Nina Dobrev, 'Elena' for Vampire Diaries

Tell us about your character Elena.

Elena is your average girl but she has suffered a great loss. She lost her parents in a car accident that she was involved in. And it isn't until she meets Stefan that everything changes. She feels lost and then she meets this person who understands the loss and they have a deeper connection. At this point she doesn't know anything about his being a vampire! That will come later. But it will! And when it does happen it's going to be good, I can't wait.

And then it has a sexy love triangle

Oh yeah. That's definitely the good part. I mean look what I get to work with! It's not too bad.

So how will the story pan out over the season?

I just read the next episode and it gets really intense. It's not one of those shows that drags things on and leaves you hanging. They get to the meat fast. It gets dark and bloody and gory as you can expect a vampire show to get, but there are light moments too. So it's got a lot of different aspects of everything that people like and I think it will appeal to a lot of people. Hopefully people are really going to like it.

How did you come to get this part in this show? Was it a casting or did they call you?

Yeah, I just moved to the States from Canada in January of this past year, and my first audition for my first pilot was The Vampire Diaries.

Do you like vampire stories? Have you read Twilight? Do you watch True Blood?

Yeah. I have read the Twilight books and I watch True Blood religiously. I think it's a great show. And I turned into a big nerdy fan when I saw them. It was kind of embarrassing, because I was on the Comic Con panel signing autographs and the cast of True Blood were up above, and I was waving. They were like, "Why is that girl signing autographs waving at us?" It was really fun but cool.

Do you remember the first time you read a story about vampires?

Dracula. That was my first. Growing up, I remember Dracula, Romania, all those legends. I mean they're scary. The concept of somebody who's able to drink your blood and attack you, that's one of your kind but you can't even recognise – you wouldn't know it. You could be a vampire right now and we wouldn't know.

From the promos, we have seen that the boys fight a lot, but will we get to see Elena fight back a bit as well?

You know, I have been asking the same question to the writers. I keep reading the scripts and I’m like, "When do I get to jump off a building?" I grew up with an older brother playing every sport that you could possibly imagine, so by next year I'm totally going to be starring in one of those Angelina Jolie Wanted-esque movies. I really want to do that. But anyway, yeah, I think eventually there's going to be some stuff. There are a lot of things that I can't talk about that are going to come up that are complete – if you'd read the books you'd know – but they just throw you off, you wouldn't even see it coming.  

Which one of the guys is your favourite?

I love them both. They're like my brothers. To be completely honest. They're older than I am, and I've just moved here, so they're giving me advice. They both came with me to buy my first car a few days ago, and little things like that. They've really been helping me out a lot.

Do you think your character is going to have fun with a boy and throw them away?

I think she has higher moral standards than that <laughs>. Maybe she'll get confused at some point, but Stefan is her love.

So do you think Elena could have Bella Swan in a fight?

Could I have Bella in a fight? I don't know. I like Kristen Stewart, she's great. So I've no idea. I couldn't. I don't know. I don't want to start anything! <laughs>

You can watch Vampire Diaries on VUZU TV on Mondays at 8.30pm.