The Vampire Diaries' Dawn Olivieri: Andie Star Won't Play the Victim

What's it like being the girlfriend of a vampire? Vampire Diaries' actress Dawn Oliveri compares it to harboring a criminal.

After laying eyes on the sexy reporter, Damon compelled Andie (Olivieri) to become his girlfriend and forget everything he ever tells her. In Thursday's episode, Andie will unknowingly help Damon attempt to kill Elijah. Will she ever realize that's she under Damon's spell? And also, that she's being nibbled on nightly? Olivieri says there are moments where Andie will struggle to come out of her comatose state and eventually she'll try to get to the bottom of what's really going down in Mystic Falls. TVGuide.com spoke to the actress about Andie's fate and how long she expects to stick around on the CW series.  

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This week's episode focuses on Damon's dinner party and a plot to take down Elijah. How is Andie involved?
Dawn Olivieri: More than involved, she takes the [role] of facilitator. She becomes the hostess of the party, but is hypnotized. Unknowingly, she's facilitating this crazy night. It's like harboring a criminal, but you have no idea you're doing it.

Will Andie be disposable to Damon when he's done using her?
Olivieri: Damon thinks that he's just using her, but Andie is smarter than the girls you've seen him fall [for]. Andie is a worthy opponent not in physicality, but in the mind. What's going to be interesting is when Andie comes to from her comatose state. She's a news reporter so she's not going to be a victim of a crime and let things happen. The unfortunate thing for Andie is she's going to want to get to the bottom of it.

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Will that be her demise?
Olivieri: It can go one of two ways. It could lead to her demise or it could do the opposite, which would be the fantastic turn that no one expects because every girl that comes on here just gets killed.

How do we know when Andie is under compulsion or having true emotion?
Olivieri: At the very beginning of the bathtub scene, that was her. Pretty much everything after that she's been compelled [to do], but I don't like it to be just flat-out compulsion. But she has moments that I've sprinkled throughout. They're very subtle. There was one, for example, when I saw the bite and I took a moment in the mirror, almost like you see the reflection of a trapped person inside. It's moments like that, that I want to have for her so it's not just all her being hypnotized. I want that struggle to come through and for her to fight to come up for air. As the episodes go on I'm going to build on that, whether the writers will honor that choice, I don't know. This next episode will be fun because I intend to put more pressure on that struggle.

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Are you done filming?
Olivieri: I'm going back next week. From the beginning, it's been for an "undisclosed" amount of episodes so it's my feeling I'll make it to the end. There's so much more to do with her.

If you stay, would you want to remain human or turn into a vampire?
Olivieri: Who wants to be human? I would love to be turned.

The Vampire Diaries airs on Thursdays at 8/7c on CW.

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