Hi, guys. How you doing today?
How are you doing?
How are you? I love the name. HeyUGuys.
Oh, yeah, definitely. Goonies inspired.
Nice.
Yeah, I love that.
I love it.
I want you guys to developing this project
and bringing to life this incredible book series.
We've actually both been fans of these books since mid 2000s
when they first started getting published.
We have been friends for almost 20 years, had worked together on our first show
together, Kyle X Y, and then I brought her as an actor into The Vampire Diaries
universe, in which she became a writer in The Vampire Diaries Universe.
And so
when somebody asked me, after all those shows were done,
Hey, what, what's the one show you've always wanted to make?
And I said, You know,
I've always wanted to see if I could take a crack at Vampire Academy.
And I called her up and I said, Do you want to do this with me?
And she's like more vampires now.
No, I do not.
And then I said, But it's set in like a palace royal court
and there's palace intrigue.
And she went, I'm sorry, I forgot about the
royalty because I'm a little
bit of a like, you know, Anglophile, so I can't help it.
I mean, it's very fascinating.
It's a little gossipy, it's a little political
that all those stories that I read.
So, yeah, I was and I had forgotten actually how much I loved the books
because as Julia said before, she they came out before Vampire Diaries
or you read them before Vampire Diaries and and in rereading them all, I was like,
I loved these books. I didn't just read the first book.
I realized I'd read all of the books.
And so the political underpinning of the series is great
and the political undertones are so timely,
so everything about it and having the option of shooting in Spain
and there are, you know, as you say, the third castle from the left,
you have this beautiful choice of all these beautiful locations.
And yeah, so it was kind of a no brainer once we started kicking it around.
Yeah, right.
To say because I'm really enjoying the background
of all these interviews and that that massive castle.
I mean this was our production office setting.
We would stand in the window of our production office and look out
and 100 yards across the way was right there this view.
So we've been living a good life spoiled but imagine that turned you somewhat
into like a royalist yourself.
You just wake up with a glass of wine. And I
happened to mention that
our production office was on a vineyard, so.
Yeah, and a monastery.
So, you know, a little fun.
A little, little history.
It's true. Amazing.
And as you as you mention this, I'm a big fan of the book series.
There's just there's so much there's vampires, there's royalty.
This female friendships.
How would you even begin to tackle such a hefty book series?
You start with the friendship 100% like that was
our priority was get get that right.
Because if that doesn't work, then it doesn't matter.
And it's nice, you know, get the romance right second,
because if the romance doesn't work and at least you've got
the female friendship, but you need, you know, you need to expand your world.
Then it became about finding the right balance between the royal intrigue
and the goings on at the royal court and the stuff that originated.
You know, it was an offshoot of Lisa and Rose's friendship
and making sure that we never let one cannibalize the other.
There were a lot of things that we really needed to do
to remind ourselves to get right, because we don't want to mess this one up.
This was
this is important for fans of the book series to see that we can do it,
that it can be done.
And we, of course, you know, I'm not going to just take on
any old vampire show after the last 50 years of my career.
So I wanted to really make it feel different, unique,
like something that nobody's ever seen before.
Yeah.
And the books were unique, as, you know, as fans of
books like these were really unique books
she created Michelle Mead created a very unique, special, special world.
And then it was just the spin that we've taken on it.
We sort of, you know, made it our own a little.
But really
there were all those guideposts in the book
that were that really helped in
terms of just starting for, you know, just when you talk about it's a big world.
But we but she gave us a lot to work with.
Amazing.
And Ashley, you worked on the Vampire Slayer before,
but I always find vampires to be quite timeless.
And why do you think we keep coming back to them in our shows,
our in our phones and our literature?
I think they're just the existence of vampires as a creature in Laura.
It's really rooted in such a universally accessible
mythology themes.
I mean, for me personally, I always think of a vampire as an immortal being.
But what's the point of immortality
if you're going to go through that life alone?
So for me, I always want to read and or write the vampire love story,
because if you don't have your person or your squad or your family or whatever
to get you through this, like unending time,
then why do you want to be a vampire at all?
Right, you what? Why the genre?
Other than that, I keep distracting you because you need a flash,
I think might be my answer.
No, actually, it's so funny.
I will just say the first day of the original room, Mike Carducci,
who was was the me of that show with you, was a wonderful guy.
He said, How many of in this writer's room would want to be vampires?
And literally more than half were like, I'd like to be vampires.
And I realized, no, I would never want to be a vampire.
But what I loved about it is what's
how do you make immortality?
And in some ways, we don't know what our lifespan will be
if we're as immortal as anything else. How do you make it count?
What do you make it do?
I think it makes you want to be more alive in your aliveness,
and so it makes you want to make every day count a certain kind of a way.
So that I think that appeals to me.
I think there's there's a this aliveness as I know there are dead beings.
It's so crazy.
But they're more they're more in the moment than than your average bear.
And I find that really appealing.
Yellow. Yeah.
So it's been amazing.
Thank you guys so much.
Yeah.
Okay, take care. Bye.