United in Love

THERE are fans and then there are fans of The Vampire Diaries. Those latter fans, series star Nina Dobrev insists, can give even the most ardent ‘Twi-hards’ a serious run for their blood-soaked money.

‘’Our fans seem like they’re a different race, a different species of human being,’’ Dobrev says. ‘’They’re really cool. They’re united by their love for Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder), I presume, and for the show. They’re really committed. It’s one of the big pop-culture references these days, and it’s great.

‘’I have a cousin who’s a couple of years younger than I am,’’ she continues. ‘’She’s in high school, and she tells me that, if you haven’t watched the show, you don’t really have anything to talk about the next day at school.

‘’So they’re really, really passionate,’’ Dobrev says, ‘’and they’ll fly in from everywhere to come to these fan conventions that we sometimes do. We had some kids all the way from Spain and Australia fly to Atlanta at one point to meet us and hang out on set. They’re really committed, and we’re really grateful to all of them.’’

Speaking by telephone from the Vampire Diaries set in Atlanta as the show gears up for the second half of its third season, Dobrev sounds remarkably modest about her own contributions to the CW network’s popular vampire saga. After all, she’s arguably twice as important as any other actor on the show: She stars as Elena Gilbert, a young human woman torn between the aforementioned Salvatore brothers, vampires Stefan and Damon, but she doesn’t stop there. Since late in Season 1, Dobrev also has portrayed Katherine Pierce, a vampire who is related to Elena and turned both Salvatores.

‘’I love playing Elena and Katherine,’’ Dobrev says, ‘’and it’s been a juggling act more than anything. I, throughout my career – up until now and after this, I’m sure – will be playing many, many different characters, and each character is always going to be a complete 180, a whole new experience. But having to do that on the same show, at the same time, is a first for me.

‘’So it’s been more about learning to manage time and learning when to let go,’’ she continues. ‘’I’m a perfectionist, I put 110 per cent into everything. Trying to do that for two characters, I’ve been putting in 220 per cent. It’s been a lot ofwork, but really cool. It confused me sometimes, early on, and I learned, when you’re doing something like this 10 months a year for possibly six years, you have to preserve your energy.

‘’I feel like it’s been acting boot camp,’’ the 22-year-old actress continues. ‘’I’ve done everything on this show, a lot of things many actors don’t get to do throughout their whole career. So there’s nothing I can’t do or achieve after this.’’

Of course Dobrev’s days on The Vampire Diaries are far from over. As she noted, the show may well run for six seasons, and the second half of Season 3 will kick off on Jan. 5 with the episode The New Deal, followed on Jan. 12 by Our Town. The first half of the season focused on family and humanity, and ended with Katherine admitting genuine feelings for both Stefan and Damon, and with Klaus (Joseph Morgan), a powerful Original vampire, furious and vowing to kill everyone and anyone Stefan has ever known.

‘’There’s going to be a really big shift,’’ Dobrev says. ‘’The power has changed, and the leverage is in different places. Klaus, instead of being the ruler and kind of the dictator, is now at the mercy of Stefan. Stefan has what Klaus wants, and he has to do what Stefan wants.

‘’It’s not just that Klaus will do what Stefan wants,’’ she continues, ‘’it’s that he’ll do so willingly. He’ll put up a fight, but Stefan has Klaus’ family, and at the end of the day family is the absolute most important thing, before friends, before the person you love. It’s a theme of the show, because of the vampires, but blood is what matters most.’’

Meanwhile, in the first-half finale, Homecoming, Katherine admitted that she experiences twinges of humanity and acknowledged that she occasionally has let that humanity get in her way. Dobrev promises that The New Deal and subsequent episodes will examine the implications of Katherine’s nugget of self-realisation, which also surely will affect Elena.

‘’She’s been running for so long and she’s been looking out for no one but herself all this time,’’ the young actress says. ‘’She’s been left by herself. She doesn’t have a sidekick or any friends or anyone she can share her triumphs with. That makes her sad, and she’s shifting her priorities. I think she’ll always look out for her survival, but now she’s going to try to revive friendships and a few relationships.

‘’Elena, I think, is getting a little tougher and a little stronger,’’ Dobrev continues. ‘’She’s changing and evolving and learning to defend herself. She’s not taking anyone else’s B.S. anymore and doesn’t want to be a victim anymore. I think she’s over it. She wants to be in control and in control of her destiny, and not be at the mercy of all the vampires and all these mystical things in the town.

‘’So she’s going to have to keep getting stronger.’’