The singer-actress opened up about the show and her new album, titled, 'Long Hot Summer,' while at the Wang Tango Festival Sunday.
There's no spell powerful enough to bring Kat Graham back should Vampire Diaries return. ET's Will Marfuggi spoke to Graham, who played the teenage witch, Bonnie Bennett, for all eight seasons of the long-running series, about her future on the show, and why the singer-actress is focusing on her new music.
"I mean, eight years, you know eight years of my life," Graham, who has been vocal in the past about not returning for a reboot, said of the time she spent on Vampire Diaries. "I feel like I spent more time as a character than I spent as myself"
She continued, "I'm still that girl that was running around rogue, trying to play gigs and, I finally feel like, with especially all the films that I have -- five films out this year, it's my second album I'm dropping this year, I feel like I'm almost playing catchup in a weird way as an artist."
After giving so much of herself to the show, the recently engaged Graham said that she's pouring herself into her music, upcoming film roles and activism -- something she said she put on hold while filming the show.
"I feel like I gave that show, and hopefully the fans that watch it, eight years of my life and poured so much into it and sacrificed a lot of time with my family, even time doing work with the UN refugee agency, doing my activism -- so much of that has to get put on hold when you're on a twenty-two episode series for eight years," She shared. "So, as grateful, and I mean grateful, because I grew from that show, I became who I really am in my twenties from that show, for me, yeah the door is closed."
While the door is closed on Vampire Diaries, it's wide open for the rest of her career, with Graham telling ET there's so much she still wants to do as both "an artist and as a human."
"It's more open to myself and the different characters I wanna play, and the different places -- I want to be back in the field, I want to do my work with refugees, I wanna do my human rights work, I wanna release records, I wanna dance, there's a lot as an artist and as a human being I feel like I have to contribute and I want to contribute to the world," Graham stressed, before reiterating which doors are open and which are closed when it comes to her Hollywood career. "I just don't feel like that's something that I can really utilize in the strongest way to contribute to the world. I feel like I've got a lot to offer, so yeah, for now, the door's absolutely closed."
Graham's latest project, her album, Long Hot Summer, which she put out in partnership with GLAAD, has her on the road, most recently at iHeartRadio's Wango Tango and at Pride festivals across the country and the world.
"It's Pride month, so we're doing a bunch of festivals," Graham said. "So, had to stop off in L.A., my hometown, first, so it's exciting."
While the album has only been out since Friday, the 32-year-old singer says it's been her "most explosive" record yet.
"It's been a great response. I'm surprised because I've released a few records in my past ten years, and this, by far, has been the most explosive," she revealed. "It's a record about empowerment and self-love, and embracing your individuality, and I feel like people really need that."
Graham's album, Long Hot Summer is out now.
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