Candice Accola, the actress best known as Caroline on “The Vampire Diaries,” came with her cast members to check out the Savannah Film Festival and share her experience in the business. She wasn’t shy to admit that she’s still learning about the entertainment industry.
“It gets tricky,” Accola said in a recent interview.
A long-term acting career on a television series, like Accola’s, requires much more than a single script contains, stretching beyond the bounds of a set.
“If I could just be at work everyday, I’d be so happy,” she said. “It’s everything outside of work that is still confusing to me, all the time,” said Accola.
Before Accola auditioned for characters, she aspired to be a singer. As a teenager, she thought that music was her life, but when she actually got into the music business, she realized it was quite different than she imagined.
“It was an opportunity and I was just trying to appease the record label; I started to realize that I had so much more fun and I was so much more inspired on a set than I was in a studio,” she said.
When Accola headed to Atlanta to film “The Vampire Diaries,” she experienced first-hand some of the sacrifices and blessings an acting career entails with the rest of the cast.
“We’ve all kind of been put in this city, that we didn’t choose to be in and we wouldn’t be living in for any other reason so there is an immediate bond there,” Accola said.
“The Vampire Diaries” films in Atlanta along with its brand new spin-off show, “The Originals,” which just aired its first episode in September. Candice quickly debunked any rumors of rivalry — after working with several members of “The Original’s” cast for years, they’ve become a family.
“We’re just so encouraging of both series and we know how hard everyone has worked to bring ‘The Originals’ to life and so we’re all rooting for it, just as much as the all the viewers are,” she said.
Before Candice stepped back out onto the cobblestone streets, she said she’d be interested in photography or writing if she were a student at SCAD. Her career in film sparked a particular interest in journalism.
“It’s the same, you go through all those questions when you’re breaking a script, so they can be very similar,” said Accola. “I’ve done some videos snippets for promo stuff, where I’ve gotten to interview people and I absolutely enjoy it.”
Whether it’s writing, photography, painting or performing, Candice agrees that passion is the most important part of anyone’s career.
“I think passion is number one — you have to have a passion for it,” said Accola. “I think it’s definitely the root of success.”
