Nina Dobrev has played many iconic movie and tv show characters throughout her long career. Her portrayal of Elena Gilbert on 'Vampire Diaries is still widely loved and respected.
Now she's walking us through some of her most memorable roles, how the characters were created, what inspired the look and details of these roles, and their impact on her career and pop culture.
Catch Nina Dobrev starring in 'The Out-Laws,' now streaming on Netflix!
Now she's walking us through some of her most memorable roles, how the characters were created, what inspired the look and details of these roles, and their impact on her career and pop culture.
Catch Nina Dobrev starring in 'The Out-Laws,' now streaming on Netflix!
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00:00 I was very green, I didn't know what a mark was,
00:02 I didn't know where you're supposed to stand.
00:04 I was really learning very quickly.
00:07 Hi Harper's Bazaar, I am Nina Dobrev
00:10 and I'm going to break down how I brought
00:12 some of my characters to life.
00:14 (upbeat music)
00:16 I'm Mia Jones.
00:20 I was Adlai Kirst.
00:23 - Yeah, yeah, you had a baby.
00:24 - For those of you who do not know who Mia Jones is,
00:28 Mia Jones is a character that I played
00:30 on a show called Degrassi, The Next Generation.
00:32 One of my first jobs ever,
00:34 and you can kind of tell when you watch.
00:36 Mia was a teen mom, she had a young daughter
00:40 and she transferred to Degrassi.
00:41 When I left the show to film Vampire Diaries years later,
00:44 they had to figure out a way to write me off.
00:46 They had Mia become a model and fly off somewhere in Europe
00:49 and go be a high fashion model.
00:52 I have to move to Paris.
00:58 Paris, France?
00:59 So I remember the wardrobe at the time,
01:01 I didn't have the confidence, let's just say,
01:03 because it was my first job to really influence
01:05 too much of the wardrobe.
01:06 I was reliant on the wardrobe stylist at the time
01:10 on the show and so she was very sensible
01:13 'cause she was a mom but she was also a young teenager
01:15 who wanted to look good at school.
01:17 And then as the character evolved,
01:19 it was a little bit more higher fashion,
01:21 a little bit more chic.
01:22 I'll never forget stepping in the hair and makeup chair
01:25 for the first time.
01:26 I was 14 so I remember not really ever really knowing
01:29 what to do with my hair.
01:30 It was just kind of perpetually frizzy and big and wild.
01:33 And so when I sat in the chair,
01:35 the hair stylist took my texture and sort of bumped it up.
01:38 She ended up curling every single hair
01:41 with a really thin iron.
01:42 So it was very curly and very vivacious.
01:45 As she got into more high fashion,
01:47 she sort of like, it got more relaxed
01:49 and more effortless throughout the seasons.
01:51 Playing a teen mom was very interesting.
01:54 I obviously at the time did not have any children
01:57 and still do not have any children.
01:59 So it took a lot of imagination and talking to people.
02:02 But my character was going through a lot.
02:05 It's challenging for anyone to have a young child,
02:09 let alone for someone who themselves is still a child
02:12 to become a mother.
02:13 And so it was a welcome challenge
02:16 and exciting thing to get to play,
02:18 especially for one of my first roles
02:20 to sort of take something on that was so big.
02:21 I was very green.
02:23 I didn't know what a mark was.
02:24 I didn't know where you're supposed to stand.
02:26 I was really learning very quickly
02:29 and was probably very overwhelmed as well.
02:33 But it was also a cast of other kids.
02:36 Like we were all roughly around the same age.
02:38 And so it was really cool to have that built-in community
02:40 and build those friendships that I still have to this day.
02:43 So the show was really edgy for its time.
02:46 This is, remember, 20 years before "Euphoria" came out.
02:49 So we've been surpassed now.
02:51 But at the time, it was one of the first shows
02:54 that swore on national television.
02:56 It was one of the first shows that showed drug use
02:59 and teen pregnancy.
03:01 And so it was very impactful and I think helpful
03:04 for kids to be able to see their own issues
03:07 played out on television, to know that they're not alone.
03:10 And I think it had a really strong impact.
03:12 [dramatic music]
03:14 - You must be Elena.
