As if playing Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries wasn’t keeping her busy enough, Candice Accola is stretching her acting muscles with the lead role in season two Dating Rules For My Future Self.

In the comedic Web Series, the star plays Chloe Cunningham, a 26-year old whose life is one big party, largely consisting of many one-night stands. But when a phone app links Chloe with her 36-year old self, she's suddenly faced with especially personal advice on how to get her life on track.

The first season of the show attracted close to 14 million viewers and also cracked the top 10 of Hulu’s most-watched shows, a first-time feat for a Web series.

In our exclusive interview below, Jim Halterman grabs some phone time with the always lovely Accola, who talked about the role of Chloe and also offered up a few Vampire Diaries Season 4 teases...

Candice Accola as Chloe Cunningham

You are a busy girl! How did you first get involved with Dating Rules?
Bob Levy from Alloy came to me and I’d worked with him on The Vampire Diaries and I just loved the concept. I talked to them at the early stages of it all coming together. I just so happened to rent an apartment in Venice Beach and all my girlfriends lived in that area so we were having dinners constantly about being single in your 20s and life and boys and men and all those things and then we just started talking about this project, which related to all that so much. I was very excited about the opportunity to do it.

With Chloe in Dating Rules and Caroline on Vampire Diaries, where does Candice fall into the range?
I am really close to both characters in. I think where Chloe is right now, I mean, she’s definitely bitter when it comes to love but she’s unapologetically bitter. She just wants to have fun, no strings attached, she just doesn’t want to have any stress. Be young, be fun, be single and have these stress-free things, which can be fine if that’s what you want.

So, it’s about a single time in your life where you’re not necessarily looking for a long-term relationship and it’s a time when I didn’t know what I wanted and didn’t know myself. Not that I have myself figured out at this point but I have a much better idea. I think that’s a very normal part of the evolution of growing up is your twenties and then I think I’m also very similar to Caroline because I think she’s been forced to evolve a little bit more.

[Caroline’s] is from turning into a vampire and mine has just been growing into responsibility as you get older and my perspective of who I am and what I want. I definitely relate to both of the characters in different parts of my life that I find they parallel.

In watching Dating Rules it’s tough not to think what your older self would tell you now. Safe to say you’ve thought about that and where you’ll be in ten years?
Oh, definitely! I think about that constantly and I’ve also brought up the same thing for my girlfriends and would you want advice from your future self? It just comes down to a part of the journey. That’s something I love about this project is that some of the experiences, of course they are dramatized, but it is related to stories and experiences that me and my girlfriends [have had].

Do you think that Chloe is just a girl that wants to have fun or is there some deep-rooted issue she needs to confront? Or is that too serious for the show?
I think the idea of being twenty-something and not knowing what you want and being scared of relationships and you have to figure out yourself and maybe you’re not ready for a relationship or not knowing for you want, I don’t think that has to be a separate issue. I think that’s completely normal but I don’t think that that means that it’s not an issue of any kind of higher perspective or advice. I talk to my mother every other day and I try to use my mother like my future self a little bit and get her perspective on life and love and relationships. I think that that’s just normal. I think it’s all just part of the journey.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years personally and professionally? Maybe a few Oscars under your belt?
[Laughs] I don’t know. I have my hopes and my dreams and my wants. I just want to be working and I’d love to have a family and be happy. All of those things and whatever degree of whatever specifics that entails. That’s all I can really ask for.

Are you already back to work on The Vampire Diaries?
Yeah! We’re going into episode three and it’s been going great. It’s actually nice to have a little bit of extra time with the series not airing until October.

How will Elena and Caroline’s relationship change now that Elena is going to be going through a big change?
Now that Elena is going through a big change, it’s not necessarily going to have an effect on their friendship. I think it opens a new part of their friendship. Caroline is very comfortable of being in the position of being there for the transformation and being a mentor. With everything she’s experienced with Tyler, she’s always been his support system, she was the support system for Bonnie’s mother. I think she’s just very comfortable in that role.

What’s Caroline’s romantic life going to be like in the new season?
I can tell you that eventually Caroline will find out that Klaus has taken over Tyler’s body.

Now she doesn’t have to choose between Tyler and Klaus since she’s getting them in one person!
[Laughs] People keep saying that but that’s kind of twisted!

Watch the season premiere of Dating Rules From My Future Self on Hulu and also keep up with the show on its Facebook page. The Vampire Diaries returns with new episodes on the CW on October 11th.