Last week’s episode of “The Vampire Diaries” was one of my favorites of the entire season. We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Elena’s biological mom and we finally got to meet her. We even find out that Jon Gilbert is actually Elena’s biological father. Isobel is a complex vampire who struggles with her humanity (or lack thereof) and her feelings towards her ex-husband Alaric and her “maker” Damon. I recently had the chance to chat with Mia Kirshner, who plays Isobel, and she had some interesting insights into her character. We even talked a little bit about her time on “The L Word.”
How did you get the part of Isobel?
It was all just pretty random. It was right before Christmas, and I was in the countryside of Malawi staying on a dairy farm, (laughs) and I got this call from my agent and they told me about the show, The Vampire Diaries and it sounded pretty cool. And then they said that I could speak to Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec [Executive Producers] who I spoke to and it was through Skype and it was a really crackly connection, but there were words: mysterious and unpredictable and stuff like that I believe we used in the conversation that made me excited about the character. And I knew that they were talented, so I said yes–not knowing a lot about it. It was kind of a leap of faith.
Isobel is a vampire devoid of any human emotions. How are you able to relate to her?
I don’t think that’s true.
Oh, you don’t? Interesting!
I don’t. I think that she tries not to have human emotions but I think actually that’s her weakness–that she struggles with is that she does still have feelings for Alaric and her daughter.
Oooh, interesting. And how are you able to relate to her? Are you anything like her at all?
(laughs) We both like Paris. We love France. We speak French. That’s probably about it.
So the producers didn’t tell you too much about her back story?
No. I only learned more about the back story when I watched the actual episode. And that was interesting. But no, it was sort of left to my imagination what happened to her between the time that Damon turned her and when she comes back.
So you think that she loves and cares for Alaric. Why do you believe that?
Because I think true love is hard to come by and I think it’s part of who she is. She’s got a lot of lovers in her life, and nothing to compares to what she had. And it’s like at the end of the episode “Isobel,” she said “I made a mistake.”
Do you think she cares about Elena as well?
I think so. And I also think, as twisted as this sounds — I’m not defending Isobel’s actions — I think she wants to push her daughter away because she doesn’t want her daughter to be like her. But I think that ultimately, she’s going to do everything she can to protect her daughter’s well-being.
Yeah, like try to kill Damon and Stefan.
Yes, I mean in her mind, I think she has a skewed view of reality (laughs).
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