Despite past rumors of a romance, Virgin River‘s Ben Hollingsworth expressed his desire to collaborate with his friend Nina Dobrev in a romantic comedy.
“There was always this rumor that Nina and I used to date. That’s not true. We didn’t,” Hollingsworth, 41, revealed to Us Weekly. “We used to be housemates in Toronto when I was a guest star on Degrassi and she was on Degrassi at the same time. We needed another roommate in our house — we had four actors living in a house — and she came in.”
Hollingsworth reminisced about Dobrev, 37, landing her leading role in The Vampire Diaries.
“We went to Los Angeles at the same time she booked The Vampire Diaries and I booked a show on the CW called The Beautiful Life, which only went for a minute,” he added. “It would be great to reunite with Nina. She’s awesome and we’re great friends. Although it’d be a little weird, it’d be a lot of fun to do it.”
The actor, who shares three children with his wife Nila Myers, mentioned to Us that he enjoys being part of romantic projects. Nonetheless, he is open to exploring various opportunities as he prepares for the eighth season of Virgin River.
“[Romance projects are] something that comes to me often. We get a lot of offers for that stuff, but it’s really tricky because you want to balance that,” Hollingsworth explained. “I’m a trained actor. I went to a conservatory and spent three years studying acting when I was 19 through 21. So I’ve got a really diverse background of theater training and I love stretching my range. I’ve had the opportunity to do it a little bit — and I want to continue to do that.”
He continued: “Maybe I can do [something like] Bridgerton. I love the idea of doing a period piece. I love action stuff and you see Brady do a little bit of it in Virgin River. I love doing my own stunts and working with stunt doubles. So it’d be fun to do kind of like a buddy cop action movie, too. We’ll see.”
Hollingsworth had a memorable experience on Virgin River after his character Brady was involved in a motorcycle accident.
“That’s pretty much on par for Brady’s luck,” Hollingsworth quipped to Us. “I guess I just can’t have nice things. I guess Brady just can’t have nice things.”
Hollingsworth hinted that the upcoming eighth season of Netflix’s longest-running scripted series “won’t be all smooth sailing,” teasing, “I definitely can’t spoil that. I think that’s going to be something that the audience is just going to have to wait another year to find out.”
Hollingsworth confirmed he knows what lies ahead for Brady. “I would love for Brady to be back. That would be nice. I’d love for him not to die — especially because he finally just got what he wanted,” he concluded.
Virgin River is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
