Grace Phipps Interview

April Young returned home to Mystic falls inThe Vampire Diaries Season 4 expecting to bury her father — Pastor Young — mourn him, and then try to get on with her life. Unfortunately, because she’s now residing in a town crawling with hunters, vampires, werewolves, and hybrids, a peaceful, quaint existence is simply out of the question.That’s bad news for April — but great news for Grace Phipps, a vivacious, supernatural-loving actress who gets to portray the grieving gal and indulge in all her drama week after week. (Oh — and with her jet black hair, charismatic smile, and bright blue eyes, she basically looks like Damon Salvatore’s gorgeous young sister. No big deal.)

We recently caught up with Grace and she dropped some delicious clues about what’s next for poor April in terms of terror, romance, and growing up in Mystic Falls. She also talked about props on set, who the life of the party is out of all of her cast members, and shared the sweetest story about her TVD co-star Claire Holt, who plays Rebekah. Best of all, she’s actually a total fangirl so, naturally, we chatted about a variety of topics, including her previous supernatural series, The Nine Lives of Chloe King!

Alloy Entertainment: Welcome to the TVD family! What was your initial reaction to your firstVampire Diaries script? After all, you just moved to Mystic Falls and suddenly your character is not only an orphan but also the victim of a brutal stabbing.

Grace Phipps:  Well, I kinda knew everything going in because I had to perform a few of those scenes during the audition. The first scene we actually did was where I walk up to Matt and Jeremy on my first day at Mystic Falls High and that was kinda how I fell in love with April because I loved her self-awareness in that scene. And ever since then, every week, I find myself more and more eager to find out new things get to happen to April. Basically, I already knew what I was getting myself into, and I was more than ready to face it. [laughs]

Alloy Entertainment: Are there any secret initiations for welcoming new TVD members on set?

Grace Phipps: Yeah there’s this whole ‘drinking blood from a skull’ thing that happens after hours. [laughs] Oh no. Everyone’s been really welcoming, especially Claire [Holt]. When I had my first fitting on set and I hadn’t met anyone yet, I passed her in the hallway. Suddenly, she stops me and says “wait” in her Australian accent. “Wait, you’re the new girl. Take my phone number [and] all me if you if you need anything at all.” It was such a lovely thing for her to do because she knew what it was like to be in a new city and living out of a suitcase in a hotel and so she was like take my phone number so that was amazing of her.

Alloy Entertainment: Which of your co-stars so far seems to be the life of the party?

Grace Phipps: Oh! I think Claire is definitely the life of the party and Candace is so good at planning things. She’s always planning these amazing events for her friends. She’s always like, “So I’m planning a scavenger hunt for so and so’s wedding.” She’s very good at it! She’s a little bit like Caroline in that way I think. Ian is really funny. And you know who else cracks me up? Paul Wesley. He’s funny and I don’t think people give him enough credit for how actually humorous he is. He’s always making jokes. Additionally, I love working with Eric Miltonstein – he might be the life of the party. To be honest, everyone is great and it’s been such a fun experience so far!

Alloy Entertainment: What has your favorite part of being on The Vampire Diaries been so far?

Grace Phipps: Acting is definitely my favorite part of being on set…which is a really boring answer now that I say it. Sorry! [Laughs] I actually really love doing drama because I basically exist in a multi-camera sitcom. That’s pretty much the genre I live my life in and so it’s really fun to then go from rolling around on the camera team’s chairs in the hallway with Eric in the distance doing a Zoidberg from Futurama impression and then like, it’s time to go to set and so then you have to go cry and be in utter distress. It’s awesome. I love April for allowing me the opportunity.

Alloy Entertainment: Were you a fan of the show before you joined the cast?

Grace Phipps:I was and still am. I was worried when I got on this show, I was like, G-d I’m gonna ruin the Vampire Diaries. It makes so uncomfortable. I hadn’t seen every single episode though. I started watching when [Chris Gruper] started directing in Season Three and so I was very confused and then I was like, okay I’m confused, so I started back at Season 1. So I had this big old two season gap I had to fill in.

Alloy Entertainment: A lot of fans were quick to note resemblances between April and Anna, Jeremy’s former ghost/vampire love. What are your thoughts on that?

Grace Phipps: I mean, [the style team] curls my hair the same way, but — no really — that’s cool. I liked that character and still have a lot of respect for all she’s been through. She’s such a kickass vamp!

Alloy Entertainment: April literally just made a new friend – Rebekah – and then that friend got daggered by her hybrid brother. Will April question Bex’s disappearance at all?

