Image Credit: John Behring/The CW

In the May season 3 finale of The Vampire Diaries, Nina Dobrev did some of the finest underwater acting ever in not one, but two drowning scenes — one that flashed back to the night Elena’s parents died and Stefan rescued her, and one in which Elena died after demanding that Stefan save Matt. Here, supervising producer Chris Grismer, who helped episode director John Behring helm the chill-inducing underwater sequence shot over three days, takes us inside the scene that changed the show forever. For more stories behind this year’s top TV and movie moments, click here for EW.com’s Best of 2012 (Behind the Scenes) coverage.

As told by: Chris Grismer

I started the actors training for the scene about two months before we shot. They had to train every weekend with dive instructors. Nina Dobrev was already PADI-certified, but those who weren’t had to become. They also had to learn how to act underwater for a long period of time without air: They had to learn how to do a scene and then get air between takes from a safety diver, who was never more than five or six feet away, instead of coming back up to the surface, which I think was pretty terrifying for them. Some of them wanted to swim to the surface between takes, and I had to explain to them that if you start at the surface and swim 20 feet down, you’re kinda almost out of air by the time we say “action.” [Laughs] And then they had to learn how to do it in an enclosed space. I don’t know if you’ve ever been underwater in an enclosed space, but your body just doesn’t want you in there. The actors have to be pretty brave and pretty strong. Nina Dobrev took to it so unbelievably well. She was amazing. I think in the first two weeks, I saw some video of her inside pretending to panic, and I was just blown away by it.  READ FULL STORY »