“The Vampire Diaries” star Nina Dobrev is now a director!
Directorial debut
Nina made her directorial debut with the short film, “The One,” which premiered at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival on October 28, 2021. She also co-wrote the high-concept psychological thriller with Will Frank.
“[Will and I] had a lot of brainstorm sessions and we went through quite a few iterations [until] we landed on the shooting draft. We co-wrote it and came up with the concept, and we were writing it for me to direct it. That was the goal,” she said in an interview with Screen Rant.
“[The One] is part of a larger feature film concept that we have. I wanted to make a proof of concept and to try my hand at directing. To put my toe in the water and see how it feels, and then hopefully use that as a reference for the feature that we would love to make.”
Lifetime passion
Nina, who calls being a director her “lifetime passion,” said that stepping into this new role felt natural to her–and that it didn’t even feel like work. “I expected to be nervous but I really wasn’t. I’ve spent so much time on set, almost two decades now at this point, so walking onto set just felt like another day at work. Except it didn’t feel like work, it felt like fun,” she said.
“I felt very prepared, we had shot lists, and visual tone, and theme concepts ready to go. We had it well mapped out before we even got to set. I felt really comfortable. If there was any kind of nerves, it was more like butterflies. I was just excited to finally get to be there.”
Nina also recalls wanting to be a director even before she starred in “The Vampire Diaries.” She even asked the producers of the hit series if she could direct an episode during the first season! Although she wasn’t able to get the chance to direct then, she always knew it will happen someday–and that someday is today.
“[Directing] has been in my body, in my soul, and in my mind. The passion. I knew I would. It was just a matter of when. Hopefully, now, I get to do it a lot more,” she said.
“The goal is to keep doing it. It’s a new and exciting chapter that I’m really thrilled about.”
