Nina Dobrev has taken on a new role: Film director!
The 32-year-old Vampire Diaries star is settling into the director’s seat, with her short film The One premiering at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The actress takes on directorial duties for the first time with this project, and in an interview with Screen Rant, she opened up about her exciting new venture.
Nina talked about what drew her to The One, stating:
‘Well, for starters, I was one of the ones to write it. I co-wrote this with Will Frank. We 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 delved deeper into the idea behind the project:
“[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.”
Nina also opened up about how it felt for her to step into those director’s shoes:
“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. 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.”
As to her influences, Nina cites work like Black Mirror, Queen’s Gambit, and Euphoria, and directors Damien Chazelle, David Fincher, and Martin Scorsese. She expressed her hope that she’ll be able to direct more projects in the future:
“The goal is to keep doing it. It’s a new and exciting chapter that I’m really thrilled about. Hopefully, [The One] becomes a feature film or a limited series.
There are a few other things that I have under my belt as a producer, a writer, and a director, but they’re not announced yet so I can’t talk about them. But they’re definitely brewing and in the development process.”
