Canadian actress Nina Dobrev, who is best known for her long-running roles on “Degrassi” and “The Vampire Diaries,” is excited for viewers to see her in the Netflix holiday rom-com “Love Hard.”
The film follows a Los Angeles writer named Natalie (Dobrev) who has been unsuccessful in finding love on dating apps. Finally, after meeting her perfect match on an app, she flies 3,000 miles to surprise him for Christmas only to find out she’s been catfished. The film also stars Darren Barnet, Jimmy O. Yang and Harry Shum Jr.
It was the appeal of the universal quest for love and the character’s innate flaws that drew her to the script.
“The story felt very relatable whether you’re a writer or you’re not,” she said in a Zoom interview. “Most people have been on a dating app. Most people have had a nightmare dating story. I would argue that every person on the planet wants to find love. So that concept and that theme, and also the fact that my character is interesting because she is searching for perfection and yet, she doesn’t see that she’s not perfect.
“She’s flawed, but she’s looking for someone who’s flawless and it takes the whole film for her to realize that she has to turn the lens around and look at herself as well. That was a … theme that I wanted to explore more. As in any comedy, the scenarios were so crazy I was laughing out loud reading the script and knew that it was going to be really fun.”
Dobrev feels that the film comes at a perfect time as the “world also needed an escape and to laugh,” given the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Love Hard” was filmed during the pandemic in Vancouver and Dobrev knew that whatever she was going to shoot, she wanted to be laughing. “So making a romantic comedy felt like the right thing to do at the time, and the director was amazing and the whole cast came together really beautifully. So it just felt like it was meant to be.”
While the Bulgarian-born actress has never created a profile on a dating app for herself, she has “definitely been on them with friends.” She feels that dating has gotten much harder, especially with today’s isolation, and apps might be the only way to find connection.
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