With the world on pause for now, we’ve all been preoccupying ourselves with newfound interests and ventures. Actress Marie Avgeropoulos has chosen to spend her time making her family proud by making every Greek dish in existence.“I’ve turned into an iron chef!” She tells me cheerfully over the phone from her home in Canada. “Making the Greeks in my family proud, I send them pictures of my cooking that I’ve made that week, just trying to stay positive.”

Typically, Marie would be sprinting through vast evergreen rainforests in a dystopian world, fighting for survival as Octavia Blake in the science fiction series The 100. The series has soared to success, sitting comfortably between cult TV show Supernatural and superhero series The Flash, but with the seventh season airing this week the show has now wrapped after 100 episodes.

Playing a role like Octavia Blake for seven seasons is not for the faint-hearted. Starting off as fierce and independent, Marie’s character quickly grew into a bloodthirsty and ruthless leader, with violent outbursts and brutal dictatorship ruling. We caught up with the actress talking what’s to come in the penultimate season, challenges faced and what’s next for the actress.

Check out the interview below…

You’ve starred in The 100 since it started in 2014, now the show is ending after it’s seventh season what are you going to miss most about the show.
There are a lot of things I’m going to miss about the show, especially because I feel like we didn’t get to send each other off. We finished filming The 100 the day before the world wide lockdown, and it felt like I spent seven years of my life playing Octavia Blake in an artificial post-apocalypse universe to walking straight into what feels like a real-life apocalypse. I didn’t get to say goodbye properly to my castmates or thank the writers and producers that gave me this opportunity that completely changed my life.

Your character Octavia has grown so much through the series, when she first started in season one she was independent and rebellious. But, she became darker and bloodthirsty in the later seasons, how did you find growing with the character?
I definitely found it challenging and exciting. I never knew where Octavia storyline was going to go, and I’m really thankful that as an actress the writers of the show started writing for me as a person. When they realised that I had athletic abilities, they quickly turned Octavia into a warrior. Over time, she metamorphosed into so many different versions of herself, so going to work each day was a completely different experience.

You did all your own stunts as well which is absolutely insane! How did you prepare yourself for that?
I’ve always been a tomboy growing up! Riding horses and motorcycles are my favourite pastimes. Rule number one of doing your own stunts, is try not to hurt anyone including myself – but try to make it as real as possible. We had very long stunt rehearsals, but they always had my back! I try not to be so hard on myself if for example, if I drop my sword I just pick it back up and try again on the next take!

You’ve played Octavia for seven years on the show, when was a time you felt most relatable to the character?
I always put a little bit of Marie into Octavia over the years. Octavia has had times where she is forced into situations where maybe she didn’t want take the lead but had no choice. I feel like I’ve had to do that plenty of times, where I don’t feel prepared but once you jump into the situation with two feet in, you realise there was always a warrior inside yourself and Octavia ultimately found that.

With the seventh final season airing this week, any chance for some spoilers?
A lot of questions will be answered this final season, the audience is going to find out a lot more about the Anomaly – who is it and why she stabbed Octavia.

Out of all the seasons which one has been your favourite?
My favourite season of The 100 would be the Blodreina season because it was the most challenging for me. Jason Rothenberg the creator of the show, warned me before the season started that they’re going to ask a lot from me in this season and I need to step up to the challenge. I’m so grateful they thought I could do it! I chopped all my hair off at the beginning of the season and went into a dark place. Every day after wrap I would remember to do something light and laugh it off because things can get a little weird when you’re practising cannibalism at work.

A lot of the TV shows and movies you have been in have been sci-fi, are you a fan?
I seem to not be able to get away from sci-fi. It’s ironic because I didn’t grow up a sci-fi fan, to be completely honest I didn’t even grow up with a television set or cable in the house! I recently just finished a movie called Jiu-Jitsu, which surrounds a lot of sci-fi subjects with an amazing cast, it’s set in an unfamiliar world with an impossible enemy that no one can quite figure out. It’s funny because I would love to do something a little lighter but I keep finding myself on sci-fi movie sets.

You most recently voice acted for Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, how was that in comparison to live-action?
It’s so wonderful doing voice over work! Not only do you get to do it in your pyjamas and nobody knows, but you get to work with some amazing people. For example, I got to work opposite Rosario Dawson, having not ever met her till the premiere!

Now The 100 is wrapped, what’s next for you?
I don’t know! I wonder if I’ll just be doing voice over work because of social distancing. Once everything has sorted itself out, I would love to do something a little lighter, my mom paid for me to have braces when I was in high school, so I would love to do something where I get to smile. I think Octavia smiled once in 100 episodes.