EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Mia Kirshner (Isobel) from The Vampire Diaries

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Mia Kirshner (Isobel) from The Vampire Diaries



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 Kishner, 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).

I think the question everyone wants to know is will Isobel be back?
You know, you never know what’s going to happen. I think that’s a question for Julie and Kevin. I would imagine she’s been really positioned in such a way that I think, I don’t know, it seems like she certainly the character to be reckoned with. But that’s more of a question for them.

Presuming she does come back, which I hope she does, what do you want to see from Isobel going forward?
I think I’d like her to go head-to-head with Katherine one day. I think that would be fantastic. I would like to see the full scope of her power. I think ultimately she wants to be in charge. So, how she’s going to do that I’m not sure. But yeah, I think I’d to see more of that. And I’d like to see more elements of her past and then the present day. Like where she was and what her influences are and why she is the way she is. And I’d like to see — for me, what was really important, which you don’t see that much in this episode — but something that I want in the character is the humanity. I think that’s what makes her even more seductive.

For sure. And what was your favorite scene to film in last week’s episode?
I really love working with Matt Davis. He is just such a goofball and when I work with him, we’re both like little kids together. We make dumb jokes together. And sometimes it was so hard to look at him, because I’d burst into laughter. I just think we have fabulous chemistry. Ian [Somerhalder] is just lovely. We sat next to each other on the plane. And then we actually met to rehearse our scene and I respect his preparation and his seriousness towards his work. He’s a gentleman. He carried my bag at the airport, he drove me back to the hotel. He’s a really, really, really nice guy. I don’t want to pick a favorite because they’re all great. And Nina [Dobrev] came back to my hotel room and we had dinner and rehearsed together, and [she's] also very professional. So I guess in different ways, I enjoyed all of them, which sounds like a boring answer.

You touched on it a bit, but what was it like coming into such a tight knit cast? Were they very welcoming?
Yeah, they were totally lovely. I really appreciated the fact that it’s the end of the season, and I imagine everyone’s so tired, and yet everybody rehearsed. So that was wonderful. And I thought that they were unbelievably welcoming and sweet and gracious. I think what’s most impressive about the cast is something that perhaps people take for granted is that they’re professionals. They know their lines, they do their job, and they take their work very seriously. As a result of that, it’s a welcoming atmosphere.

Do you think Isobel is anything like any of your previous characters? Jenny Schecter [from the L Word] comes to mind.
Like Jenny? Oh no, I don’t think Isobel is crazy.

She’s just a vampire.
Yeah, she’s just operating on another — we’re not talking human terms, when we talk about Isobel. No I don’t think she’s like Jenny. And it’s also a really different kind of show. But no, I don’t think so. Isobel was so cold and flat, and there was so little room. It was a challenge for me as an actor, because I’m not used to working like that. So I guess in that sense, it’s a very different character.

That makes sense. To switch gears for a moment to The L Word, the big question in my mind, with the way everything ended, is did someone kill Jenny or did Jenny kill herself?
I don’t know. The whole last season was confusing to me. So, I wish that I had — I don’t know. I wish I had an answer.

That’s okay. That’s a perfectly acceptable answer.
I always thought Jenny was a survival of the fittest type person. I don’t think she would — I could imagine Jenny faking her own death and reappearing in another country to wreak havoc.

Do you have favorite moments from filming that show?
Oh my God, I mean, that’s the thing. Rose Rollins, who played Tasha, is one of my best friends. Actually, her show was just picked up today! So we talk about this all the time. It’s not really a favorite moment, but we were so lucky to work with the girls that we worked with. We were so close and we had so much freedom and it was just a very blessed time, in my life at least. I’m very grateful for that.

So back to The Vampire Diaries…did you have any interesting fan reactions to Isobel?
You know what, I don’t think I look like Isobel in real life, so I haven’t been recognized as Isobel. But I guess, we’ll see.

Do you know any tidbits of your storyline that we didn’t get to see or we might see in the future?
Yeah, there are definitely — and again, I think it’s a question for Julie and Kevin — but there were quite a few things that were left out, that weren’t in the episode, like quite a few juicy things that I’m not sure why they chose to remove. But I don’t know if I’m allowed to say what.

Any little things that you could share?
I guess the scene with Alaric at the end was much more romantic, and much sadder. And then I think the scene was Damon was definitely much longer. That was cut down.

And do you have any other projects coming up?
Well, I just finished The Vampire Diaries, and I finished another movie where I play a vampire queen. And that’s called “Dark Days.” And what I spend most of my time doing — I had a book that Campion published last year, called “I Live Here,” and it’s an anthology about human rights all over the world…human rights abuses. [It's] kind of like a visual documentary. My partners and I started a program and a jail in Malawi. The link for the website I-Live-Here.com.

That’s what you were doing in Malawi!
Exactly! You were probably wondering why I was there. I was there working on — we run a school in a juvenile prison, and we run a permaculture program, a legal rights program and creative writing [program]. We’re having a ball — a Russian themed ball on July 29th. It should be fun. It’s such a huge part of my life, that in a way, it kind of inhibits my ability to work as much as I’d like.

Well I know I hope to see you again on The Vampire Diaries next season. It was such a wonderful episode.
Oh really! You liked it?

Oh yeah!
I couldn’t tell. Was it a good episode?

Yeah. They’ve been building Isobel up all season, so it was great to finally see her. I really liked it.
Thanks, I really appreciate it.