Leah Pipes On 'The Originals': 'Everyone Should Be Shirtless!'

Hollywood Crush

Leah Pipes On 'The Originals': 'Everyone Should Be Shirtless!'

Leah Pipes might be playing the token human on The CW's new "Vampire Diaries" spin-off, "The Originals," but she doesn't feel left out of all the supernatural goings-on. "I feel discriminated against," she joked to Hollywood Crush about her character's lack of powers. "No, I feel like it's a great thing because I just get to react in a normal way to what's happening around me. I think being an actor it might be harder to develop a vampire as a character, so I feel like I get it kind of easy. I'm also enjoying discovering everything with her."

Leah was introduced, along with the mysterious underground world of New Orleans, at the end of "TVD" season four. Her character, Camille, is a psychology student by day and bartender by night, and intriguing to both the head vampire in charge of N'awlins, Marcel, and everyone's favorite immortal vampire-werewolf hybrid, Klaus. Of course, Cami isn't yet aware of all the magic happening around her. "She is getting herself into some shenanigans, unbeknownst to her," Leah explained. "I think the friends she's making are a little suspect and there's a lot of drama happening around her. She's just managing to find her way right in the f-ing middle of it."

But she has a hunch Cami will catch on sooner rather than later. "She's literally surrounded by supernatural people so she's going to have to be a huge idiot if she doesn't pick up on [the fact that] something's up. But I don't know what's going to happen."

Despite the fact that pretty much everyone in the "TVD" universe has turned supernatural at some point, Leah is okay with staying human—at least for now. "We haven't talked about it yet, but I'm going to throw out there that I would like to be a new kind of hybrid that's werewolf, witch, and vampire. And doppelganger, and maybe a direwolf. What would you even call that?"

We already saw a kernel of attraction between Cami and Klaus, but don't expect love to bloom any time soon. "There's an interest because she's a psychology student and he is just so blatantly a messed-up human that there is a draw there," she said. "I don't know if it's romantic. I think it could easily be a friendship. It's right now a mutual interest."

One thing's for sure: Cami's not going to put up with Klaus' crap. "It's increasingly obvious that she's not going to take the B.S. that men usually pull on women. As a woman, to be able to play that character, I'm finding it so therapeutic," she said. "There are a few speeches that I give a certain someone and I wish I could go back in time and give those speeches in my life to certain boys that did not treat me the way I should have been treated."

Because this is The CW, we had to ask: In the couple of episodes Pipes has filmed so far, any sexy scenes we should be aware of? "Any kissing scenes? You gotta watch," she teased. "I can't ruin any of this for you."

Okay, fine. What about shirtlessness? "Everyone should be shirtless," she joked. "But not me. Everyone but me should be shirtless. I have double As—you don't want to see me shirtless. It's not interesting. It might as well be a 12-year-old boy shirtless. It doesn't matter. No one cares."

"The Originals" premieres Thursday, October 3, after "The Vampire Diaries," before moving to its regular Tuesday time slot.

What do you think of Cami so far?

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