Grace Phipps: [sighs sadly] I know. How heartbreaking is that? That’s going to be hard for April because she’s finally found someone who understands her and can help her out. Everyone else knows that there are strange circumstances surrounding her dad’s death but no one’s telling April about it and so when somebody’s like, “I’ll help you look into that,” that’s a really big deal for April. And then all of a sudden her new friend vanishes. So, April ’s definitely, she’s not gonna just go along with what the excuses people keep feeding her. She’s going to keep asking where did [Rebekah] go?

Alloy Entertainment: Will any sparks fly between Jeremy and April in Season 4?

Grace Phipps: I think April and Jeremy have a lot of history. I think primarily a kind of brother-sister thing…maybe. [laughs]

Alloy Entertainment: When compelling April in “Memorial,” Elena said that she’d help her through all the pain and sorrow. Will she make good on her promise?

Grace Phipps: April and Elena have such a history and she’s really going to be like a big sister to April. But then again, Elena has SOOOOOOO much going on this season on TVD. It’s all like, ‘No big deal, I’m just a new vampire, I can’t keep down normal blood, and there’s an intense hunter on the loose.’ Seriously. She has a lot going on and it’s not going to be the same sort of situation as when April was in town and she was 13 and learning from her babysitter, Elena.

Alloy Entertainment: April is dealing with her dad’s death but she still hasn’t seen the letter that her dad left her – which Connor now has. Is she going to grow suspicious of all the supernatural disturbances in Mystic Falls sooner rather than later?

Grace Phipps: I think when you’re not looking for something, you’re not gonna notice it as loudly. [laughs] I know you can’t notice things ‘loudly’ but I just enjoy saying that. But, there’s so much going on in Mystic Falls that it is going to obviously be confusing for April. Also, she’s been compelled so there’s gotta be a little bit of a twingy gap there — this tiny bit of doubt where you have this memory but you kind of always brush over it in your head.

April has this memory her dad’s funeral and she remembers some vivid parts and the rest of it is a blur. The idea of taking someone’s memory is to me is just so dramatic and messing with somebody’s memory is borderline violent — and so all of that is truly interesting to act out.

Alloy Entertainment: It sounds like April is going to be the show’s ‘new’ Aunt Jenna in a way!

Grace Phipps:Oh true! The only problem about being the Jenna or Jeremy of TVD Season 1 is that it’s very dangerous. It’s the whole Spider-man ordeal…where you try to keep people in the dark to keep them safe but they’re not gonna be safe that way because if a vampire comes to the house, Jenna’s going to let him in — to invite him into her home without knowing his ulterior motives.

Alloy Entertainment: We just have to know — is there anything actually written in the journals the characters keep on the show?

Grace Phipps: April has one prop journal which was debuted in episode 4.02, my first episode. She’s been journaling for a while and was inspired by Elena, whom she looks up to. And it’s just cool to have my prop journal. I write in it whenever we’re on set. I go write in it on my set chair. [laughs] No, but really — our prop team is detailed about things like that. They’re good about writing things in the diaries, and sometimes scribble down funny things that happen while on set in there. And then I write in it, in my handwriting — in cursive of course!

Alloy Entertainment: You also starred on another amazing supernatural series, The Nine Lives of Chloe King. Do you still keep in touch with any of your cast mates?

Grace Phipps: Of course! I still see a bunch of my costars. I did a photo shoot with Skyler [Samuels] and one of the show’s writers. It was pretty neat — it was Polaroid themed. I see Ki Hong [Lee]. I see Ben [Stone]. I also basically all of the writers and then, the TNLOCk supervising director who really set a lot of the tone on the show — Chris Grismer — is now working on The Vampire Diaries so that’s really exciting. Yeah, so I see him all the time and his son Noah who’s like the most amazing child I’ve ever met in my life. Oh — and Alyssa Diaz is going to be on TVD as well! I didn’t know about it and Chris was like, “Hey! Did you see Alyssa?” And I was like, “What are you talking about?” Personally speaking, I just thought that he had lost it — that he needed to go home and sleep. But no, she was there. It was insane and so wonderful! So yeah, I still see everyone.

Alloy Entertainment: Moment of truth…Which TNLOCK couple did you secretly root for –Brian and Chloe or Alek and Chloe?

Grace Phipps: It’s hard to choose! I think there was a lot of Chalek fans – but, I personally feel as though Chloe needed to end up with Brian. I mean, of course, [my character] Amy was purely a Team Chloe fan. To be honest, I have a little bit of an issue with the “Team” thing because I’m confused as to why can’t we all just root for Sookie. Why can’t we all just root for Buffy? [Laughs]

Alloy Entertainment: Aww! Now we’re kind of struggling with whether or not to ask you if you are Team Damon or Team Stefan. We don’t want to put you in a tough spot or anything...

Grace Phipps: [laughs] Oh, that’s easy! I’m team Elena. I want her to be happy regardless of what man she’s with. 

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