“We’ve been doing a photo shoot that’s unlike any that we’ve done before,” says Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev while on the set of a sexy photo spread for the latest issue of Rolling Stone (on stands and available through Rolling Stone All Access on August 19th) with the show’s male leads, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley. “We’re testing the limits of gravity.” The shoot, which involves the actors leaping off of a platform on to a mattress, may have left Somerhalder “a little bruised,” but Dobrev is into it. “There’s something sort of deadpan and expressionless about it,” she says. “And at the same time, we all feel like rock stars.”

While on the topic of rock stars, the actors talked about what they listen to on the set to get into character. As it turns out, Wesley is a big fan of Bon Iver, and Somerhalder finds inspiration in Conor Oberst’s lyrics on the new Bright Eyes album The People’s Key.

Nina Dobrev didn’t exactly emerge from out of nowhere to land the highly coveted role of heroine Elena Gilbert on “The Vampire Diaries.” She’d previously spent four years on the Canadian teen drama “Degrassi: The Next Generation” and had small parts in films such as “Away From Her” and “Repo! The Genetic Opera.” But the show (which is filmed in Decatur and Covington) was a huge step up the Hollywood ladder for the 21-year-old Dobrev, who clearly relishes the challenges The CW network hit presents. We recently spoke with the Bulgarian-born, Toronto-bred beauty about her acting background, her ATL food addictions and what fans can expect from season two of “The Vampire Diaries.”

JEZEBEL: You got into the arts at a very early age. What initially sparked your interest in performing?

NINA DOBREV: I was always a really outgoing kid. My parents didn’t know what to do with me because I was so high energy, and my friends and I were always putting on little plays at home. I started doing gymnastics and ballet, so I was always performing in some way. Then I went to a performing arts high school in Canada where we studied music, dance and theater, and I realized that that was where I was happiest.

You can read the rest of the article over on the Jezebel website.

1×15 – A Few Good Men

1×16 – There Goes The Neighborhood

1×17 – Let The Right One In

1×18 – Under Control

1×19 – Miss Mystic Falls

Vampire Diaries Promoshoot

Photoshoot – Set 009

Entertainment Weekly September 2009

You can find previews of a couple more of the photos over at the source.