Recalling the incident, the actress says, 'The lion opened its mouth and tried to attack us, and our guide was like a real-life Indiana Jones and roared back at him and scared the lion off.'
- January 19, 2019
AceShowbiz - Actress Nina Dobrev almost became a lion's meal during her recent trip to South Africa.
The former "The Vampire Diaries" star was thrilled to see big cats in the wild on safari, but getting up close to one lion gave the actress and her friends a bit of a scare.
"I've always wanted to go to South Africa," Nina tells news show "Extra". "It was fun and the safari part of it was the best part. There were elephants drinking out of our pool, we saw leopards, and at one point a lion actually charged at us!"'
But the big cat was no match for Nina's incredible guide, who came to the rescue.
"The lion opened its mouth and tried to attack us, and our guide was like a real-life Indiana Jones and roared back at him and scared the lion off," the actress shares, admitting she faced her mortality in that moment. "(That is) the closest I've been to death so far in my life, and I've done some crazy s**t."
Nina returned from South Africa to celebrate her 30th birthday on January 9 with a wild festival-themed party thrown for her by her "xXx: Return of Xander Cage" co-star Vin Diesel.
The bash was so epic it was given the nickname #NinaChella, a reference to the annual California desert festival, Coachella, and the star admits she is still recovering from the party.
"I'm pretty sure I'm still currently hung over, and my party was... days ago," she laughs of the bash, which featured a set by DJ Zedd.