03:15 - The next character I'm going to highlight
03:22 is Elena Gilbert on "The Vampire Diaries."
03:24 She was a high school student
03:25 who had recently lost her parents.
03:27 So it was a bit of a heavier tone starting out
03:30 in terms of what she was personally going through.
03:33 And throughout the first episode,
03:35 she meets two boys/men that she later falls in love with,
03:40 and they happen to be vampires.
03:42 She gets entangled in this dramatic love triangle
03:46 and eventually gets entangled into a sci-fi universe.
03:52 All right, universe.
03:53 Enough screwing around.
03:56 We're ready for the good stuff.
03:57 At this point in my career now, I've been on a show,
04:01 the lead of this new show.
04:02 I definitely had a little bit more say and sway
04:05 in my wardrobe and I collaborated
04:07 with the wardrobe stylist on the show
04:09 and created Elena's look.
04:11 At the time, Elena felt very innocent, sort of sheltered,
04:16 and I wanted her wardrobe to reflect that.
04:19 So Elena was a little bit more buttoned up in that way,
04:21 and then eventually when Catherine was introduced,
04:23 Catherine was much edgier.
04:26 She's been around a lot longer.
04:27 She's a century-old vampire,
04:29 so she's lived through a lot of fashion
04:31 and a lot of different eras,
04:32 and she's a lot more confident.
04:34 Through these two characters,
04:35 I definitely found different parts of myself,
04:38 and Catherine gave me more confidence
04:40 and made me grow up in a way.
04:43 - What's with the hair?
04:45 - I'm impersonating my doll as dishwater doppelganger, Elena.
04:49 She has the worst taste.
04:50 Elena and Catherine were really incredible roles,
04:53 and I'm so happy that I got to play them
04:55 because the show went on for eight years, eight seasons,
04:59 and over those years, Elena was a human
05:03 who fell in love with two men.
05:04 Then she lost her brother,
05:06 lost a lot of her family and friends,
05:08 and so as an actor, there's a lot to pull from
05:11 and work from there, and it really kept it interesting
05:13 and kept it challenging.
05:14 I was very busy, let's just put it that way.
05:17 The show was huge.
05:18 It was extremely beloved.
05:20 The fans were, and still are, so incredibly loyal.
05:25 You know, I'd had a lot of success on Degrassi,
05:28 or so I thought, but I don't think I really knew
05:31 what success was until The Vampire Diaries.
05:35 I wasn't used to that.
05:36 It was actually slightly overwhelming,
05:39 but it was incredible, and it's changed my life.
05:41 It's given me so many opportunities
05:43 that I absolutely would not have had
05:44 if it wasn't for the show,
05:45 and so I'm extremely grateful to it,
05:47 and I know that we all are.
05:48 - So you haven't even met this dude yet?
05:51 - Well, not in person, but--
05:53 - Oh, I take it all back.
05:54 No, I take everything back.
05:55 You should write about this.
05:56 - The next character I'm gonna talk about
05:58 is Natalie from Love Hard.
06:01 Natalie is a journalist, an aspiring writer
06:06 who wants to be taken more seriously.
06:09 Her next big story that she's pitching is a love story.
06:13 Natalie meets a guy on a dating app.
06:15 She decides to surprise him and fly across the country
06:18 from LA to upstate New York to meet him over Christmas.
06:22 Everything appears to be going according to plan
06:25 until she arrives and finds out that she has been catfished.
06:28 - Surprise!
06:29 - Natalie?
06:31 What are you doing here?
06:35 - The wardrobe on this movie was interesting
06:38 because my character at the beginning,
06:40 obviously she lives in LA,
06:41 so she has more of a city style.
06:45 But once she gets to New York, her bags get lost.
06:49 She has nothing.
06:50 So essentially she's wearing the guy's clothing
06:53 and she goes to his family store,
06:55 which is a really tiny town.
06:58 And it's kind of like flannel shirts
07:01 and baggier pants and hiking boots, beanies.
07:04 It's winter now.
07:05 It's not warm like it is in LA.
07:07 And so it's a very different style experience for that one.
07:10 They were trying to put me in more fitted clothing
07:15 despite the fact that my bags got lost.
07:16 And I really put my foot down.
