Once filming wrapped on the first TV season of 90210, McCord visited Cambodia and met with human trafficking survivors in shelters. “All of a sudden, I had a reason to do whatever it is I wanted to do in L.A,” she says.
One of her best friends, however, convinced her to accept what would become her breakthrough role since it would grant McCord a larger platform to spread awareness of a subject near and dear to her heart: human trafficking. “I decided that I wanted to leave Hollywood and go back home,” McCord tells me. Apparently, some of the actresses playing mean-girl cheerleaders in the film thought it best to stay in character while filming and made her life a living hell. She’d just had a terrible experience during the shoot of Fired Up!, a teen sex comedy about two high school football players who go to cheerleading camp to get laid.
AnnaLynne McCord had no desire to play Naomi Clark, the uber-privileged “queen bee” of 90210’s West Beverly High.
