Nina: I think everyone's dream is to be an actress, but I never really thought it was going to happen. Now that it's happening, it's incredible. I do a lot of other things, too. I'm not stuck in this little world. I'm aware that we're in the middle of an economic crisis in the U.S. There's a lot going on in the world, and I'm really happy and excited about what I have and I don't take it for granted. I'm pretty lucky.
Nina:(in a 2009 interview) I came to L.A. for the first time in January of this past year. The Vampire Diaries was actually my first audition for a pilot. I read the script, and I loved it. I thought it was really cool and I'd just gotten off a series, so obviously I was trained and ready, and I knew the drill and everything to do with it. It just sort of worked out.
Nina: I didn't have a stage mom at all. I was the one who planned out my auditions and drove myself an hour and a half into the city.
Nina:(on being compared to Emmanuelle Chriqui) People tell me that I look like her a few times a day. I think she’s gorgeous.
Nina:(on being recognized for her role on "Degrassi: The Next Generation") To be honest, I don't get recognized here (Canada) that much. But when I go to the States, that's where it gets crazy. They're so forward and they love the show there, so it's really cool to know that people see your work and they like the work you're doing.
Nina: I film so much and I'm working so much that when I do get even a Saturday off or a Sunday off or any time off, I just literally -- I'm a hermit -- just watch movies or sleep or just hang out with my close friends and relax.
Nina: When I have an audition I don't pick up the phone, I sit at home and I dissect the scenes to the bone. There's a lot of time and work that goes into it.
Nina:(on being part of "Degrassi: The Next Generation") It's changed my life a lot, in many different ways. I came into it really new to the business, didn't really know much. I learned everything on set here, made some really good friends. Everyone's really positive - I love it.
Nina: Every role is a challenge. I want to keep doing everything... I want to try to do things that aren't similar to one another.
Nina:(referring to playing a teenage mother) It was challenging because it's not me. I went to a lot of web sites that dealt with teenage pregnancy. I read a lot of stories about girls having to go through what Mia did [Mia is Nina's character on Degrassi]. There's the alienation factor and there are all the stories and rumors, having everybody judge you. It isn't easy.
Nina:(talking about a strange fan experience) Okay, my strangest fan experience was when I was in LA with Miriam [McDonald] and Cassie [Steele]. We were in a restaurant, and I went to the washroom and at one point when I walked out of the stall, this girl took a picture of me with her cell phone! And then after that, another girl came up to me and said, 'Why did you kill JT?!' Obviously I was shocked. I didn't kill JT! It's a character and my character's fictional. It was very strange.
Nina:Even though my grandparents live overseas and are so far away and we talk as much as we can, we don't see each other that often. They just go on YouTube, or they go online and watch the episodes that I'm in, and read the articles I've done. It makes them feel like we're closer because they get to see me daily, or weekly, or however often they want to see my face. And they're proud of me — they collect all of the articles in a book.
Nina:We had a couple six-year-olds who came to a signing and actually thought that Ian Somerhalder [who plays Damon] was a vampire, and they were terrified of him. We had this one little girl go up to him, and she was really shy, and her mom was like, 'She has something to tell you.' And Ian leaned over and was like, 'What is it, sweetheart?', and the little girl says, 'Try to be a good boy.' And he was like, 'Okay, sweetie…for you I'll try.'
Nina:I did Degrassi for four years. It was my constant, no matter what movie I would do on hiatus or whatever I would do elsewhere, every year I would always go back to Degrassi, to my family, and they really sort of taught me all the groundwork and got me started. Before that I was really green, I didn't know what I was doing, so it kind of helped ease my path into the whole industry.
Nina:Even though Elena's going through all this stuff, has to keep all these secrets, and has all these responsibilities, she's just learned to cope and figure things out and deal with a lot that most people don't at a young age. She has to take care of her brother with a drug problem and be a parental figure in the household, her boyfriend's a vampire, and her best friend's a witch! A lot of stuff is going on, everyone's trying to kill her all the time, so she's very strong, she always rises to the occasion, and she always fights back. I think that she is a very strong woman, and she can take on anything and everything that comes her way.
Nina:Looking back on high school, I just remember specific scenarios and thinking, Wow, that was such a big deal at the time, but right now it feels like it never even happened. So I guess if I can give any advice, I would just say that everything will pass, and it'll feel like it was a big deal over nothing. Life goes on and then you change and other things happen, and everything feels like it's so much worse afterwards. It'll always get better.
Nina:The first time Paul [Wesley] and I met, I met nine other guys as well because I had already been cast and they were deciding for the Stefan role. I had to read with like 30 studio executives, and they were just kind of watching and analyzing because that was the whole point of the test...they wanted to see who had the best chemistry. And everyone was great, but Paul had this old soul, like a history that you could feel...he seemed like he'd been around longer, and knew more, and he had a grasp for the character different from anyone else.
Nina:We all play pranks on each other, and if we're shooting in a dark, mysterious house or something, I'll run up and scare the boys out of nowhere or pop out of a closet and just freak them out. One thing that all of us do is cut out pictures from magazines of really funny things and post people's faces on them and hide them in different places on the sets.
Nina:To be honest, I don't watch a lot of TV. It's kind of ironic because I'm on TV. I have a television, but I haven't been home during business hours to have the cable guy actually connect it, so it's just kind of sitting there like a decoration in my living room. I don't mind; I have two shows that I watch religiously on Hulu, and that's Grey's Anatomy and Flash Forward.
