Nina Dobrev on 'Wild' Experience Launching to Fame on 'The Vampire Diaries': 'I Was Learning About Myself'

Nina Dobrev had no way of predicting how successful she’d become as The Vampire Diaries aired. 

The Love Hard lead opened up about her fast-hitting fame and how it was incomparable to her past role on another teen series: Degrassi.

“I mean, it was pretty wild," Dobrev, 34, said during an episode of The Jess Cagle Show on Sirius XM. "I think I did have a little bit of a transition. I was lucky in that way because I was on a TV show in Canada from when I was 15 until 19 and it had some success, but not the level of success that Vampire Diaries did. So I sort of gradually built up to that, I guess."

Even now, Dobrev sees a nearly cult-like following for The Vampire Diaries, which aired from 2009 to 2017. “Nothing can prepare you for the thousands of people at Comic-Con that are still passionate and excited," she said. "It was a really cool experience."

The entire filming experience turned out to be transformative for Dobrev, who learned just as much about herself as she did the industry. Some of that had to do with the intensity of the fandom, versus living and working in Georgia. 

"Being on that show taught me so much. I was learning about myself," she added. "I was growing up sort of in the public eye but also in Atlanta, which is really cool.” 

Though events like Comic Con were intense, “Once we got back to Atlanta, where we lived and shot the show, nobody cared so it was great to be able to live a somewhat normal-ish life when we weren't working,” she concluded. 

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The Vampire Diaries aired eight seasons — in which Dobrev’s character, Elena Gilbert, found a love triangle with two supernatural brothers. All episodes of the show can now be streamed on Netflix.