One of the clips featured the famed DJ, whom James dubbed 'the Frank Sinatra of electronic dance music,' meditating before his sold-out sets and even striking Christ-like poses on stage.
- August 4, 2017
AceShowbiz -
James Van Der Beek, who is known for his role as Dawson on "Dawson's Creek", makes a grand return to the small screen with upcoming Viceland scripted comedy "What Would Diplo Do?". And yes, he will be portraying EDM super-celebrity DJ Diplo in seemingly such a ridiculously funny way.
"What Would Diplo Do?" follows Diplo, celebrity DJ, producer and Major Lazer star, as he plays festivals across the globe and lives up to his reputation as one of the genre's most self-aggrandizing personalities. One of the clips even featured the famed DJ, whom James dubbed "the Frank Sinatra of electronic dance music," meditating before his sold-out sets and even striking Christ-like poses on stage.
"If Buddha said we should have no material possessions then why was he so fat. And why are monks always be asking for money? I bet if Jesus was on Twitter he'd have more followers than Buddha. Except Buddha talks like a tweet, super short and confusing. But Jesus was so global, though. I bet Jesus had more haters than Buddha. That means more followers. Do you spell haters with a 's' or a 'z'?" said James' Diplo in a voiceover while he was meditating.
During his appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", James spoke of the meditation clip, "Diplo has no problem with us making fun of him, so we just went wild. So this is our imagined version of what Diplo would meditate about if he meditated."
James revealed that when he met Diplo before taking the role for the series, the DJ surprisingly asked him to make him look "completely ridiculous." James went on explaining, "He's just so allergic to taking himself too seriously. And he's confident in his own abilities and things he's got going on to genuinely not give a s**t."
The 40-year-old actor disclosed that this was actually not the first time he played fake Diplo. He was asked by Viceland and director Brandon Dermer to play Diplo in a short film promoting the DJ's "Mad Decent Block Party", a touring concert series featuring the top names in electronic dance music (EDM). "I had flagged Diplo as a musical genius a couple years back when I heard him on the radio talking about fusing Latin beats and reggaeton and putting it all together," the father-of-four said.
"What Would Diplo Do?" premieres on Thursday, August 3 at 10 P.M. on Viceland.
