Shannen Doherty’s webseries is bold and bloody -- but funny

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FIVE QUESTIONS: SHANNEN DOHERTY

A few weeks ago, we brought you the exclusive first look at “Mari-Kari,” the new animated series from FEARnet, and the series makes its cyberspace premiere Thursday.The anime-inspired webisodes feature Shannen Doherty as the voice of identical twin sisters Mari and Kari; both are adorable and wide-eyed grade-school students, but one of them also happens to be a ruthless ghost who slices and dices anyone who crosses her living sister. Hero Complex contributor Yvonne Villarreal caught up with Doherty for a round of five questions — but the actress asked for your help answering one of them.

YV: You’re no stranger to television: If people don’t know you as Brenda Walsh on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” they know you as Prue Halliwell on “Charmed”… or even as the chick who frightened people on SyFy’s “Scare Tactics.” What prompted you to take on a Web series?

SD: So much interesting content is happening with the Internet nowadays. I mean, it’s a whole new medium and something everyone should be looking seriously into. So I was kind of happy to be approached to tackle something on the Web. Then I read it and I was dying of laughter in the car — someone else was driving and I was dying of laughter reading the script. It’s crazy. It’s as over the top as it gets. I had no idea how it was going to look. None. I went in to lay down my two voices, and it was just a blast.

YV: So which voice was easier for you to do? Mari has this sort of annoying perkiness to her voice, whereas Kari’s is more hoarse.

SD: Interestingly enough, I think Mari’s voice was easier even though Kari’s was more like mine. Mari was so annoying to do; she was driving me crazy, but it was still fun to do something so unlike me. Whereas with Kari, I had to get even more raspy and deeper. I thought I had Kari nailed because her voice was closest to mine -- but she was toughest one to do. And there were no real rules as to what they [executive producers Austin Reading and Jim Burns] wanted. They kind of left it very open. I didn’t practice too much. I really kind of wanted to just sit with them in a room. I laid down Mari track to see how far I could go with her. I didn’t know how over the top they wanted it. And they kind of wanted to just do it on the day and experiment and have fun with it. I think that was the right choice. And I have these different voices I’m capable of doing, but you don’t want to fall in love with one voice and then realize it’s not right for the character.

YV: Had you done voice-over work before?

SD: My very first voice-over was when I was 10 years old. Can you believe that? It was [1982’s] “The Secret of NIMH.” Very, very different from this. I was mouse-like and super sweet. Totally different. I definitely couldn’t draw inspiration from that.

YV: Given how enthusiastic you get when talking about it, I assume you liked the finished product. Any plans to bring it back for a second season?

SD: I love this series. It’s amazing. I didn’t even grow up watching cartoons. Now I love “South Park.” It’s clever. It’s smart, dry and super sarcastic. “Mari-Kari” is kind of like that. It’s very cutting-edge. It’s very, very, very funny … in this really horrific, horrific way. But that’s what makes it so unique. I love animation. And since I can’t actually watch horror movies -- I’ve never been a huge horror-film person; I can’t stomach it -- this was a nice alternative because it’s not just this gory thing with blood and guts flying everywhere. Although, it kind of is. But, I mean, it’s about this relationship between these sisters and how clever the writing is. That’s what attracted me to it.

YV: And it must be fun to live vicariously through Kari. So if Kari was roaming the halls of West Beverly High, who would be the first victim to meet her wrath?

SD: Ha! Wow, she would have a field day there. Hmmm. Who was mean to Brenda? Can we do a poll for the readers to decide?

Why yes, yes we can...

-- Yvonne Villarreal

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