"Annie smiles too much!" "She's too much of a goody-goody!" "She always has the least interesting storylines!" When 90210 premiered last year to enormous expectations, actress Shenae Grimes saw her lead character come in for a whole lot of criticism, but there was one thing her detractors didn't know: Secretly, Grimes agreed with them.
In a candid, exclusive interview with Movieline, the 19-year-old Toronto native detailed her frustration with last season's storylines and praised new showrunner Rebecca Sinclair for taking Annie down a dark path at the same time as the show itself gets a necessary infusion of California sunshine. Whether we were talking about screen time, the firing of Dustin Milligan, or the rap ascent of her former Degrassi costar Aubrey Graham, the rejuvenated Grimes had plenty to say.
They sure are giving you some juicy shit this year!
Finally! It's about time. [Laughs] You know, it was a little frustrating last year to be put through the wringer as a teenage girl -- I know teenage girls, and I know they don't put up with crap like that. It was frustrating to never see Annie emote anything other than smiles and "being the bigger person." Everyone reaches a boiling point, and Annie's might be higher than everyone else's, but it's meant for a bigger explosion, I think.
I keep expecting Annie to go Goth for some reason. She's suffered through a hit-and-run, her friends have abandoned her, a naked picture of her was sent to the entire student body...the girl's gotta break out some black lipstick!
I know, right? But that's the great thing...Frank [Helmer, costume designer] and Rebecca have put together this look for her that is really the fresh girl next door, which is a great juxtaposition for where my character's at internally. She's in a dark place and they don't want to play that up on the outside because they want me to try to fight against what I'm feeling inside.
It's no secret that 90210 went through a lot of retooling last season. How much input did you have in that?
Last year, I was really nervous as to where my character was going because it didn't feel like she was going very far. Like I said, a character that's one-note is the most boring character to play, and it was very frustrating for me -- I think Rebecca could sense that and could see it in my eyes. My instincts were to play up the emotion, and oftentimes we would get notes like, "OK, we have to do it more network," or "We have to be more smiley," or "Don't get too upset, because that's not what people want to see from Annie." People got annoyed with seeing Annie smiling all the time!
So Rebecca picked up on that and I picked up on it, and I think both of us were dying for a change. Everything seemed a little one-note until that [season one] finale, which kind of kicked me in the ass. I was like, "All right, here we go!" Like, I've been asking for it, so how do I deal with this huge challenge? How do I make the audience buy it? Rebecca's big thing is subtlety, realism, character development. Annie's not been falling 24/7, she's not always devastated and distraught, it's something she's processing and going through internally. Her behavior's demonstrating what she's going through on the inside, but it's not thrown in your face like the drama was last year, because that's not realistic. Nobody is that upfront with their shit. [Laughs]
Was the network OK with Annie's transformation this year?
I think so. You know, when I say "network," I don't really know who that is -- I'm hearing it through the director's voice. Old producers, new writers, old writers...I think everyone's opinions got a little bit muddy, you know? This year, Rebecca came in with a clear vision of what she wanted, and she made sure she had a team together that was ready to make this vision come to fruition. The network, I think, was really excited about it, and once they saw that material cut together, I think they really appreciated what Rebecca did.
What's interesting is that although you're still the lead, you're getting to engage in the darker storylines that usually only go to the supporting characters.
Absolutely! You know, what all six of us kept saying last year was, "They can't make us unlikable yet." They've got to make sure that the audience likes us and wants to tune in every week -- they can't give us anything too dramatic or change our characters too much because they don't feel like the audience is invested in us yet. Now that we have a more solid fanbase, [the writers] have really found a way to allow each of us to go through those darker times.
Still, for as happy as you sound about the new direction, it's got to be have been jarring when they let Dustin Milligan go. You spent almost all of the first season acting opposite him.
Well, tell me about it, I can't keep my mouth shut about that. Dustin is an amazing human being and an amazing actor, and I think he slapped everybody in the face when he got nominated for Teen Choice and none of us girls did. [Laughs] It's a sad thing for all of us that we don't get to work with him anymore, but he's going to go on to bigger and better things, I'm sure.
The pilot episode last year was all about you. Was it strange to get the script for the second season premiere and you're not even in it until several minutes in?
Yeah. Tell me about it. Shocking, I guess, but at the same time, a little bit relieving. I was working like a dog last year. It took a toll on me, so as long as the material's there, I'm not complaining. I'd be nervous if my character was standing out and I didn't see her involved anymore, but to be honest, I feel like I've got some of the best material on the show this year.
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.