with her mouth like… [mouth agape]. That was why I made this movie,” Tisdale said proudly. “To give her something where she could see herself. To be able to give these girls style, and smarts, and to enjoy science and computers and the supernatural. My daughter is that kid that likes all of those things. And I don’t think she should ever be told that she can’t.”
The movie held its world premiere at C2E2 on April 7, to a small but happy audience. Keep an eye out for our full review.
Daphne & Velma releases on Blu-Ray on May 22, 2018.