Fangirl Friday: Sydney Sage + an interview with Daisy Masterman!

It's Fangirl Friday and this week, I'm featuring my first ever female character from Richelle Mead's Bloodlines Series:

Sydney Sage!

Synopsis:

Blood doesn't lie...

Sydney is an alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of human and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she's still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir - the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir - is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill's guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the last place anyone would think to look for vampire royalty - a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. But instead of finding safety at Amberwood Prep, Sydney discovers the drama is only just beginning...

There are currently 4 BOOKS in the Bloodlines series: Bloodlines, The Golden Lily, Indigo Spell, and the Fiery Heart (which is out right now). I have YET to read TFH (broke girl problems, ya know?), and NONE of my libraries are update. So I have to wait till after Christmas to R&R...

But anways, that doesn't mean I can't feature Sydney on Fangirl Friday!

All About the Alchemist:

Sydney Sage is an 18 year old Alchemist (that's a person dedicated to hiding vampires from the human world) when she's first introduced in the fourth book of the Vampire Academy series, Blood Promise. She's cold, distant, and has an unbelievably remarkable talent for being right and having amazing comebacks, but after a little while, we get to see her much friendlier side- but that doesn't mean she stops with the on-going comebacks and being 'smart' thing.

We learn that the Alchemist's prejudice and hard-core teaching methods are the reason behind her cold, disconnected exterior and fear with vampires and dhampirs.

She starts warming up when she spends time with Rose and Dimitri, but finally becomes at ease (or at least learns to be) in California, where she is forced to live with Jill, Eddie, Angeline, and the swoony and post-break up Adrian.

She comes a long way from Vampire Academy to the Fiery Heart: she goes from the girl having to have Rose Hathaway defend her from Strigoi in Russia to a badass magic wielding girl in California, who also happens to be in love with a vampire. A huge step up from her first apperance.

Facts:

• Born Sydney Katherine Sage to alchemist Jared Sage and his wife, Deborah


• Grew up in Utah with two sisters, Carly (older, College Student), and Zoe (younger, alchemist-in-training). They also have a family cat.


• Her mom taught her about cars at a young age, to the point where she has a car obsession.


• She is my spirit-animal She has a coffee addiction and knows too much for her own good.

Why is Sydney Fangirl Friday worthy?

Sydney is much more different from Rose's character, and when I first started reading the series, I felt like I was cheating on Rose. But I started to ease into it, and realized (thankfully) that early on, that comparing the two series was stupid. Like Rose says in the VA series "no two relationships are alike", and Rose and Sydney are NOT alike.

When I read Rose's books, I'm drawn to her trying to figure out what's wrong and what's right, and when it's time to grow up. I connect with her because I'm trying to figure that out as well.

With Sydney...she's me. Literally. Except I don't have a vampire BF, I have no magical powers and I suck at math. But Sydney's perfect in every sense, and everyone pretty much views her that way. I've been told MANY times that I'm viewd the same way: in control, intelligent, intimedating. In reality I'm not, and I'm as socially awkward as Sydney (well, not exactly, but I'm still a little awkward). I'm a little up tight as well, and it takes my close friends to bring out that goofy side. :)

Sydney is worthy of Fangirl Friday because she's easy to connect with. She's a human girl- and then some. Sydney is also a person that can stick her own and get what she wants as well; she uses her wits, her smarts and her self-determination.

And, if that isn't enough to make you love her, she can also wield magic. Yeah. She can totally burn vampires :)

WHEW! So that was my part of Fangirl Friday! In addition to sharing my thoughts on Sydney Sage and why she's totally worth fangirling over, here's my interview with the actress that portray's Sydney herself in the book trailers:

Daisy Masterman!

About Daisy:

Daisy Masterman, born 6 April 1990, is an Australian actress who grew up in Melbourne, Victoria. During her schooling years Daisy was involved in school plays and took drama lessons as a hobby, but it was only after she graduated from high school in 2008 that she decided to start pursuing acting further. Having signed with Triple Talent Management she has gone on to appear in many commercials for brands such as Tetley and Cadbury. Along with acting Daisy loves figure skating and has appeared on The Today Show and The David and Kim Show as an exhibitionist skater. Her most recent notable role was for a book trailer for a sequel off series of the well known Vampire Academy novels. Daisy plays the lead role, Sydney Sage in Bloodlines.