07:18 I was like, "No, it should be all mountain gear.
07:20 "It's gotta be real."
07:21 I didn't wanna look super polished and pretty.
07:25 I wanted it to be real.
07:26 So the movie title is "Love Hard,"
07:28 but it's a combination
07:30 of the two characters' favorite movies,
07:32 which are "Die Hard" and "Love Actually."
07:34 "Love Actually," worst Christmas movie ever.
07:39 And I've been pitching that for the sequel,
07:40 if we were to do one, should be "Die Actually"
07:43 or "Love Hard 2," "Love Harder."
07:45 One of my favorite scenes to shoot
07:47 was probably our iteration of "Baby, It's Cold Outside,"
07:50 which is a very controversial song.
07:52 So in our film, we altered the lyrics and it was nighttime.
07:56 I think it was like four in the morning.
07:57 We were tired and cold,
07:59 but it ended up being such a beautiful scene and funny.
08:02 It's just like a fresh take
08:04 of this very controversial, older, classic Christmas song.
08:08 [crowd laughing]
08:11 - I wanna do that.
08:14 - In terms of the impact, I mean,
08:16 I know a lot of people love the movie.
08:17 It did really well.
08:18 It was my first time having a movie
08:20 be number one worldwide on Netflix,
08:22 which was really fun and exciting.
08:23 My parents just emailed that they're coming to our wedding.
08:26 - Oh, I get to meet your parents finally.
08:28 Are you psyched?
08:29 You're not psyched.
08:30 Are you psyched at all?
08:30 Is there any psyched happening?
08:32 - The next character I'd like to talk about is Parker.
08:34 Parker is a character that I'm playing
08:37 in a movie called "The Outlaws,"
08:38 which is coming out on Netflix on July 7th.
08:41 In this film, I play a yoga instructor
08:44 who has a lot of tattoos everywhere,
08:47 and she's marrying Owen, who's played by Adam Devine,
08:50 and she's unaware that her parents,
08:52 played by Ellen Barkin and Pierce Brosnan,
08:56 happen to also be outlaws.
08:57 So for this role, I wanted, you know,
08:59 she's a yoga instructor,
09:00 so I wanted her to be a little bit more
09:02 free-spirited and adventurous,
09:06 and I don't have any tattoos.
09:08 I have a love-hate relationship with them
09:10 where I really admire them.
09:11 I think they're so cool, but I'm so scared of needles.
09:13 And so we found a perfect balance
09:15 where we had fake tattoos all over my body.
09:17 They presented me with, like,
09:19 they had all these books of all these different visuals
09:21 and things that we could do,
09:22 and the director and I sat down
09:24 and we handpicked which ones, where they would be.
09:26 We basically did, like, one sleeve
09:28 with a couple other ones and a few neck tattoos
09:29 and some back tattoos.
09:30 But it was really fun to get to test out
09:32 and be somebody completely different than who I am now,
09:35 and I am strongly considering getting my first tattoo.
09:39 I got to work with a lot of really amazing people
09:41 on this film.
09:42 We had the best cast ever,
09:44 and it was all comedians, I feel like,
09:46 between Ellen Barkin, Pierce Brosnan,
09:49 Adam Devine, Michael Rooker,
09:51 and the list goes on.
09:52 There's so many other incredible,
09:54 talented, hilarious people.
09:55 We were just, like, hysterically laughing
09:57 both on camera and off camera.
09:59 Depending on the movie, sometimes you spend lunch
10:03 in your trailer, or if you're done shooting a scene,
10:06 you might go back to your trailer.
10:07 But I feel like on this one,
10:08 we all just stayed on the set
10:10 and stayed in our little chairs
10:12 'cause we were just constantly joking
10:14 and having the best time.
10:16 Everyone in this film, in a way, we're all misfits,
10:19 but we're all perfect exactly as we are,
10:21 and you find your kind of misfits.
10:24 I don't know, I think it's really exciting
10:26 and great to show these stories
10:28 and give hope for the people watching
10:29 that they'll find their misfit too,
10:31 and it'll all work out.
10:32 Thanks so much, Harper's Bazaar.
10:34 I had so much fun walking down memory lane with you.
10:37 (upbeat music)