SNMag: What initially drew you to the show and the character of Elena?
Nina Dobrev: Well, I remember reading it and just being drawn to the fact that she was this average girl who was damaged in many ways and then I did some research and found out that I would probably end up having to play Katherine too, who is the complete opposite. This is one of the rarest, coolest opportunities in television, to play two people on the same medium.

SNMag: What can you tell us about Katherine coming back at the end of the finale last season?
ND: The only thing I can really tell you is that she’s back, and if I told you any more I’d have to kill you or bite you or something. But, yeah, she is back and you can just imagine now that she’s back in action things are just going to get more and more intense. It’s fun to see what she is going to do because she is just so spontaneous and crazy, but I’m just as in the dark as you are because they don’t tell us anything until we get there.

SNMag: Who do you have more fun playing – Elena or Katherine?
ND: I think like anything in life, whatever you’re deprived from or you don’t get to do as often, you end up enjoying more than anything else because it’s like a guilty pleasure. So, whenever I play Katherine, because I do it seldom, I have the most fun playing her.

SNMag: Do you think Damon and Elena could ever have a good, healthy relationship?
ND: “Damon” and “healthy” in the same sentence? That’s funny! I don’t know, I mean, with the way the season ended, it doesn’t seem as though Damon and Elena are an item in any way because he didn’t really care for her. He chose Katherine. Little does he know he is totally falling in love with Elena but Elena truly doesn’t feel that way. She sees him as a buddy. She sees him as her boyfriend’s brother, and, at times, a pain in the butt. But their friendship and their chemistry are definitely growing.

SNMag: If it were up to you, which brother would you choose?
ND: Well, I would choose the other brother, definitely – or maybe a mixture of the two. I think both characters have different qualities that are very appealing so it just depends. If you combine them, they make the perfect man because Stefan is committed and sweet and protective and loving, and Damon is spontaneous and crazy and fun and exciting. Every woman has to find that guy who pushes all her buttons, and Damon and Stefan push different buttons for Elena.

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Forget Team Edward or Team What’s-His-Name, the fierce battle now brewing on Vampire Diaries day at Comic-Con is Damon versus Stefan…And Elena versus Katherine.

So is there any chance that Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev will be locking lips again in the new season—after that scorchingly hot kiss in the season one ender? We just chatted with the stars themselves and here’s what they say about the new season:

Nina:
Which Salvatore brother are you rooting for at this point for Elena to be with?
Defan! Their undisovered brother who is the perfect mix between the two.

Will you be kissing Ian again this season?
I will be kissing at least one Salvatore brother this season.

What’s up with Katherine coming back?
Last season I got to do it very little. I mostly played Elena and we teased to Katherine a little bit, but this year there’s gonna be a lot more Katherine. She’s back and she’s wreaking havoc and she’s up to no good. So it’s gonna be fun to kind of step into Damon’s shoes a little bit and play with them and mess with everyone’s minds.

How are you differentiating between Katherine and Elena as far as appearance?
Between the wardrobe stylist and the creators, we all kind of collaborate, but I’m very outspoken about the way I want Elena and Katherine to look and the fact that I want them to look differently. And one of the main things for example is Elena is a flared jean girl and Katherine is a skinny jeans and heels kind of girl. There’s little subtle things that create a different vision visually. They have to look different as much as they look the same.

You can read Ian and Paul’s answers here!

Vampire Diaries’ sexy leading lady Nina Dobrev has a confession: “I actually auditioned for Glee.”

The 21-year-old star gushed to TVGuide.com at the Warner Bros. party on Friday night about her love of Glee — and revealed that she went through the first-round auditions for the Emmy nominated series. We’ll never quite know which role she might’ve been up for as it was too early in the creative process and characters hadn’t been sorted out yet.

Pulling double duty in the new season of Vampire Diaries — where Dobrev will play both Elena and her vampire ancestor Katherine — hasn’t changed the star’s taste for joining the cast, even if it’s in a guest-starring role.

Glee’s Jenna Ushkowitz, who was also in attendance at the party, and bonded with Dobrev in Monaco at the Monte Carlo TV Fest, said she’d love to have the Diaries actress guest-star on the Fox series.

