If I could post nothing but gifs of Ashley Clements' consistently contorting face for the rest of this blog, I would. But alas, that is not allowed because this is a thesis project.
So clearly, this lovely lady plays Lizzie. And a whole host of other characters sometimes too.
Her name is Ashley Clements. Here is some background information about her:
> Originally from San Francisco, Ashley is an actress with an MFA from The Old Globe/USD. Theater credits include Since Africa, Sea of Tranquility, Cyrano de Bergerac, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and Fiddler on the Roof. Ashley has also appeared on other web programs from channels such as BlackBoxTV and Geek and Sundry, and shows such as VGHS and Assignment Unexplained. According to her resume (where most of this information is coming from), Ashley is also SAFD certified in unarmed combat, versed in the dialects of RP, Cockney, Irish, Standard
American, various Southern, and French, can singing soprano with belt, can tap dance
(5 years), ride horseback, and do yoga. Fascinating stuff. Makes you want to hire her right now, doesn't it? You totally should. Fans (especially of her tumblr) also know that she has a cat named Perdita, is sort of friends with Wil Wheaton, is very close with her LBD costars, loves her LBD fans (and constantly re-blogs fan art, gifs of her face, and almost anything else they make), and, on a more personal note, has openly (or semi-openly?) battled with depression. She also seems to be an advocate for women and equality in general, which is awesome. Ashley currently resides in Los Angeles, and many of her fans are eagerly awaiting her next project.
Time for the next Bennet sister! Or as Lydia would say, time for the adorbs!
I would love to post tons more gifs, but I just don't have the space. So here's a good one:
Lydia Bennet, youngest sibling, is played by Mary Kate Wiles. Ready, set, background info GO!
> Mary Kate is a 25 year old (as of Feb, 2014) actress from Fayetteville, Arkansas who moved to California to go to USC. She has performed in numerous plays, both at and outside of college. Some theater productions post school include Anne of Green Gables, The Winter's Tale, and A Christmas Carol. MK has appeared in film, notably the indie thriller Dark Woods and rom-com Dreamworld. She has also made television appearances, such as a brief guest starring role on The Middle. MK has a strong web presence, also starring in Squaresville and School of Thrones (among other web shows) and co-running the channel Loosely Bolted. According to her resume she really seems to have hit almost every other medium available to her, having also appeared in music videos and doing quite a bit of modeling. Her adorable cat is also a breakout star of LBD. Fun facts: Mary Kate loves Lord of the Rings, sweet tea, and coffee.
Any of you who have read the book but have yet to see the show are probably thinking, "Hey wait, aren't you missing some?" Why yes, I am. But on this show they were done a little differently.
Meet cousin Mary Bennet. Yes, cousin.
I know this is going to make it so much longer, BUT I JUST CAN'T NOT POST IT.
That moment = win. So Mary. Hmm. Her face just looks so familiar. It kind of reminds me of someone... OH HEY I KNOW - GUYS, THIS IS KALEY CUOCO'S LITTLE SISTER BRIANA. Yea, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting of The Big Bang Theory. Say what? WHAT.
Ok, I got a little overly excited there. But still, it blew my mind when I first found out. I'm sure she would rather stand alone and not be compare to her sister all the time, and I respect that, but I still think it's a cool connection...
> Born in Ventura, Briana Cuoco is also 25 (as of right now) and an actress and singer. She has appeared on The Nightmare Room (TV, non-starring), The Newsroom (TV, ns), The Big Bang Theory (TV, guest, YES IT HAPPENED), The Mentalist (TV, ns), Crisis (TV, ns), and the soon to be released Beauty in the Broken (Film?). Another super awesome thing about her is that she also was a contestant on season 5 of The Voice! You can see her first performance here. Spoiler alert: she picks Xtina over CeeLo. I'd have done the same, Bri. Unfortunately she didn't survive the knockout round, but hey, at least we got her hilarious acting chops on LBD!
