Jenny Boyd plays Lizzie, one of Alaric Saltzman’s twin daughters, on The CW’s new series Legacies which premieres this Thursday, October 24 on The CW. We recently had the opportunity to visit the Legacies sets in Georgia where we spoke to most of the cast, and have been rolling them out in the days leading to the big premiere.
Today, the spotlight falls on Ms. Boyd who talked about what it’s like to be part of the Vampire Diaries universe as well as what it’s like to be Lizzie. She also talks about her favorite TVD ‘ship. If video is more your thing, you can find it below.
Lizzie is the blonde who seems to be a “mean girl” on the exterior of the series, and her hair matches the locks of famed Vampire Diaries character Caroline Forbes. What is most interesting, though, is that upon taking the role, neither Boyd nor Kaylee Bryant — the actress playing Lizzie’s sister Josie — knew which roles they were going to take. As it turned out, the eyes have it.
“We were trying to take bets on who was going to have to go blonde, and I realized I have blue eyes. Two weeks later, we were like ‘who’s gonna go blonde?’ And I was sitting at home and I was like ‘she has brown eyes and I have blue eyes!’ And I called her, and she was like ‘yeah, I figured it would be for that.’ Being blonde is also new for me, so that’s fun,” Boyd said about learning her role.
“I actually didn’t know exactly what Lizzie’s characteristics would be in this phase of her life, even when I found out who she was,” she explained. “[But] the first time I met with the writers, they really gave me this big insight into her. Initially just as an actress, I felt like ‘oh my gosh. Am I going to be able to play this role and do this justice?’ Because I do feel on the inside a bit more of a Josie kind of feeling. But yeah. It’s been so wonderful playing her, and just an interesting delve into the character. It’s such an amazing opportunity as an actress.”
We’ll see Lizzie lash out a bit as early as the first episode of Legacies, where she thrashes through and makes a mess of the former Salvatore kitchen.
“I think Lizzie has very intense emotions, and I think that it’s a buildup that’s happening. I mean, she is bipolar, and Kai Parker who was in the Vampire Diaries is her ancestor and she is related to him. There have been a few allusions to my connection to him, and a feeling that Lizzie, depending on her life and her choices, could go in a similar way to him. It’ll be interesting to see her journey.”
“At the deep root of Lizzie there’s just all of this vulnerability and all of this insecurity, and I think a lot of the ‘mean girl’ stuff, it is to cover up how insecure she really is, and how much she worries about everybody’s opinion of her, which I think is also a youthful problem,” she explained. “I think everyone has that kind of feeling of uncertainty, and not really knowing who you are or how you fit in your own skin, and I think that, for her, is her most compelling thing. She still hasn’t really defined herself, so she’s looking for whatever way possible to do that.”
“I think the lack of a mother figure really affects Lizzie a lot,” she confirmed. “It’s hard. Obviously her dad is the head of the school, and his attention is focused in so many different ways, and she has to share him with a hundred other students,” she explained. “I think it’s a huge root reason as to why she behaves the way she does, is wishing she had a mother figure there to help her, to ask questions, and to be a support system for her. She really has that lack.”
And was she a fan of The Vampire Diaries before getting this job?
“Of course, I loved it. Everyone’s favorite guilty pleasure,” she said. “The Stelena-Delena dilemma!”
“I’m a big Delena fan, and I know the other two girls are not, so there’s a little bit of a rivalry going there, but yeah,” she admitted about her shipping preference. “Damon Salvatore is just so funny. He’s the bad boy. Everybody loves the bad boy…. Well, maybe just me. But yeah.”
Being a fan of the show also added a surreality to having Matt Davis playing her father.
“It’s great. Matt is Matt, and not Alaric, so meeting him was a little bit intimidating, but he’s just such a funny, sweet guy, and made us feel so at home. But yeah. Every once in a while, you catch yourself going ‘That’s Alaric Saltzman and I’m on the Vampire Diaries set!’ It can be a little bit surreal sometimes,” she said.
Legacies premieres Thursday, October 25 on The CW. Find more of our coverage of the series here!