Seeing as Javier Bardem managed to talk his way into a guest-starring role in Season 2 of Glee, do you think Dobrev should be given the same chance?

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The cast of The Vampire Diaries have revealed that they love working on the flashbacks.

Nina Dobrev, who plays Elena and Katherine, told TV Squad that she often feels as if she has time-travelled.

“I like the flashbacks,” she said. “We all have fun because we get to go into a different time frame and get to do period work and put on these different costumes. When you’re on a film set, not only do you look different, but it’s a whole different world that they create.”

She added: “It’s a challenge and it’s different, so we’re very lucky. I love it because I get to put on the corset and the dress and play dress-up and get to fight people. It’s great.”

Meanwhile, Paul Wesley (Stefan) and Ian Somerhalder (Damon) explained that they like exploring different sides of their characters.

“There are different relationships,” Wesley said. “Damon and I love one another. We’re innocent, naive boys, and we fall in love with the wrong girl – or the right girl, that’s subjective – who makes us who we are.”

Somerhalder added: “I think that this woman came into their lives, really inspired them and made them think and feel things that they had never felt. However, having said that, the naiveté also lends itself to complete bliss. You get to see Stefan and Damon having so much fun together. It’s such a startling contrast to what you generally see them as.”

The Vampire Diaries returns for its second season on September 9 on The CW.

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Click here to watch an interview from Monte Carlo TV Festival!

Nina Dobrev has revealed that playing two roles on The Vampire Diaries is a challenge.

Dobrev stars as both Elena and Katherine in the show and told DS that she enjoys the opportunity.

“It’s kind of confusing,” she said. “But it’s exactly what I want. It’s the biggest, most welcome challenge.”

Dobrev added that Elena and Katherine are completely different characters.

“Both characters are very multi-dimensional and layered and complicated and flawed,” she said. “One is very sweet and a girl next door who has issues and tries to deal with them to the best of her abilities. And she has a lot of pressure coming from different directions but somehow manages to plough through and protects everyone and rises to the occasion when it’s difficult. She’s very strong and courageous, I think, and I admire her persistence.

“But at the same time, Katherine is this kind of twisted, maniac, crazy, narcissistic, selfish, vampire, bloodthirsty killer who sees the world as her gourmet buffet and she just has to have a taste of every single flavour, so she does.”

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Though it’s two weeks later, we’re still reeling from “The Vampire Diaries’” jaw-dropping season finale. Anna! Katherine! Oh my! Though we still have a long, hot summer to bear until season 2 starts, we can give you a few huge hints as to what the next season will hold. And we did say HUGE! “VD” executive producer and writer Julie Plec sat down for a THREE HOUR confab with The VRO to chat about the growing Elena-Damon-Stefan love triangle, Tyler Lockwood’s true nature and whether beloved Anna will ever return.

When last we left Damon he was smooching Elena, or so we (and he) thought until moments later when she whipped out that big butcher knife and let us know she was really Elena’s look-a-like, naughty vamp Katherine. So will deceived Damon continue to woo Elena in the upcoming season? “The only thing I can say about them for season two, is that it’s going to be a very profound triangle,” Julie said rather coyly, though she did drop a few hints. “Damon’s still got a long way to go until he’s man enough to deserve Elena. But he has a strong pull, a strong draw.” But with Katherine stalking Mystic Falls, Julie says to expect more of a “love square.” Though I was never good at geometry, that does sound rather intriguing, no?

And speaking of the ancient vampire diva, Julie confirmed that Katherine and Elena are indeed related (unlike in the book series), and that their connection will continue to be revealed. “Our position is very much that the bloodline is the Pierce bloodline. Isobel is part of that, as is Elena. Elena looks like Katherine, they’re doppelgangers. That’s the big question that will continue to be asked deep into the second season.”

