The kids of DeGrassi grow up so fast these days.
This time last year, Nina Dobrev was still a day player on the Canadian teen drama DeGrassi: The Next Generation , which conveniently filmed in her hometown of Toronto. Today, she’s 1,200 kilometres away in Atlanta and starring in The Vampire Diaries (CTV, Thursdays, 8 p.m.), already tagged as the first hit series of the fall season. Dobrev, who also has a role in Atom Egoyan’s new film Chloe , does not play a vampire in the TV show, but she has, by necessity, become a creature of the night.
“With a vampire show come the night shoots and the long hours,” says a weary Dobrev, speaking from Atlanta where the series is filmed. “ DeGrassi had a large ensemble cast, so we wouldn’t shoot every day and, because it was a high-school show, most of the scenes were shot during the day. On this show, we start late on Monday and every day we push later and later. By Friday night, sometimes we end up shooting until 4 or 5 a.m. on Saturday morning.” (more…)