90210's Shenae Grimes: 'People Got Annoyed with Seeing Annie Smiling All the Time!'

Let's talk about the pressure you were under last year. You weren't signing onto some under-the-radar project -- you were cast in probably the most high-profile pilot of the season. Still, were you prepared for that spotlight?

Absolutely not. I never expected to really even become famous, as stupid as that sounds. The world that I was brought up in...it just didn't exist, and never in my wildest dreams would I imagine being one of the girls on the cover of the tabloids. I could never fathom that being my face, even when I got the job and everyone said, "Hang on," I kind of shrugged it off. It wasn't until I was followed every day, and it wasn't until the crazy negative stories got written, and it wasn't until I realized, "Everybody wants a piece of you," that it really sunk in.

It was such a shock to the system, and I was super resentful of it last year. I had never been one of those people that got into it for the fame -- that's kind of the bullshit that I have to deal with. I like acting, you know? So it was culture shock for me, and it took a while to find a way to be OK with it and to accept having [paparazzi] in your face and figure out how to keep them at a distance and keep them bay. You separate your personal life from your professional life and acknowledge that you're going to have to work a little harder to separate the two.

How do you get used to that when you have photographers that follow you when you're just going to get a cup of coffee?

I don't care, that's the difference. It's a matter of, do you give a shit if you look really hot every time, all the time, when somebody sees you? Do you care what people think, do you read comments online? I don't. I go to the gym in the morning without any makeup on. Sorry, guys, if you think I'm ugly, but I don't know anybody who goes to the gym with makeup on. [Laughs] You're not going to catch me doing it. When I go outside in the morning for coffee, I'm not going to spend forty-five minutes getting ready. I just don't care.

Do you feel like it's died down a bit this year?

Oh, yeah. I keep saying, thank God for Melrose Place and Vampire Diaries! Sorry kids, but you can take the heat off of us. We're old news, we're the sophomores, [the paparazzi] don't care about us anymore. It's kind of nice to be able to go to work, focus on my work, leave work, and live my life. It's nice to have that balance, because there was no balance at all last year. It was a really, really exhausting year.

Speaking of Vampire Diaries, that stars Nina Dobrev, who was on Degrassi: The Next Generation with you -- and we can't forget your Degrassi costar Aubrey Graham, who blew up this year under his nom de rap Drake.

It's about time! I think I was the first kid, really, to get work in the States and make that break. It's really hard as a Canadian actor to make a footprint in the States, because of the visa stuff. I'm so proud, though, and so blown away; like, what a fluke, Nina getting the lead in Vampire Diaries a year after 90210. Props to her, though: She's always been a star. She'd not been on Degrassi that long, and I knew from the first year she was on it, I was like, "This girl's going to go far." I'm not shocked at all.

And Aubrey! He's been rapping and whatever for years, but none of us really expected it to blow up like it did. We didn't really know if he walked the walk because he didn't really share that side of his life with us: It was Aubrey Graham of Degrassi, and then that Drake world was a different world for him. This is the first time that I'm really seeing it and he's just huge! None of us really kept in touch, which is a shame, but I'm so unbelievably proud that he's made it despite all that.

So what's in store for Annie? Where do you want to see her go this season?

I want to see Annie grow for the first time in her life. She's never taken a moment to breathe and look inside herself...she's really a loner right now. There's another new boy on the show, and we'll see her struggle with that relationship for a while, but that relationship's going to bring her down to the ultimate breaking point. You might think she's already there, but she's not there yet.

Who's the new boy she's getting involved with?

Zach Sherman, he plays Jasper, who's the new creepy, Christian-Slater-from-Heathers kind of character. It's kind of an "everything" relationship. He becomes too significant in her world, and that's why she goes down the journey she'll be going down.

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Comments

  • Crystal says:

    Her comment that the VD and MP cast can take the heat off them because the paparazzi don't care about the 90210 cast anymore makes no sense. Gossip Girl has been on longer then 90210 and the paps are still obsessed with them.
    I'm convinced that she goes out of her way to run into the paps. I find it hard to believe photgraphers would go out of their way to follow a TV actress who barely gets any attention from the magazines including the tabloids who pay for paparazzi photos.