Some actors appear in a number of indie films before making it big. Others become famous because of a blockbuster franchise, like Kristen Stewart playing Bella in Twilight.
Another path is starring as the main character in a beloved TV show. That's how Nina Dobrev found success, and fans loved watching the young star portray Elena Gilbert, a normal teen girl who became a vampire swept up in an incredible and epic love story, on The Vampire Diaries.
Dobrev left the show to pursue other movies, which begs the question: did she like playing Elena on TVD?
Nina's Experience
Nina Dobrev might have wanted to leave the show early, but it sounds like she had a wonderful time playing Elena Gilbert. The actress explained to TV Guide that she's glad she played this role.
Dobrev explained, "Looking back on the last six years, which I've been doing a lot of through my pictures and the fans, it's almost like a relationship. The fans are as much a part of our family as we are on set and so I'm really happy I got to go on this journey and we got to experience this together. It's been great and I'm so grateful to have been a part of it and now it's time for me, Nina, to get to go off and live my human life."
It can be a little nerve-wracking hearing about audition stories. In Dobrev's case, it didn't really go that well. According to Entertainment Weekly, Julie Plec, the show's executive producer, Dobrev wasn't feeling well during her audition and no one took too much notice of her.
Dobrev mailed in a tape after that and said that she was super interested in playing Elena. Plec said that Dobrev "put herself on tape, which then got sent to us and it was so magical and so perfect that she basically had the job from that minute forward."
Dobrev told The Hollywood Reporter that she had made the decision to quit The Vampire Diaries for a few years before it came out, and she said that while some people were sad, others knew it was the right thing for her.
Dobrev also shared in that interview that playing Elena kept her very busy. She said, "There were daily challenges, there were yearly challenges, there were character challenges. The whole show was challenging in different ways throughout the six years. The multiple characters, the hours, creating characters, deaths. I was constantly crying, it felt like. But for that reason, it kept me occupied, I was never bored, it never felt stale. I always came to work excited, and looking forward to the next thing I got to do."
Elena Plus Katherine
For many actors, getting the chance to portray a character over several seasons of a TV show is awesome, as they can really get to know them just as much as the fans do.
In Dobrev's case, she played Elena as well as Elena's doppelganger, Katherine. Katherine Pierce (whose birth name is Katerina Petrova) is incredibly jealous of Elena and becomes an evil force in her life. In the season four episode "Graduation," Katherine visited Elena and Elena gave her the cure. This was an absolutely wild moment and the reason why so many fans loved watching The Vampire Diaries.
Dobrev also enjoyed playing Katherine because the show did "period" episodes.
According to Cinemablend.com, Dobrev said that she really liked the episode "Lost Girls." She said the episode went back to 1864 and explained, "And we meet Katherine for the first time in the period piece times, and that was really fun to shoot and also a really fun character introduction to make. I loved playing that role, and I love doing period pieces and going back in time. It was really a real treat."
While Dobrev knew it was the correct time to leave the series, she did love playing Elena, although she didn't love working with co-star Paul Wesley at first.
In 2019, Dobrev and Wesley starred in a video where they joked about not liking each other in the past and said they were putting that behind them. According to People, Dobrev said in the video, "You don’t hold grudges. I love you, thank you, I appreciate it."
After she stopped playing Elena Gilbert (and Katherine), Nina Dobrev starred in the 2018 movie Dog Days, along with 2019's Run This Town and Lucky Day. Fans can look out for her in the romantic comedy Love Hard about a girl who deals with catfishing while online dating, and since it's set at Christmas, it sounds like a fun story.