What drew you to "Vampire Academy" in the first place?

Doing the audition process when you're just getting your foot in the door. I moved down [to Los Angeles in] 2018 to start acting professionally. When you're doing it, you literally audition for everything.

When it came my way to audition, I don't turn down auditions, so I just did it. It wasn't until I got the audition for the character that I ended up being hired for Sonya Karp. Because I did an audition for Rose [Hathaway], which all of the girls did, and then they gave us each [the] character that they saw us more as.

When I got the audition for Sonya Karp, that's when I realized, "Wait a second, 'Vampire Academy,' the books, like that?" That's when I got a little excited. I was like, "I didn't realize." Then I saw Julie Plec's name attached to it, and I was like, "Wait a second, this would be ..."

So then I immediately went and watched the movie, and I was like, "Whoa, this would be so cool with the book." That's what drew me to it. [I realized] in real time what was going on.

Had you had read the books before auditioning?

I read them when I was 13. Those are the first young adult fantasy books that I read. It was so cool. My sister [and I], we would just go. She'd be on book two, I'd be on book one, and then I'd catch up with her, and then she'd go on. We were superfans of these books. I think it was the "Vampire Academy" books that actually got me into "Twilight" [and] "The Vampire Diaries." I read those books. There's other[s]. The young adult fantasy book section in Books-A-Million — I'd go in there, and we'd browse and go get those.

The following question contains spoilers for the "Vampire Academy" book series and potential spoilers for the "Vampire Academy" TV series.

Do you have a favorite character from the series that isn't Rose, Lissa, or Sonya?

That is a good question. I think Christian is ... No, Mason. Mason's my favorite. You root for him so hard, and then you're absolutely, in the books, heartbroken when you read that he dies. It's like, "No." Yeah, Mason's my favorite.

He's a fun character. I loved reading him with Rose.

Yes. The way they're written is just so ... It's great. You're fully there. You're like, "Yes! Team Mason, Team Rose."