FAIRLY LEGAL: Baron Vaughn & Virginia Williams On Acting, Booty Shaking & Crossovers

As fans of USA Network’s latest sensation, Fairly Legal, already know, Baron Vaughn portrays Leonardo Price, the uber-competent assistant with a sweet, geeky side to mediator extraordinaire Kate Reed (Sarah Shahi), and Virginia Williams portrays razor-sharp attorney Lauren Reed, Kate’s step-mother and widow of renowned attorney Teddy Reed. The show focuses on a large variety of legal cases, some of which are mediated by Kate, some of which are litigated or handled by Lauren and some of which are prosecuted by Kate’s ex-husband Justin Patrick (Michael Trucco) at the San Francisco D.A.’s office. As the show sets out to illustrate, life is never black-and-white and finding an amicable compromise or happy medium between two opposing parties can result in a win for both sides.

In a conference call with NiceGirlsTV, Baron and Virginia shared their insights into their multi-layered characters and what drew them into this magical, Wizard-of-Oz-esque world in Fairly Legal.

Describing how both came to be cast on the show, Virginia happily recounted, “I really loved the script. I thought it was wonderfully written – and I actually just really adored the character of Lauren. I thought she was fascinating. The scene that really got me on board was in the pilot: she has a scene with a client who propositions her and the way that she handles that situation I just thought was really cool and unique, and an interesting way to present this character. She could have definitely been a very one-dimensional sort of antagonist that we’re supposed to hate and doesn’t have any heart. She could have been seen as a trophy-wife. I thought, ‘no, I’m not interested in playing that — that’s not going to be fun for many seasons — that doesn’t give her a lot of room to grow.’ But, really based on that scene and on the unique dynamic that Kate and Lauren have with each other, I thought, this could be a really fun thing to explore for hopefully many years to come.”

Baron chimed-in to add that for him, “I also read the script and I really liked the character. In fact, my character Leonardo changed a lot after I auditioned because they liked what I did with it — they decided that they wanted to make him a little bit more like me. So I enjoyed that.” He also noted that the role has become more collaborative as they go along, which has allowed him to play the funnier and sillier aspects of his character, which he really enjoys.

[pullquote]God, the booty dance! We do love to booty dance![/pullquote]As far as the interpersonal chemistry between their characters and Sarah Shahi’s character Kate, Virginia was pleased to share, “I found the chemistry was instantaneous . . . we just kind of fell in love. [Sarah] and I are actually very good friends. Our on screen animosity is not indicative of how we are with each other. We’re quite good friends and we have a really fun time playing with each other. I think we have a great rhythm with each other and a lot of fun, and we’re both really willing to play and explore. So we’ll mess around with scenes when we’re shooting and kind of get a feel for how we think it should go – and we just have a great time together.” Baron also cheekily volunteered, “Virginia and Sarah get along very well. . . . [and it is] interesting being on the set because it is funny to see them play like at each other’s throats in the show and then in between takes, you know, have a little bout of booty dancing.” To which Virginia exclaimed, “God, the booty dance! We do love to booty dance!” Baron mischievously added, “The booty dance is very disorienting because Virginia is in her very intense Lauren outfit – and she’s very wrapped up.” So imagine a set where booty dancing is the daily routine? Sounds like the audience is missing out on the more hilarious moments off-screen!

While describing a bit more about each of their characters, Baron noted that Leo’s major motivation is that of the ‘consummate observer.’ He explained, “[Leo’s] just excited everyday to go to work and see what everyone’s going to get up to because he gets to live his own reality show of everybody’s insanities — he gets to be around it — then, on top of that, he takes everything that he sees and he’s turning it into ultimately, I think, a graphic novel. So he is observing life as it happens in this law firm and all the people and characters around them — and then one day, I will reiterate those things, except they’re dragons and kings and castles.” Thus, it would seem that Leo’s obsession with the graphic novel world has allowed him to stock-pile ideas for his own future novel.

Virginia noted that for Lauren, everything is about winning – which is the one single thing that Virginia tries to have in the forefront of her mind as she portrays Lauren’s interactions. Virginia explained, “I try to approach every single scene with the overarching intention of winning — and that can be done in a myriad of different ways. I think that’s what makes [Lauren] interesting and fun is that she can be played in so many different ways. You win in any sort of situation by going all sorts of different routes. I think that she ultimately needs at the end of the day to have felt accomplished and that she did everything she could in her power to win that day.” Especially now that Lauren’s husband is dead, that need to win is even more important to Lauren as it represents the stability and security of her current life; without it, she feels a bit lost.

