We sat down with the beautiful star to talk about skincare (read our interview with her over on GlamBlush!), but we made sure to sneak in a question or two about her hit show, too! Here’s what AnnaLynne had to say about the new season of 90210!

What drama, love interests, etc. do we have to look forward to for Naomi?

For next season, Naomi is trying her best to get over Liam. He broke her heart but she’s not going to let the world know it! But then he shows up for the first day of school, and she’s crushed. She sees him and it all comes rushing back. The first scene of the premiere is really funny! She has fantasies, she’s trying to hit on any guy—but she has policies for guys. If her girlfriends have dated them, that’s a no go. In one case, one of her hopefuls is completely dashed because someone in her group has dated him before—it’s so cute. But with Naomi and Liam, you just feel this tension every time you see them—actually, Matt and I are like, “When are we going to get back together?! Come on!

But then, Naomi wants to go to college. Hilarious—it’s really a funny episode. She just thinks that of course she’ll go to college, and she’s going to go the college that she wants because it’s a “pretty college.” And, oh yeah, there’s this thing called grades! And tests! And she doesn’t really think about that, so it’s a funny episode where she’s trying to seduce the Dean’s son or something—it’s really a lot of fun.

Naomi is a lot less of a malicious bitch this year. She’s still a bitch, she’s still got her edge, but she’s just very honest. There’s actually a lot of humor now in the character, and I’ve had fun learning the comedy of it, because I haven’t really done a lot of comedies. I’ve had a lot of fun with it this year. There are a lot of juicy bits! She gets some good blackmail on Annie. She’s out for revenge, so she gets some juicy blackmail material in the first episode. A lot to look forward to in the premiere, actually.

Is it hard for you to get into the mindset of a 17-year-old girl?
You know, whenever I approach a character, I never look at age, because my whole life, I’ve consistently been judged by my age. I moved out at 15, and it was, “Oh, you’re such a baby!” I’ve had that whole, “You’re only 15, you don’t know anything,” and I think, “Actually, I probably know a bit more than you do!” But I’m not going to let onto that, I’ll just let my work speak for it.
But I definitely do not approach any character looking at their age, because every character is different. Naomi, in her case, she definitely has her head on her shoulders—more so than a lot of typical girls her age. So if I were to just approach her as a 17-year-old, that wouldn’t work.

For me, this year especially, I literally hang out with my sister. My younger sister is 20, and I get all my inspiration for Naomi from her. She loves her high end fashion, she loves her Louis Vuitton bags, she has her little purse dog—she’s the epitome of Naomi, and I channel it! I just hop right in there, and all of a sudden I catch myself sounding like Rachel! So Rachel, now she wants her commission, she wants her cut.

But I really don’t judge my characters—I make a point not to. That’s something that’s really important, I think, in taking on a character that’s obviously as different as Naomi is to me in my personal life. So it’s really not judging the character, age, background, etc. and just approaching it as her life. Everything she does it what she believes she must do in order to survive in the environment that she’s in.

And do you have any other projects coming up outside of 90210?
I do have a project for the hiatus that we’re working on—it’s very preliminary right now, but I’ll give you a little teaser! It would be a very kick-butt role for me, very opposite of Naomi and a lot closer to what I would really love to do in the future, as far as film is concerned. Guns, futuristic motorbikes, totally Angelina Jolie in Wanted—that kind of feel. Very badass. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for that. It would be totally different from what I’ve portrayed so far, and it’s a lot more where I’d love my film career to go. I love action flicks, I’m getting into martial arts training right now, and getting prepped. I don’t want to jinx anything and we’re knocking on wood that everything will go through!