Hot Kick Butt Stars of the CW!

The CW is packed with capable, gorgeous, take charge women with kick butt attitudes, style and some great action moves. What do Aly Michalka, from “Hellcats” and Candice Accola and Nina Dobrev of "Vampire Diaries," think about their roles and doing some impressive action? At a recent meeting with press, they were asked.

Q: Nina and Candice, when you joined “Vampire Diaries”, were either or both of you told you were eventually going to be playing vampires and actually kicking butt?

Nina:No.I don't think so.I mean, I don't know about Candice.I wasn't told.I knew that I was playing Elena, who is this wholesome, sweet girl in a tragic scenario, and here we are a year and a half later and she's being hunted and killed, and I'm also Katherine, who is crazy and psychotic, but it's been awesome.It's been a great kind of arc.

Candice:I definitely did not know.It was a very, very wonderful surprise, especially considering that the end of the season opener for Season 2, Caroline dies, so it's nice to know that I had an opportunity to come back and still be a part of the show, but now as a vampire.So it's been a really fun season personally.

Q: Nina, you are the moral center of the show and also a seriously bad girl at the same time.. and you’re trying to kill yourself. Wazzup with that?

Nina: [laughs] Yeah. As Elena, I hope that I don't kill myself as Katherine.Wow.It's confusing to be in my head and to do this.It's not easy and I think I'm slowly becoming a schizophrenic because of it, but it's cool. There's a lot going on but I'm loving it and it's never a dull day on "The Vampire Diaries."For me, I've always got something to do and it's pretty awesome.

Q: There have been some kick butt women on TV before who paved the way for you guys. Was there one that you admired growing up?

Aly: I don't know if I can think of one on TV, but James Bond chicks are like pretty kick‑butt to me.So if they were to make a TV show out of like James Bond, I think that would be pretty kick‑butt.I think Farrah Fawcett was pretty kick‑butt on "Charlie's Angels," I gotta say.I mean, she had the look down, so I would say that's probably the main one. But I think it takes confidence.The most kick‑butt attribute you can have as a woman is being confident and showing it and being proud to actually show your strengths, whatever those are.

Candice: I know it's not necessarily stunt work, like kicking booty, but I think Lucille Ball was a pretty kick‑butt woman and she paved such a beautiful path for women in television and she could be clumsy and make a fool of herself and still just carry herself with such grace and poise and you would still laugh your butt off.I think she's pretty kick‑butt.

Nina: These women here with me and Lucille Ball paved the way but there's more opportunity now and there's more women in higher positions. There's a lot of television with strong women and it's good now because it's reflective of the society and the way it is in reality.

Aly: Lucy Lawless in “Xena: Warrior Princess”

Candice: Yeah!

Nina:I think watching Angelina Jolie movies is always kind of inspiring and awesome, but I remember watching /Tomb Raider/, and there's this woman who's, like, beating up all of the guys.It does feel very empowering.

Q: Can you be a kick butt woman on TV and still be kind?

Aly: I think that actually it's all about being kind because then people don't perceive you as kick‑butt and then you kick their butt.You know what I mean?I think it's a cool responsibility; to strive to be somebody that a young female can look up to, you know, regardless of how old or young you are, for somebody to have a role model.I think that's really important in this day and age. It's just really embracing being normal and natural and happy and healthy and awesome.

Q: Were some of you more athletic growing up than others? Was it easy to use that and apply it to stunt work if you were?

Candice: I was going to be a professional dancer, but I grew up taking dance classes down the street and that's actually been the most helpful in the stunt work; counting out the steps and "5, 6, 7, 8, and punch”. It is funny how those little things that you don't think are going to translate, things that you learned as a kid, all of a sudden, as an adult, they help you out in your job.

Aly: I was on competitive dance squads, like, as a teenager, and I was really involved with hip‑hop and freestyling, and that was something that I was really passionate about.So when I got the call to come in and they were like, "We need to see you dance and stuff, and it's not serious," I was like, "No.I think it's going to be serious.”They always say that so they don't scare you. So I was like, “I'm going to bring it, like, to the audition”.

