FEARNet has a pretty cool interview with Nina check it out below or at over at The Source .

I have to be honest – the teenage vampire romance genre doesn’t always do a lot for me. Nothing against it of course. I think it’s cool that so many people are excited about dark fantasy and inspired to pick up books within the genre. But hey, you like peanut butter and jelly and I like grilled cheese, you know? Still, if there’s any show that has my attention these days, it’s The Vampire Diaries. The reason? Her name’s Nina Dobrev, the stunningly beautiful actress who plays Elena Gilbert, the show’s young heroine. A few weeks back, as she was winding up her work on The Vampire Diaries‘ first season, I had the opportunity to speak with Dobrev about her sudden success, about the experience of playing two distinct characters on one show, and about where she’d like to see Elena go in the second season. Hit the jump for our full conversation.

Having seen the three of you on stage here in LA at this year’s PaleyFest, I noticed the camaraderie you share with your costars – Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder – is very strong.

We’re all really, really close, and we’ve become like a family, and we hang out a lot and work a lot together. That’s the way you develop these great friendships – you get to know all these people. Luckily, I’m surrounded by an incredible group of people who are not only talented and professional and successful, but are also sort of great down-to-earth people.

How did you first come to the role of Elena?

I used to be on another television series called Degrassi. We shot that in Canada, so I decided to move for pilot season and try it out for one year. Vampire Diaries was one of my very first auditions after coming to LA. I went in, they liked me, but I went back up to Canada to shoot a movie called Chloe, which is in theaters right now. And during that time they asked me to put myself on tape, so I did that, and they flew me down. And I tested with the boys and auditioned in front of the studio and in front of the network and in front of the directors and the producers. It was a very long process, and we did screen tests. And it was very nerve-wracking. You can imagine – there’s people in a room watching you and analyzing your every movement. But it was definitely worth it, a year later.

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