When Vampire Academy's Zoey Deutch found out she was coming to Australia, she knew she needed to bring her mum, actress Lea Thompson from Back to the Future, to show her around.
"I brought my mother so that she would be the tour guide," the 19-year-old star of the book-turned-movie says in Sydney.
"My first day here, we walked to the Botanical Gardens and the Opera House and to the museum. We snuck into the State Theatre to see it all. I'm staying an extra two days to see the beach."
But Deutch has another person she can turn to for sightseeing help.
Her co-star in Vampire Academy is Aussie actress Lucy Fry.
While Fry calls Brisbane home, she did write a list for Deutch and instructed her on the art of eating a Tim Tam.
"I had a Tim Tam this morning," Deutch says.
"A fan brought it at the signing yesterday and I dipped it in my coffee. It was phenomenal."
Fry could also give some advice to another co-star, with Sarah Hyland in town to film Modern Family.
Hyland will attend the Vampire Academy premiere in Sydney and Deutch says they've been keeping in touch.
Unlike her Modern Family role, Hyland plays a nerdy vampire in the film, based on Richelle Mead's book series.
She starts hanging out with fellow vampire Lissa (Fry) and her half-human/half vampire guardian-in-training Rose (Deutch) when they return to the academy, which they believe holds more dangers for them than the outside world.
The school teaches the peaceful Moroi vampires to harness their magic power and their guardians (called Dhampir) to learn to protect them from the bloodthirsty, immortal vampires - the Strigoi.
Vampire Academy is the first in a six-part series by Mead and has already sold three quarters of a million copies in Australia alone.
* Vampire Academy releases in Australian cinemas on March 6