> Finally, there is the elusive Kitty. In the book Catherine Bennet is the sister that follows dear Lydia around, and in the show she is the kitty that follows Lydia around. Yes, please note the intentional caps and not caps. On the show she is a cat, played by MK Wiles' pet Rosie. This is no joke, you can see Kitty the kitty in this aptly titled episode here. She also had her own twitter.
While this is a list of all of the actors on the show, there are many instances of "costume theater" in which Lizzie and usually another character will dress up and reenact moments from their lives. For example, before Darcy is introduced on camera he is shown via the characters dressing as him in costume theater. Lizzie might pretend to be him while one of her sisters pretends to be her. Instances with Lizzie by herself or characters dressing up without Lizzie are more rare, but can also occur.
Some characters are never shown and are only seen through use of costume theater, such as Lizzie's parents Mr. and Mrs. Bennet (with the exception of a glimpse of Mrs. Bennet's behind).
Example of Lizzie as Mrs. Bennet sobbing about the perpetually single and unmarried state of her daughters:
After a costume is used to portray an unavailable character, it becomes the one and only costume used from then on in order to avoid confusion. For example Lizzie is always the plaid button down shirt, Darcy is always the bow-tie and newsie cap (click for image of both of them in these outfits), and Mrs. Bennet is always the above outfit of a shawl and sun hat (if that's what you'd call it?).
Here is a fun Fan-made amalgamation of all instances of Darcy costume theater:
The shortest episode: The Charming Mr. Lee (episode 11) = 2 minutes and 41 seconds.
The longest episode: An Understanding (episode 87) = 8 minutes and 12 seconds.
Over 10 hours of Lizzie's vlog
Over 1 hour of extras
TOTAL: Approximately 12.72 hours of footage*
(*I did this probably incorrect math myself and included the Collins & Collins Kickstarter bonus videos. With my math I got approximately these numbers: Lizzie - 10.8hrs, Lydia - 1.19hrs, Domino - 0.3hrs, C&C - 0.195hrs, and Maria - 0.23hrs. Please correct me in the comments if I got any of these numbers wrong.)
Note: Due to the constantly changing values, episodes will not be categorized by views, thumbs, or comments. Nor will they be listed by importance, because then I would be making qualitative judgements and right now this is just basic history and facts. Thank you.
*There were a selection of Collins & Collins application videos sent in by fans. Kelsey Geller sent in this video, and I presume she got "hired" and was henceforth selected to guest in a Collins & Collins episode. Her submission was not an official LBD video, but the C&C episode was (and is included in my episode count).
My professor/advisor told me today that she doesn't really like Jane. She loves Lydia the most and Jane the least (as of about 40ish episodes in).
And to that I say: While Jane may be more on the dull and sickly-sweet side (not always!), she definitely has some of the best Darcy impressions on the show.
Jay Bushman: Credits include - Dark Wall,The Good Captain(Twitter story), Dirty Work, Airship Dracula, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and Welcome to Sanditon. > Jay Bushman is a writer and transmedia producer. What a great gig. Transmedia producer. So basically he writes a lot of the twitter conversations and other social media aspects of the script. He gets paid to tweet. I want to do that. Much of his work was in association with Rides.tv, a groundbreaking new studio that experiments in new types of transmedia. Jay also co-founded Transmedia LA, an organization for transmedia creators.
These are the most prominently mentioned team members, so I will be stopping here.
There are other members of the team, and they are listed in the previous post.
Note: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries as a credit can also include the related spin-off episodes, including Better Living With Collins and Collins, Maria of the Lu, Domino: Gigi, and The Lydia Bennet.
Written on Wednesday, February 05, 2014 by Unknown
Before explaining the transmedia aspect of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, I first need to provide some basic information. I also want to make it abundantly clear how crazily intense this experience was as I was participating live. There were an extraordinary amount of internet outlets to follow and it was by far the most immersive transmedia experience I had ever engaged in.
In total, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries ran 42 different web pages (excluding sub-pages, such as on the official website). This also excludes any personal accounts by the creators or any other web sites that were not a part of the overall storytelling or universe. It took a long time to find every single one. But here they are:
