For a character who doesn’t have parents or seem to attend school on a regular basis, The Vampire Diaries’ Elena has one of the richest, most exciting lives of anyone on television. Over the course of three days she’ll thwart ancient curses, witness close friends getting murdered, and attend at least four town-wide parties without taking so much as a nap. Add to that an even more intense (and awesome) evil doppelgänger, and actress Nina Dobrev’s a pretty busy lady on set. As much as I may or may not make fun of Elena in my recaps, it’s never lost on me just how great Dobrev’s work is, so I was thrilled when she set aside a few minutes this week to talk about how she does what she does on such a regular basis.

read the rest of the interview over at tv.com