Daisy has just finished working on a feature film called Murderdrome which is a comical slasher film that she had to learn to roller skate and play roller derby for. Her character goes against type as she plays the antagonist's bitchy side kick.The film is currently in post production and is set for release in 2013.

Follow her on Twitter: @daisymasterman and on Facebook :D

1) Hello Daisy, and welcome to The Lovely Grace! I'm so happy to have you here! For all those who don't know it, you're an actress and a model, but do you have an special talents that no one know about?

Hmm secret special talents... Well, I find it comes in handy about zero percent of the time but I can click my tongue really loudly. Or one of my friends recently taught me how to hand whistle. It took me ages to work out how to do it so I was pretty excited when I finally got it!

2) You portray Sydney Sage in the Bloodlines trailers, and what has that experience been like for you?

I love Sydney and the entire Bloodlines series so it's been such an honor to be able to represent her and be involved in the trailers. It's difficult trying to portray a book character to people because everyone creates their own interpretation of things in their imagination and bringing that to life is a real challenge but it's one I've definitely enjoyed. I've discovered (similarly to Sydney) that I can't try to please everyone, and all I can do is work hard and give it my best.

3) Do you find it a bit surreal that the international Vampire Academy and Bloodlines community have been taking so much notice in you, Nick and the trailers, and give as much love and hype for it as the movie trailers?

Totally surreal. I never expected to get such a response from people, and particularly one that's worldwide! It's great that there's such a passionate community out there from the readers and it's really flattering people have given us as much support as they have.

4) What's your favourite thing about Sydney? What's your least favourite thing about her?

My favourite thing about Sydney is probably her intelligence. I love how she goes with what she believes in regardless of what she's been taught or told. I think that's really strong of her and is something to be admired. My least favorite thing is that she is sometimes a bit too serious or uptight... But I kind of still love that about her! It's part of her charm.

5) What's something that you would tell Sydney if you were ever written in as a character?

I'd probably try to get her to loosen up a bit more and make some mischief!

6) I'm going to ask a question that every girl wants to know: Is Nick a good kisser? ;)

He's a real life Adrian Ivashkov, everything he says or does is exactly like what you would expect Adrian to do. He's so perfectly cast for this role.

...I dodged the question a little there but take from it what you will :P haha.

7) Switching gears for a moment: have you seen the Blood Sister's trailer yet and are you excited for the movie!

I have seen it and yes! I'm super excited. I think it looks awesome and I cannot wait to go see it.

8) If you had the choice to choose one actor from the movie to film a scene with for the trailer or just act alongside with in any production, who would you choose?

They have such a great cast on board for the movie I would be lucky to work with any one of them!

9) Are you filming/ have any productions going on at the moment? If so, do you think your character will beat Sydney in a trivia game?

Murderdrome had its premiere on the 22nd of November, it's been a long time in the making so it was great to see how it turned out. And I just finished a stage production of Louis Nowra's play 'The Golden Age' where I played Betsheb.

My character in Murderdrome is a blonde, ditzy roller derby girl and Betsheb is a wild-ling so I have a feeling Sydney would definitely beat both of them in a trivia game. Sydney is like a walking Wikipedia, she'd be some tough competition!!!

And 10) What do you think makes Sydney Sage fangirl Friday worthy?

She's Sydney Sage!

THIS OR THAT? SPEED QUESTIONS!

Coffee or Tea?

Tea! Specifically peppermint.

Book or e-book?

Nothing beats a good old fashioned paperback novel.

Stage or film production?

Both.

Sweetish Berries or Chocolate?

Chocolate. Junk food ftw :P

Figure Skating or Acting?

Acting.

Dimitri Belikov or Adrian Ivashkov? ;)

Adrian. For sure!

That's it for Fangirl Friday! Have an amazing Friday, and Happy Thanksgiving to my US peeps, and Happy Hanukkah to those that are celebrating it!

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH to Daisy for taking the time out of her busy schedule to do this interview! I really appreciate it!