Resurrection Girl

NINA DOBREV talks to JOE YOGERST about rediscovering her hometown, the dangers of flatlining and how good she is at dying

- Joe Yogerst

NINA DOBREV IS JUST off a long-haul flight from Rio. She seems a bit jet-lagged and more than a little hoarse after a whirlwind tour of Brazil to promote xXx: Return of Xander Cage, the blockbuster film that opened worldwide last month. She has a brief respite in LA before resuming the globetrotting publicity tour in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

It wasn’t all hard work in Brazil. There was time for paragliding, a helicopter tour and a brief frolic on the beach (wearing the national soccer team jersey of Neymar, who also stars in the film). But for the most part, it’s all work and very little play for Dobrev these days. Since departing from her hit TV series The Vampire Diaries in 2015, life has been dominated by on-location movie shoots, appearances at charity galas and awards shows, magazine features and seemingly non-stop marketing to promote her upcoming films.

It’s been a long and winding road to fame for the 28-year-old. Dobrev was born in Bulgaria during the time when glasnost was sweeping the Communist bloc. Escaping that uncertainty, her parents emigrated to Canada when she was two. Growing up in Toronto, Dobrev found herself attracted to various artistic pursuits: Dance, acting and even rhythmic gymnastics. By the end of high school, she was well on her way to an acting career. Her big break came in 2006 when she was tabbed for the lead in Degrassi: The Next Generation, the latest iteration of a long-running Canadian adolescent soap. Dobrev went straight from teenage to the supernatural when she joined the cast of The Vampire Diaries in 2009. And what a leap it was. Filmed in Georgia, the production mandated a household move from Toronto to Atlanta. And her role as Elena Gilbert — entangled in a love triangle with vampire brothers — required that she play both a contemporary human and a bygone vampire who reappears as her doppelgänger.