So what's Claire up to when the show picks up?
It's four months from where we left off, and Claire is trying to get in touch with her inner teen self once again. She hasn’t given that up, and I think it’d be a sad thing if she did. She’s struggling to fit in, but not stand out. I wouldn’t say goodbye to the cheerleading outfit quite yet, but she’s not in [her Odessa uniform] anymore. The funny thing about Claire is that as much as she has that beautiful naiveté about her and as sweet as she is, she does have that spitfire. She has that sass about her. And so it’s fun to watch her.

Would you ever want to play a more villainous character?
It would be exciting for me. I've always been categorized and typecast because I'm blonde. People look at me as either the popular cheerleader type or just the blonde. You don’t play villains unless you're Sharon Stone when you're blonde. People look at me as very sweet, and I would never in a million years describe myself as sweet -- never!

NEXT SLIDE