The Amazing Nina Dobrev
Have you ever seen an actress, probably not as well known as some of the others, that you thought was amazing and for the life of you, you can’t see how the majority of Hollywood overlooks her because she’s better than about 90% of the more popular actresses? If I had an award to give an underdog actress of that caliber it would most definitely go to Nina Dobrev. Okay, maybe at this point it’s probably pushing it to label her an “underdog”, but I don’t know that she’s considered A-list yet--but she definitely should be if she isn’t.
I didn’t catch her during her stint on Degrassi (I’ve never even watched the show), but I have watched her give two incredible performances on the hit TV show The Vampire Diaries. For one thing, I think the casting director for that show is amazing and deserves an award all their own. They chose a cast of actors to embody their characters wisely, and they chose those who would bring them to life, making the words they’ve written palpable in the hands of acting geniuses. Nina Dobrev not only embodies one character to perfection on the show, but two.
The main character Dobrev plays on TVD is Elena Gilbert. In the beginning she was just a regular seventeen year old girl, mature for her age especially after just losing both her parents, who’s now developed into a stronger (physically and emotionally) eighteen year old. I’m not going to give too much away since we’re now heading into season 4 in a couple of months, but I will say that her main character is constantly evolving. The second character she plays Is the 500+ year old vampire, Katherine Pierce/Katerina Petrova who eclipses everyone else in all her scenes and is the ultimate small screen siren. In other words, on this one show she gets to be the virgin and the whore--and she does both so well it’s almost unbelievable. She convinces you that you’re seeing two totally different people, not just an actress with a different name saying different lines. Very few actresses can slip into that mask, that snug fitting glove, and on one hand be the innocent, almost picture of normal and vulnerability, and just as quickly become this vixen that can manipulate and convince us that she is not only smarter than everybody else around her, but is also bitchy and self serving--and you can’t help but fall in love with her, too.
Last season, the show’s third, ended with a bang and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us when they come back again in October of this year. But most of all, I want to see how Elena and Katherine will be played. I know Nina will be amazing (as always), but I wonder what the writers and producers are going to reveal to us next--how many twists and turns they're going to give the characters and in turn, send us on.
Oh wait, don’t tell me, more EPIC-ness. *wink*