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The Vampire Diaries‘ Nina Dobrev is used to playing the love of a tortured man, which makes The Hollywood Reporter‘s scoop that she’s been cast as Kellan Lutz’s wife in the film Deathgames understandable. This is the movie costarring Samuel L. Jackson as the evil mastermind that forces a kidnapped Lutz to fight in a modern gladiator arena to entertain the online masses. The cast also includes  Lost‘s Daniel Dae Kim as an artist/master of kendo (samurai-style sword fighting), as well as newly added James Remar (as “Tall Man”) and Derek Mears (as “Brutus Jackson”).

The nice thing about The Vampire Diaries is that even though that show’s really all about watching Ian Somerhalder’s eyebrows and torso, Dobrev holds her own. She can be the supportive girlfriend to Stefan (Paul Wesley), but still be the center of attention (especially when she’s playing vampire Katherine). I worry that the “wife role” in this film won’t do her justice, but you know, if someone offered me a part in a movie in which Samuel L. Jackson is the big bad, there’s a character named “Brutus Jackson,” and I could potentially love on an underwear model, I would probably take it, too. There are worse ways to spend a summer hiatus.

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Talk about teen angst! It’s hard enough to be dating a fangster like The Vampire Diaries’ Elena Gilbert does. But to stand by her undead man after catching him chowing down on another girl, now that marks a woman who doesn’t give up until she gets what she wants.

Minus the blood and biting, Nina Dobrev, who plays Elena, shares that same drive. It’s how she got the role. “Nina was one of the first girls to come in,” recalls executive producer Julie Plec. “She was sick, and we didn’t really look at her twice. So she went home to Toronto, put herself on tape and sent it in. It was so perfect our jaws fell on the floor.” Says Dobrev, “I loved the role so much that I had to keep fighting for it until I won it.”

The 21-year-old Bulgarian-born, Canadian-raised actress is no newcomer at reaching for the gold ring. As a former gymnast, she competed around the world. When she switched to acting at age 16, she landed the first three roles she auditioned for, including teen mom Mia Jones on the popular teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. After three seasons on the show, she hit the Hollywood pilot circuit and soon won the role of Elena on The Vampire Diaries.

Dobrev felt an immediate connection to the character. “She’s not a one-dimensional high-school girl who’s just about boys, popularity and clothes,” she says. “Elena’s strong and courageous and looks out for her loved ones.”

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So, if you watched last night’s totally intense, crazy-plot twist filled episode of “Vampire Diaries,” then there’s NO way you missed the part in which Isobel (Mia Kirshner) claims Damon (Ian Somerhalder) is in love with Elena (Nina Dobrev). That’s right, LOVE.

Now, obviously Damon denied it, claiming instead that Elena was his “only friend” (so cute!), but that doesn’t mean we’re buying it. After all, these two have loads of chemistry and tons of underlying tension…something is BOUND to happen, right?

To get our answer, we went straight to the source and asked Nina what she thought about the relationship between Damon and Elena.

“Everyone wants what they can’t have in some way, because it’s unattainable,” Nina explained to Hollywood Crush. “So right now, the fact that Elena and Damon aren’t together is what’s enticing, what people want.” OK, guess we’ll give her that one! Nina also added that the relationship between Damon and Elena isn’t exactly stable (also true).

“The relationship that Elena and Damon have is so wishy-washy, up and down, all over the page,” she said. Still, we think these two have  come along way, and Nina apparently agrees.

“At first she hated him because he was killing everyone she knows, then she sort of started to understand him because she realized that every person has different qualities — good, bad, ups downs — and that everything he’s doing, he’s doing for his love. For Katherine, to get Katherine back. So there’s a reason, it’s not justified, but it’s explained, it makes sense,” she says with a laugh, “Well sort of.”

Nina further elaborated that one of the things to really cement the bond between Elena with Damon was Stefan’s human-blood drinking binge. “[Elena and Damon] got to know each other, and through Stefan’s downward spiral, they were able to connect in a different kind of way.”

The conclusion? “Right now they are just friends. I’m sorry to disappoint,” she said with a sly, knowing smile. So, there you have it, Crushers: right now, it’s just friendship. But of course, we all know “Vampire Diaries” loves a good twist, so let’s just say we’re not holding Nina to her word on this one!

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