Originally published at SFUniverse in September 2009

Katerina Graham is a singer, a dancer, a model and on Thursday night at 8:00 she turns psychic! Katerina plays Elena’s best friend Bonnie on the new CW series The Vampire Diaries and she spent a little time with me answering your questions. Listen in:

April wanted to know, what attracted you to the role of Bonnie Bennett?

Katerina: I auditioned [for a lot of shows] during pilot season and when I got the script for Vampire Diaries, I read it and I was like, this is something different. This isn’t like everything else I’ve been reading. They gave me like five pages of back story before I even went into the first audition and I became so engrossed in this character. Bonnie Bennett is a sweet girl from a small town, she has this innocence to her, and she’s such a loyal person. I love that about her. And she’s psychic and I think most people want to have a cool special power.

Are you and Bonnie very much alike?

Katerina: We’re very similar [in our demeanor], but our style –it’s completely different. I’m sort of retro, circa 90’s with futuristic funk — high, open-toed platforms, shoulder pads and my hair in a bun. Bonnie, she’s kind of this hippie chick. But it’s great when you can jump into a costume and become that character and when you’re done you jump into your pointy-toed shoes and you’re you again.

Illie asks, how would you react if you were told you’ve inherited psychic powers?

Katerina: I think everyone would be taken aback with being able to see the future and with great gifts come great responsibilities.  There are certain things you can’t say at certain times and certain things you might be completely wrong about so you don’t want to put it out there. I think I’d be excited, and a part of me would be frightened, I’d need to know more about it and I’d probably do a lot of research, which is what Bonnie’s doing right now.

Do you believe that saying it out loud can make it so or is fate going to deal the cards no matter what happens?

Katerina: There’s a crazy philosophy, I guess most people know it as The Secret, where if you put something out there it might manifest. So it could go both ways, certain things are fate and inevitable, like I believe the love between the characters is inevitable, but there are different things that if you put fears out there, ideas out that aren’t positive it might manifest. I do believe that.

Nicole says, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder looks ever so charming, and Nina Dobrev looks like such a sweetheart! What’s it like on the set with them?

Katerina: We’re very close and I’ve never been a part of a set where we’re all family from the key grip to the caterers to the lead actor, we’re all so tight. Such a team. If I see the cameraman sweating, I run to get him a water. We take care of each other. That might be one of the reasons that the show might be a success is the fact that there’s such good energy and such a one-unit family. Honestly, we shot the pilot in Vancouver and then, when we were back in LA, we spent every weekend together.

April and I both want to know — Stefan or Damon — which would you choose?

Katerina: And I know they’re vampires? I don’t know if I could choose. Say something happened between Bonnie and Stefan or Bonnie and Damon, at that point it wouldn’t be a struggle between them but a struggle inside herself, between right and wrong. Maybe that might come across in the next season or two and the fans will have to experience it with me because I have no clue how Bonnie would react to that.

Between Ian and Paul I couldn’t chose either, they’re such sweet guys. It would be way too hard. Paul [can be very intense] when he’s in vampire mode. Ian is an animal lover and he’s such a teddy bear in real life. When he’s in character, I’m like, ‘wow, what a phenomenal actor’ because he’s so sweet and charming and he can switch like that into an evil, crazy vampire. It’s pretty awesome to watch.

You can watch Ian turn evil, Paul go into vampire mode and Bonnie transform into a hippie psychic when The Vampire Diaries premieres tomorrow, September 10, at 8:00 on The CW.

Photo: Katerina Graham by Quantrell Colbert/The CW ©2009 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Last year, when word got out that The CW was doing a show about teenage vampires, everyone groaned and said it wouldn’t last. Twilight for TV, they said.

What are they saying now?

The Vampire Diaries is one of the netlet’s biggest hits and it’s going strong right up to next week’s season finale. It’s been a pretty cool ride all along. First we met moody Elena (Nina Dobrev), barely dealing with the death of her parents in a car accident that nearly took her life, too. Enter moody Stefan (Paul Wesley), the perfect, poetic match, except that he’s a vampire. Enter brother Damon (read an interview I did with Ian Somerhalder) and that’s a recipe for wild and wicked fun.

Instead of dragging out the storyline of Stefan hiding his secret from Elena, creator Kevin Williamson did a smart thing, he got that bombshell over with early on then started telling the real story. Seems that Mystic Falls used to the home of a huge nest of vampires and vampire hunters. Now, the battle has begun again thanks to the return of the Salvatore brothers and the band that follows.

After watching the first few episodes of The Vampire Diaries, I was hooked, but I couldn’t see how they were going to draw the story out over a full season. Damon was doing little to hide his fangs, and you couldn’t have a whole town full of people who were so blind as to not see it, so how do you get around that? They got around it by changing allegiances again and again throughout the season.

Elena despised Damon, now she’s maybe a little sweet on him. Damon released a bevy of vampires from their tomb only to have them turn on him and Stefan. Alaric comes to town looking very much like a vampire hunter, but he soon throws in with Damon in order to stop Isobel (Mia Krishner) who was Alaric’s wife and one of Damon’s brood.

And the twists just keep on coming. We found out that Elena was really adopted and Isobel and her Uncle John are actually her parents. Jeremy finds out that vampires exist and he tries to get himself turned by Anna who is a little upset over the death of her vampire mother. Katherine is still often spoken of but never seen and in her place we get Isobel who comes to town looking for a devise that can kill vampires. She takes Jeremy hostage in order to get Elena to get the goods from Damon (you still with me?) and he agrees – on one condition.

Elena’s best friend Bonnie is back (read my interview with Katerina Graham here) and her witchy powers are awesome. She agrees to break that spell on the vampire killing gizmo so Elena can give it to Isobel and everyone goes home safe if not happy.

And scene.

Only one problem. Bonnie didn’t remove the spell. Now Katherine has a vampire killing whosit and I gotta assume she knows how to use it.

Next week is the season finale of The Vampire Diaries it’s Founders Day which means parade floats, carnival games and more death and destruction than Mystic Falls has seen in the past 140 years. It’s going to be a great ending to a terrific season.

Don’t miss The Vampire Diaries, Thursday at 8:00 on The CW.

Photo: Bob Mahoney/The CW ©2010 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

I wish I was here to say that new episodes of Moonlight will be airing on The CW, but still. . .reruns are a good thing.

Starting on June 3, Moonlight will take over Supernatural's time slot, Thursday's at 9:00 after repeats of The Vampire Diaries.

Two! Two! Two vampire shows in one night. How great is that? Alex O'Loughlin is Mick St. John, a dark and charming private detective who happens to have a taste for blood. Like Stefan Salvatore, he sticks to the bottled kind but you can't say that about all his friends, like the mischievous Josef (Jason Dohring.) When the series kicks off, Mick meets up with news reporter Beth Turner (Sophia Myles) and they make a terrific crime solving team. Beth doesn't know it, but she and Mick have a deeper connection that's straight out of her nightmares, thanks to Mick's ex Coraline.

The series also stars the handsome Jordan Belfi as Beth's DA boyfriend and the delightful David Blue as Mick's techo-vamp contact.

If you've never seen Moonlight, give it a try. It's got a cool, noir vibe and Alex O'Loughlin . . .  let's just say that Moonlight becomes him.