I think Marti is kicking butt in different ways than these women.You guys are actually physically kicking butt.I think I'm, like, cheer kicking butt. She's, like, saving the day, like, every day, helping kids out in her college.But, yeah, it was something that I always loved to do, and I feel really comfortable in my body and the way that I incorporate my movements into Marti and how she performs as a dancer.I've, also been kickboxing and doing martial arts for years.

Q: A lot of male actors say that one of the things that got them into acting was they liked the idea of shooting guns, they liked the idea of fighting.For any of you, was one of the attractions of getting into acting the idea that you might get to hit, shoot, or, for our Vamps, bite somebody someday?

Nina: Well, I think, probably as a child, you know, aspiring to bite people as an adult would probably make you a little bit of a creepy child.

Candice: I think it's been the cherry on the cupcake.It's been really fun things to do.I mean, when you are catching up and it's still very new, it's interesting.It's fun.

Q: Sometimes tough women can intimidate guys, and sometimes they like it.Who would like to comment on that?

Nina: That’s a fine line, I guess.

Candice: I think it just depends on men being secure within themselves. I think confidence has kind of been constant. I think within the meaning of being a kick‑butt person, you know, it really does come down to inner confidence and perspective.And so finding a man that can be confident to stand next to a woman that's very sure of herself, you know, that's a great thing.

Q: Aly, what kick butt moments on the show did you enjoy?

Aly: In one of the episodes, Marti gets initiated into the squad, officially.She gets kidnapped by the squad, and she has to do a suicide drop off the balcony in the gym.I actually felt very cool.That was probably the most kick‑butt that I felt on the show.I mean, we are doing stunts and stuff. I've been lifted up, and I can do, like, a high V and stuff but it was cool because I got to be on wires.Then I did a high fall without wires. I just felt so invigorated, and I just was like, "Wow, I did that."And I felt really safe, and I felt secure, but I also really trusted the guys that were catching me, my bases.

Q: Has being a kick‑butt woman on TV infiltrated your everyday life?Like, are you more confident walking down the street? Of somebody came up and tried to attack you, would you fight them off?

Nina: I would kick their butt!

Aly: Yeah.You don't want to mess with me.I have, like pepper spray and actually, I do shoot. I can go to the shooting range on weekends in L.A., and I'm like, "Dad we are taking out the guns.Take out the .22.Let's go.”

Nina: Yeah. If someone comes up, you are like, "Have you seen my show? Have you seen what I do to all of those people?Do you want that? Think about it."And then they usually walk away.It's great.

Q: Can some of you give us some hints on what is coming up on your shows?

Aly: I'll jump in.There's some really cool storylines with Marti trying to find out who her dad is.She has no idea who her father is.She thinks that he's not alive anymore.So she goes searching for answers. She's trying to find something to hang onto, something to give her hope that maybe he's alive or maybe there's something out there that she can relate to. He was a musician and she finds a bunch of guitar picks from a certain music store.She goes in, asks them, you know, "Is there any way you know, Rex Perkins?

And the girl who happens to work at the guitar shop is my sister in real life, AJ.So she's going to come on the show in late January, and she's going to be a really cool character, very different and opposite from Marti, which I think will be great. She’ll cause a lot of problems with her relationship with Savannah, and it will cause her to be a little territorial, so yeah.AJ’s character Dierdre ends up giving her some information that's really helpful for Marti.

Nina: One thing that’s anticipated right now is that Klaus is coming at some point, by the end of the season.He hasn't been cast yet as far as I know.We don't really know that much.We won't find out again until it's actually written on the page, but he's going to be a big, bad vampire.And I think Sacha Baron Cohen should be cast, do one of his crazy characters with an accent, and that should be cool.

Candice: And then we are also going to be introduced to more werewolf action and the meeting of vampires and werewolves and how they are going to play a part in each other's lives within the world of Mystic Falls.And it's going to be a little bit of a battle of territories and how that affects personal relationships within friends within the town so stay tuned in!