[pullquote]I hate saying this, but I’m a bit of a nerd. I’m not necessarily nerdy about the same things. I think that Leonardo knows more about graphic novels. I know more about musical theater.[/pullquote]Then when asked if they were anything like their characters, Baron sheepishly admitted, “I basically am Leonardo in a lot of ways. . . I’m always there with the sarcastic, sardonic, facetious, ironic, snarky remarks . . . I’m into a lot of the same things that Leonardo is into, just as a life-style thing. I hate saying this, but I’m a bit of a nerd. I’m not necessarily nerdy about the same things. I think that Leonardo knows more about graphic novels. I know more about musical theater. That’s just different.”

Speaking as to whether she shares similarities with Lauren, Virginia noted, “We do have some similarities. We have our little tendencies, but we’re quite different. I actually aspire to be more like Lauren. She is incredibly prompt, and poised, and meticulous, and so put together. She handles, I think, every situation with such grace and elegance that I actually, I think in my own life, try in a lot a ways to be more like her.” She also happily noted, “But I’m a lot goofier than Lauren. Lauren doesn’t have much goofy in her. Virginia has a lot of goofy in her. . . I am way sillier in real life than she is. I’m definitely more immature than she is. She’s incredibly mature. But, yes, I think she’s fabulous and I strive in a lot of ways to be like her.”

Taking a moment to explain how she perceives Lauren, Virginia also shared, “I read a blog recently that cracked me up. I think it was called ‘When Did Elegant Women Become Villains?’ It was just sort of fabulous. It was a fabulous kind of treatise on since when are all of these wonderful qualities things we’re not supposed to aspire to. I mean, we’re supposed to delight in the person falling on her face who actually is poised and well put together and is a role model.” Virginia explained that as far as Lauren, “I see her as all those things. I know she is seen as cold, but I don’t think that she actually is cold. I think she just, as I said earlier, she needs to win and she loved her husband intensely. She just had to marry a few decades up to find her true love. She just wants desperately to honor his name and his firm, and to make a name for herself, and to do everything in her power to put her best face forward, and try to save this firm. She’ll do whatever it takes. But, she never does anything evil. There’s nothing evil about her. I really think sometimes what they say about the evil-stepmother, and it kind of cracks me up because I can’t find a single thing in any of the scripts where she does anything that’s actually evil. She just might approach it in a more cold way. That’s just the way that she operates. We all [add in have] different ways of operating. And, she cannot be seen as someone who is incapable. So, her desperate attempt is to always look in control and capable. And she’s obviously so young. She’s the same age as Kate. She’s so young to be in this position, and to have this job, that her constant MO is proving to everyone that she can do it. She’s an underdog. She’s a woman in a man’s world. So, she has to fight twice as hard, ten times as hard, to be respected and taken seriously in her position.”

Also sharing a few wild-speculations on what they would love to see more of on Fairly Legal, Virginia did not hesitate to say that she would love to do more comedy. “That’s actually probably what I’m really thirsty for right now is doing more comedy. I love comedy. I feel very much like comedy is a forte of mine, and Lauren doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to be funny. So let’s hope and pray that in future seasons we get to see Lauren in more comedy. Maybe she can let her hair down, literally and figuratively, and make some people laugh.” Unable to resist, Baron then mischievously added, “Here’s what’s going to happen: Lauren and Leo go on a road trip and the car breaks down — comedy ensues!”

Despite her co-stars antics and efforts to distract her from the topics at hand, Virginia also talked about how in order to better prepare for her role she took the opportunity to talk with and shadow a top mergers-and-acquisition attorney — and what struck her foremost was how incredibly busy the woman was. Virginia explained, “I found this one woman particularly intriguing and interesting in just looking around her office and hearing about her day to day. She said she answers over 400 e-mails a day. That immediately gave me so much to work with as a character. If you’re someone who’s that important in answering 400 e-mails a day, you are never not busy and you do not have time for tardiness. You do not have time for silly antics. I mean you can see why Lauren is so frustrated with Kate so much, because for her it is not a game. It is a job.”

As far as his character, Baron revealed that he had actually worked in a law office for two years in a documentation tracking capacity, so the role of Leo has been particularly easy for him to relate to as a result. At that prior job, he described it as, “I was Google at this place. I was the walking Lexis-Nexis, if you will.” There was not a piece of paper or piece of information that he could not locate instantaneously – a trait which Leo shares in an amplified way on Fairly Legal.

Then teasing a bit about Leo’s romantic life, Baron noted that we will see more of Leo’s love life as the season develops. Virginia added that from her perspective, “I think it should be somebody just as fun and quirky as Leo is — someone that he could have really quick, ridiculous banter with would be the most fun to watch. He’s a really unique character on our show and, and well every character’s unique and very different in their own way. He doesn’t have any one he can really spar with. He somewhat can spar with Kate, but I think if he had an equal nerd, it would be really fun to watch them go at it.” Baron then playfully added, “That would be the shirt that we would wear — they’d both say, ‘Equal Nerds’.”

