Places I’ve Never Been

Vampire Academy author, Richelle Mead chatted with MTV about the upcoming movie adaptation of her book, Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters. The movie stars Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, and Danila Kozlovsky.

In the interview, Richelle talks Zoey playing Rose, how closely the movie follows the book, the creators of the movie, The Fiery Heart, and so much more. Highlights can be found below.

On Zoey playing Rose: I think she’s got the spirit and the personality of Rose. I mean, obviously, the thing with actors is they take on roles. They’re not exactly like the characters they play in real life. But at the same time, there’s an energy about Zoey, the actress, that resonates with the character. Mark Waters was talking about when she auditioned, when she walked in, people were like, ‘Oh my god, that’s her.’ She carries it.

I love following her on Twitter. There’s a spirit of adventure in her. There are these pictures she tweeted, she and Cameron Monaghan [who plays Mason] got stuck on the Tube. They started doing back-flips off the side because they were bored, and they were stuck in there, and it was really funny, and it was cute, the pictures they tweeted there.

It’s that fun and that energy that just comes through as Rose… [And] she just threw herself into [the training]. It’s a very physical role. She was with a trainer full days, multiple times a week just driving her body, making sure she was in the best shape she could be to carry out Rose. I think that’s what really defines the character.

She looks like the part, to me, as well, but it’s so much more than having a facial resemblance to the character. You’ve got to be able to portray them. That’s what everyone was looking at when they cast her, and I think they did it beautifully.”

On how closely the movie is too the book: It’s very close, actually. I was pleasantly surprised. You resign yourself a little, like, okay they could do anything. They could totally deviate. But I was astonished the first time I read it. I was like, this is it. They hit all the main points. They got the humor. They got the emotional impact.

There’s nothing I can really think of that’s a radical deviation from the book, which is just amazing to me. Daniel Waters, the screenwriter, he just really gets it. He gets what I was trying to do with the books, and he totally put that into the pages of the script, and I think fans are going to be really thrilled with it.”

You can read the full article here. The movie is currently filming in London and will hit theaters on February 14.