The TV Chick

The Secret Circle premieres tonight on the CW, and oh my goodness, it is so so good. Based on the book series by L.J. Smith, it centers around Cassie Blake, who comes to a new town after her mom’s death, only to discover she is a witch and she had no idea. The show captured me from the first moment and I can’t wait for everyone to see it. I recently had the chance to catch up with the cast of The Secret Circle at Comic Con. Britt Robertson (who plays Cassie, and who I absolutely ADORED on Life Unexpected) talked about the differences and challenges that come with playing someone other than Lux (with witch powers), how she’s going to come to terms with her new powers and whether she is ultimately a good witch or a bad witch.

How did you get the role of Cassie?
The relationship with Kevin [Williamson, EP] and I sort of developed in a strange way. I never met him before, and I filmed [Scream 4] over two days when I was filming Life Unexpected and never met him then unfortunately. But then once Life Unexpected ended, he started this new project. He called my manager and was like, “What’s Brittany doing? What is her plan for pilot season?” and they sent me the script, and I was just so excited that he wanted to meet me. I was like, “Whatever, I don’t care what it is.” Put me in there and I met with him and Andrew [Miller, EP] and all the creative people behind the show and then I went and tested for the network after the fact. And it was such a cool thing. He had such a good idea for what the show was, and the script was so good and so fascinating. And it was such a great opportunity for me, as an actor, to play this character and be in this new world. I’ve never worked in genre-specific television before so it was just a really cool opportunity.

Can you talk a little bit more about Cassie?
For those who haven’t seen the pilot, she gets thrown into this new town. She knows no one. Her mother has just died and she meets all these new people who ultimately tell her that she is a part of this group of witches. And that her mother was in this coven and it’s her birth right to be the new witch of this generation. And she gets faced with this power that could ultimately lead to scary things that she’s unsure of and so it’s a little crazy in the pilot. You’re introduced to her in this time — she’s very unsure of who she is and what’s going on and you get to see her journey a little bit through this world.

Is she ultimately a good witch?
I think it’s a very humane thing to be faced with the choices of being good or evil. Whether it’s in fantasy or not. And I think that that’s a very real dilemma for any human. So, I wouldn’t say she’s a good witch or a bad witch. I think that she’ll make decisions as she goes along, whether they be good or bad, at the end of the day, she’s sixteen, so we’ll see what happens.

How is Cassie going to come to terms with the whole circle and her mom’s death?
Her mom’s death is such a shock to the system and meeting all these new people who seem to know her and she seems to have a connection with but she doesn’t actually have any clue as to who they are. That’s a weird, weird thing. And I think you’ll see throughout the series how those relationships are developed and how they are explored. And she will definitely face some pretty scary magical situations, for sure. She’ll be faced with a lot of things on an episode-to-episode basis.

Cassie is very different from Lux and obviously the show is very different. Do you find the supernatural elements challenging?
Yes, which I love. That was the biggest thing coming off Life Unexpected. It was such a great experience, I wanted to keep that for that’s sake. I wanted to have Lux and Life Unexpected in my heart forever, but then step outside of that world and to show fans and audience members a different side of me as an actress. And that’s been the great opportunity with the show, is to be able to play with all the really cool supernatural aspects.

Did you do any research or read the books?
When I first booked the show, I had such a short time in between booking it and shooting the pilot, so I was scrambling to read the books. I was reading them during the pilot and then of course, as now the series has been picked up, it’s been a great opportunity to get to know my character a little better. The books have been such a help in terms of getting to know who she is and how she actually relates to all these different characters. At the same time, my character has no experience with magic. So it would be silly of me to do all this research on magic when she has no real knowledge of that. So I think it’s something I’ll develop as my character does. But as far as prep for the series, there wasn’t much in terms of learning about magic. I obviously did a lot of research about witches and the crystals and the books and the alters. All those things were very helpful, but other than that, I wanted to stay sort of in the dark.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9 PM to the CW for the series premiere of The Secret Circle, and check out a video preview below!