The TV Chick

The Vampire Diaries is steadily ramping up to its season finale, with evil Alaric, Mama Original and all of her crazy and pretty much everyone’s life on the line. What is to become of Klaus and the originals? Will their mother succeed at wiping out all vampires? And how will Bonnie and the witches factor in? I recently had the chance to chat with Persia White (who plays Abby Bennett, Bonnie’s mother) about what’s coming up on tonight’s episode, who she’d love to work with on the show and the short film she’s currently working on with Joseph Morgan.

What can you tease about your big episode this week. Abby helps Bonnie with a spell…
Yeah… (laughs) We have to be very careful about what we say. It’s, let’s say, it’s exciting because there will be more revealed about Abby and what happened, why she left. So she basically explains more. There’s more coming up unveiling the connection between Abby and Bonnie. Not really explained, but there’s just more revealed. And the spell is pretty important to some of the things that have been going on. [There are] some big shifts because of the spell. It’s kind of cool having a character that’s a vampire that knows the world of witchcraft because [she] can still utilize and tap into things that a vampire wouldn’t necessarily know, so it’s pretty exciting.

It’s kind of like she’s a hybrid in a different way.
Yeah, a new kind of hybrid. I love that about the show, that they have all these types of mixes. I love that.

Yeah, definitely. Obviously most of your scenes have been with Kat Graham (Bonnie). Will we see you interact with anyone else this week?
Yes, there will be more interaction and hopefully, I’m excited about where that might lead. But yeah, there will be more interaction and that’s exciting, too.

Bonnie and Abby have had a very rough past. Do you think it will be possible for them to slowly repair their relationship?
I think that’s something that we’re going to have to see what happens. Abby’s not doing the best job. (laughs) This is all really new for in the sense of I think, when you shut something out for so long… And it’s probably going to be more based on what Bonnie allows, because people who have been abandoned by their parents or parent might want to come back or might want to give themselves but will you be received is the question.

Were you surprised when you found out that Abby turns into a vampire? Was that a big shock when you got the script?
I was so excited. I can’t even tell you. They never let us know. They are very secretive. And that was not the original intention. So as a character develops, they develop a story and you find out in little bits and pieces and you don’t really know. And I was really excited. I thought I was just going to be a witch and I didn’t even know they would allow a witch to turn vampire. They haven’t had that happen. And then also being a mixed ethnic background, I thought it was really exciting to be a girl and to be of a mixed background and a vampire. I thought “Oh this is really unusual.” That’s so rare that that’s even been able to be portrayed. So yeah, it was really exciting.

The show has such a vocal fandom. Have you gotten a lot of good reactions to your character on Twitter or otherwise?
Yeah. I’ve become a Twitter fan because of the show. You really communicate with people around the world and I love it. There’s been a good reaction which before I even aired, I saw people talking. They were like wait a minute, she looks young and this and that and they’re like well, witches can do spells (laughs). It was really cool because I found out things about the show that I didn’t know just reading blogs and Twitter. Because the story is so intricate, I read. But the books are very different. And then I did my own research. But talking to people who actually have been watching from A to Z and know the history of the bloodlines and everything, that was really fun.

It’s such a mythology based show. You can’t miss a second of it. I imagine there was a lot for you to read about.
Yeah! But exciting. Then you’re meeting everybody and watching them perform and how we interact, it’s a really nice vibe. I love it. I really love it.

Is there someone that you haven’t had a scene with that you would love to work with?
Yeah, there’s a couple. I would like to have some scenes with some of the originals. I would love that. I love that whole family. And I’m the one who freed their mother, so I feel like I should.

Does whatever happens in tonight’s episode leave things open for your character to return in the future?
You know, we don’t know. The good thing about Vampire Diaries, is you can be killed and return again. You can be brought back from death. There’s so many possibilities. All I have to do is cross my fingers. And you’ll see when you watch. I kind of wonder what people think. The fans probably have a better idea than me. They’ve been watching and they’re like “okay this leading up to…yeah, no she’s not coming back.” And some of them would be like “nope that’s a window.” So I’m just as interested in if she’s coming back as anybody else. And speaking of the family vibe, I’m really excited because I just did a short film that Joseph Morgan, who plays Klaus, wrote and directed.

I knew about that, but I didn’t know you were a part of it!
I’m the actress. There’s only one actor in it. I worked on the production level too. And it’s just amazing. It looks so beautiful. And we’ve been editing non-stop on it and it’s just wonderful. And I’m doing some music on it. So, very, very exciting stuff. Plus we had a bunch of Vampire Diaries crew working on it, so it has some of the feel of family when you’re working together.

Definitely. And what’s the short film called?
It’s called Revelation.

I’m looking forward to when it comes out.
We’ll keep people posted on Twitter.

I saw Joseph posting on Twitter, he was very excited about it.
He’s such a great director. It’s a whole different genre to working in that format, but we both wanted to do this project a few months back. He’s also a painter, and I’m a painter. And so many of the areas that a lot of people don’t know him for…he’s really talented and exciting to see. I think he’s going to be more than people realize.

Definitely. If you do get to return, I know you mentioned you’d like to have scenes with some of the originals, is there anything else you’d like to see with Abby? Perhaps some of her backstory?
I would like to explore some of the other sides that Abby’s been hiding. I think she probably has a whole past, what’s happened over the last fifteen years is going to I think, interconnect with who she is today and why she’s having so much trouble staying and being solid for someone else who she cares about. I think there’s a whole backstory that might connect and when you have the witch bloodlines, it goes way back. So, I would love to see some of that explored and then interaction with current people and how that connection is and where it comes from.

Besides Joseph Morgan’s short, do you have any other projects coming up that people can see you in?
I did a movie that’s in post production, called Mafia. Then I did another film called Dysfunctional Friends which is a comedy, kind of a Big Lebowski type of comedy. And just working right now on the Joseph Morgan project and music as well. I’m doing an album and one of the songs that I’m putting in the film, I co-wrote with one of the former members of Nine Inch Nails, Jerome Dillon. So yeah, working on an album, working on editing and then good old art and painting. I want to attach an art show with the Joseph Morgan project, because we both paint.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 8 PM to the CW for an all new episode of The Vampire Diaries.