Take 5 With The Vampire Diaries – Nina Dobrev

I can’t believe that the Season 4 premiere of The Vampire Diaries is already upon us! To help you get ready for this evening, here’s the first in a series of mini-features that I’m calling “Take 5 With The Vampire Diaries”. In this one, the spotlight’s on Nina Dobrev who is sure to be in for quite the season now that Elena’s a vampire!

Are you excited to play Elena as a vampire?

Yes. Definitely excited about it. When you’re doing a show for this long, you need change. And I have the best of all the scenarios. I get to play 2 characters, but Elena as much as she was evolving, she needed to evolve into this next step, despite the fact that she didn’t want it.

What are you looking forward to most about Elena this season?

To go on the journey with her, and see how she deals with things. It’s sad, though. She never wanted this – at all. And now she has no choice, not just for today, but forever. She’s stuck with this lifestyle. But who knows? Everything happens for a reason, and maybe one day she’ll be really thankful and happy that she gets to live through different eras and different times. Maybe she will leave all these boys behind and find a cure for cancer and make some good of it.

What kind of vampire do you see Elena becoming?

At first? Sad. I mean, because all your emotions are heightened. Probably hormonal, like when you’re going through puberty in a way. Completely upset at times, and then happy at times. It’s a roller coaster ride, and luckily the audience gets to watch and go on the ride with her.

Were you surprised to learn that Elena had met Damon first?

I WAS! When I read that episode I was all ‘*Gasp* Oh no!’ And it almost made me love Damon more, for not telling her. That was his act of selflessness and love. And Elena didn’t always feel what he wanted her to feel, and he didn’t just say that so she would choose him. He wanted her to choose him for who he was.

Is it going to be hard not to bring in a little bit of Katherine into how you play Elena this season?

Yeah, that’s going to be my biggest challenge and I have to keep reminding myself. When you’re doing a scene as a vampire, all you want is to be a badass, but I have to make sure that I’m a tame badass; a guilty vampire. That’s been my whole thing – making them two different people. The fact of the matter is they’re both going to react differently in the same situations because they’re different people, and [have] different thought processes.

Photo Courtesy of The CW