Noting that one of the more core relationships in the series is the constant undercurrent of animosity between Lauren and Kate, Virginia reflectively shared, “I don’t think that Lauren hates Kate the way that Kate hates Lauren. Meaning I don’t think that Lauren agrees with or respects the way that Kate handles her business or her personal life, and I think it drives Lauren a little crazy because they’re just such different people. . . . I think that’s where Lauren’s frustration with Kate comes from because she knows she’s her age, yet she acts so incredibly differently, and their maturity levels are on opposite ends of the spectrum.” She further noted, “I think that’s a struggle that Lauren deals with daily. Even in the pilot episode Lauren has a conversation with Kate where she tells her all of the people who have already jumped ship, and as soon as Teddy died the people that were near and dear friends to them have already gone to other law firms. So she constantly has to fight and constantly has to prove to everyone that though she may be young and inexperienced, she is still capable. That’s why she works so hard. So I think that she constantly is dealing with that old school mentality. She certainly married someone much, much older, and she knows full well that a lot of people viewed her as a trophy wife or something like that, but she knows that she really did love him and she knows that they had a unique and special bond. I think that they really got each other and they loved each other. So she’s always dealing with these older men, and not just older men, younger men. I mean, geesh, look even in the pilot someone who — he’s probably still quite a bit older than Lauren — but the man that propositions her at the dinner table. I mean, I think that she’s an underdog, and she’s a woman in a man’s world, and she’s seen as a sex object and incapable, and she has to constantly overcompensate for that. I think that’s why she dresses the way she does and wears her hair so ridiculously severely to try to do everything she can to present this image that she can take care of herself and that she can take care of the client.” Thus, with such pressure upon her, Lauren is trying to hold her life and the firm together — and the daily skirmishes with Kate only contributes to the balancing act under which Lauren finds herself struggling.

[pullquote]I’d love to have Lauren go over to Psych and maybe help them with some legal case they may be in.[/pullquote]Returning to a bit more playful mode, when asked which of the USA Network shows they would love to have a cross-over with, Virginia and Baron gleefully shared what would be their dream cross-overs. Virginia unabashedly gushed, “I have a huge crush on Mark Feuerstein – so I would love to go on Royal Pains! I actually tested for the role of Jill before I got this. I guess it was a year before, and I really liked that script. I thought it was a really good show. I think it all worked out for the best. I think I’m absolutely meant to play Lauren, and I love what I think I can specifically bring to her, so things happen for a reason. But, I think that’s a really fun show and everyone on it is just adorable. I guess that would be one I’d love to be a part of.” Though, upon a bit more reflection, she exclaimed, “I am a big Dulé fan too. . . So I’d love to have Lauren go over to Psych and maybe help them with some legal case they may be in. That would be lots of fun too!”

While sharing Virginia’s love for Royal Pains, particularly as Baron and Reshma Shetty have known each other from their days in New York together, Baron’s dream cross-over can be summed up in one line: “Michael Westen, meet Neal Caffrey.” He clearly has thought it out as he added, “It would be in Miami, but Neil’s got to come down to help Michael with something, and Leonardo is the only one who knows how to do the programming that they need to get done, and then stuff will explode. Then, me and Bruce Campbell will be best friends.”

Finally, as they are currently still amidst their first season and awaiting notice on whether the show will be picked up for a second season, Virginia candidly admitted, “We all want to continue to be a part of it. I know for myself I have fallen in love with the character of Lauren. I find her, of course I’m biased, but I find her the most interesting and complex of all of them and I would love to be able to explore her more and to play with her for years to come. . . . I just think she’s delicious. . . I would love to be able to play her for years to come, but none of us have any guarantees in this business. The entertainment industry is a very finicky one. So we just cross our fingers and pray to the ratings gods and hope that USA will smile upon us and give us another shot.”

Echoing Virginia’s sentiments, Baron said, “I absolutely agree with that. USA is very — they’re very picky with what they develop in the first place. So for them to go forward with the show at all is already a tremendous vote of confidence.”

In summary, Virginia happily shared, “I think we’re all quite confident that the show’s doing well. I think we’re all quite confident that the show’s doing well. People are responding to it. It has a great lead-in off in Royal Pains. I think it’s a wonderful pairing, these two shows together, and the response has been pretty incredible. I think I heard somewhere it was the best-reviewed USA show ever before it launched. So hopefully the audience will continue to find it and to keep watching, but I think we’re all pretty darn confident it will be renewed.”

On that high note, be sure to tune in for an all new episode of Fairly Legal on Thursday, March 4th at 10:00 p.m. on USA Network.