'The Secret Circle' Star Phoebe Tonkin Reveals Who Her Bad Girl Inspiration Is For Faye!

We chatted with Phoebe Tonkin plays resident bad girl Faye Chamberlain in the upcoming CW series ‘The Secret Circle’ which is being toted as the new ‘The Vampire Diaries’. She told us who inspires her as a fellow bad girl!

Phoebe Tonkin already has us captivated with her performance as Faye Chamberlain in The Secret Circle, which premieres this Thursday. Anybody who is a fan of the books knows that Faye is the “mean girl” of the witches, in contrast to “good girl” Diana. So who did Phoebe look to for badass inspiration?“I wanted to stay away from the two dimensional, snarky, sarcastic, b*tchy character,” explains Phoebe. “If you do that for so long, it kind of gets boring. You want to show multiple sides, You want [the character] to be forgiven in episode after episode.”

Her ultimate antagonist-inspiration? Kathryn Merteui. “I grew up watching Cruel Intentions. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s characer inspired me,” Phoebe tells us. “Her repressed sexuality, that kind of very conrolled mannerisms, and things like that. [Her mannerisms] definitely influenced my portrayal.”

Phoebe, who is Australian, says she’s enjoyed her transition to the US. “Filming, the mentality of the crew, it is all very similar to my work in Australia. But I do get homesick sometimes.”

She reveals how she freaked out when she found out she scored the role. “I was in LA and I had all of my agents call me at the same time. It was five people on a conference call, I got so scared! I thought ‘This is going to be good news or bad news’. I was just screaming. I had to go outside to scream since I was around people in the cafe.”

Stay tuned for more from Phoebe! What do you think of her channelling a bit of Kathryn in her portrayal of Faye? Sound off below!