Interview by Rebecca Murray
Richelle Mead Interview on the Movie, the Cast, and Vampires
Who do you think made the leap to the screen with the fewest changes in how you envisioned them?
Richelle Mead: "I would say Zoey Deutch as Rose. She is so similar to what I envisioned in my head. There was a book cover that came out close to when Vampire Academy did and it had a girl on there, and I remember looking at it and thinking, 'Oh, I wish that was Rose. I wish they had put that on my book because that's how I pictured her.' And I saw that recently - it's been years - and I was like, 'Wow, she looks so much like Zoey Deutch.' It's so interesting, and I never showed that to anyone.
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She's very similar, not just in appearance but also just her attitude when you meet her. Zoey's very outgoing, she's very energetic, and she just kind of radiates that same personality. And so I think that was such a smart choice for them because there's any number of beautiful, dark-haired girls in Hollywood that they could have cast that would have fit that description, but to actually kind of be able to channel that personality too I think was just a huge triumph on the casting people's part."
What did you think about the casting of Danila Kozlovsky as Dimitri?
Richelle Mead: "I am really happy that they picked a Russian actor for it. It literally adds authenticity to it. I didn't know anything about him when they first mentioned it. He was, I think, the only person I got any tip-off in advance. All the other casting announcements I was as much surprised as the viewers were.
Mark Waters and some of the producers said, 'Hey, here's this guy we're thinking about for Dimitri. He's like Russia's actor of the year.' He's super famous and very renowned there for his vast array of work, and I was so surprised because it's no one I had ever heard of or considered. The more I just watched the range of his work and also just ... I don't know. There's just something. Maybe because he is a little older than the rest of the cast and had more acting experience, it translates well into Dimitri because that is what the character is to the rest of the characters. It's funny. If you listen to the way the younger cast talks about him, it is like in the books. It's like the way the characters talk about Dimitri there's this reverence there, like, 'Danila, he's so good at everything. He's so funny and he's so calm.' He brought that Dimitri vibe to the movie and I know he's at least read through the third book, and that was a while ago. I don't know if he's read through the whole series now. I think that's really cool, too, that he went and sought that out to figure out what's happening to his character, to see that progression as well.
He's into it and that's super important to me to have actors who really want that, who want to be that character and bring them to life, as opposed to someone who's like, 'Oh, it's a job,' and walk out when it's done. So, yeah, I'm happy with it."
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