20 Behind The Scenes Secrets From The Vampire Diaries
There are a few television shows that have a massive fan base behind them, and The Vampire Diaries is definitely one of them. The dramatic series ran on The CW from 2009 until 2017 and had eight seasons and 171 episodes. Starring Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert, a teenage girl who falls for two vampire brothers, Damon and Stefan Salvatore, it seems like the show racked up tons of fans and praise pretty much immediately. If you weren't watching from the very beginning, your friends probably told you to start watching ASAP. As soon as you watched just one episode, you were probably totally hooked. That's what tends to happen with these types of shows. Some people might consider a teen vampire drama a guilty pleasure but, hey, you really don't have to feel any kind of guilt for being so into it. It's just simply a fun, enjoyable show.
It's always fun to see what happened behind the camera of a TV show, and that's true of TVD as well. Are you wondering what went down when the cameras weren't on and what kinds of secrets there are? Of course, right? It's only natural to want all the juicy details the dirt. We've got you covered. Read on to find out 20 behind-the-scenes secrets from The Vampire Diaries!
20 Nina Dobrev Reportedly Quit Because She Was Heartbroken
Sometimes when two actors star on a TV show together, and their characters are super in love, romance blooms off-screen, too. That's what happened for The Vampire Diaries stars Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder. It's no secret that the two of them were in a serious relationship for a period of time… but what some fans don't know is that a lot of people believe that's why Nina chose to leave the show.
Apparently,
Nina didn't like that her ex was already in a new relationship with Nikki Reed, who was one of her good friends.
She reportedly didn't want to be around him anymore and found it too much to take. It also sounds like she and Nikki stopped being friends when Nikki started dating Ian, which, well, makes sense. It's not that great when your best friend falls for the person that you used to love.
19 There Was Too Much Romantic Drama Off-Screen
When there's a lot of onscreen drama happening, you would think that it would stay there. After all, a lot of television casts pride themselves on being a happy family, and there are a lot of situations where that is totally true.
Apparently,
there was a lot of romantic drama on the set of The Vampire Diaries and it all had to do with Ian.
He reportedly cheated on Nina two different times. Once he was with another co-star, and later, he was with Nikki Reed. It's not completely clear if he was with Nikki after making a clean break with Nina or if their relationships overlapped. But some fans believe that there were some affairs going on. If that's true, it's definitely too bad. No one deserves that.
18 Ashlee Simpson Almost Played Elena
It's tough to picture someone else as the main character of one of your favorite TV shows. Sometimes it seems like that particular actor or actress was basically born to play that person. Who could imagine someone other than Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore or Jon Hamm as Don Draper? Yeah, exactly.
Well, apparently The CW was interested in having Ashlee Simpson play the character of Elena Gilbert. Yup, that would have meant that she got the part instead of Nina Dobrev. It's hard to imagine anyone other than Nina in that major role since you're so used to seeing her with the Salvatore brothers. But this is something that almost happened. In the end, though, Nina was given the role, and she definitely did an amazing job.
17 Paul Wesley Auditioned 15 Times
It's always interesting to hear behind-the-scenes stories of your fave TV shows and movies, and when it comes to auditions, those can be some of the best tales ever. Auditions seem so mysterious, don't they? They're definitely not something that fans ever get to really see unless tapes get shown on YouTube or something like that.
When Paul Wesley was in the running to play Stefan, apparently he auditioned 15 total times. Yup. 15 times.
That might be pretty hard to believe since he definitely is a perfect Stefan and it's hard to picture someone else playing that part. But this is apparently what went down. He must have been super happy and relieved when he finally got the part, right?! Talk about an understatement.
16 Nina's iCloud Account Was Hacked
A few years ago, leaked pictures from the iCloud were a big thing in Hollywood, and it seemed like every young actress was having photos leaked online.
In October 2014, according to Hollywoodlife, Nina Dobrev was the focus of a photo hacking scandal, and people were talking about how some pictures of her were leaked online. We can't imagine having your privacy hacked in such a way where the world can see your photos.
This is definitely not something that you want to happen to you or to the star of your television show. It's the kind of thing that could become be blown our of proportion.
Of course, people can do whatever they want and this isn't even a big deal, but when you're famous, people shine a spotlight on you that much more and scrutinize your every move.
15 Nina And Ian's First Auditions Were Bad
Apparently, when Nina and Ian first auditioned for the show, they weren't really amazing auditions. In fact, as the story goes, the auditions were actually kind of bad.
Thankfully, the actors were given another shot and were able to audition again. And, clearly, those times went much better since they were given the roles. It's impossible to think of other people playing Elena and Damon. It's just absolutely impossible. The two actors looked so good together and their romance was so believable, which makes sense since, of course, they fell in love IRL. While actors might be embarrassed to talk about bad auditions or times when they made mistakes, it's refreshing to know that everyone has bad work days, right? You might not be on a popular TV show, but you can still relate.
14 The Cast Was Arrested
As the story goes, several members of the cast -- Sara Canning, Candice Accola, Nina Dobrev, and Kayla Ewell -- were doing a photo shoot with Tyler Shields, a photographer. The photo shoot took place on a freeway. Why were they arrested? Apparently, they weren't allowing drivers to focus and, you know, actually drive down the freeway. There were also rumors that they might have been showing off their chests as well.
E.com published mug shots of the cast members. In the end, the photographer paid the fine (which was $4,000).
This was a bit of a scandal because this happened around the time that the show started airing and so it's safe to say that's not what you want your stars to be known for.
13 One Cast Member Had A Custody Battle
When a star of a television show is in the news a lot for something like a custody battle, it's not always the greatest. While The Vampire Diaries always had a lot of on-screen drama, there was a lot of stuff happening off-screen as well. And, yes, that meant a custody battle for one of the actors.
Zach Roerig played the character Matt Donovan and he had a custody battle with his ex. He had a two-year-old kid and wanted custody because his ex/the kid's mom was in jail for committing a few crimes. Going through something like this is never easy and it definitely seems like it's much harder when you're famous and everyone wants to read about what's happening in your personal life.
12 Ian Somerhalder Was Accused Of Fraud
Ian Somerhalder is known for being quite the hunk, and that's certainly true of his character, Damon. It's impossible to picture The Vampire Diaries without Damon as the super hot, evil brother of Stefan, Elena's other love interest.
Ian has also been in the news for things other than his good looks. He's very into animal rights and has done a lot for that cause. He was accused of fraud. It turned out that this was false, but it still sucks when a major cast member on your show gets accused of something like this. Back in 2014, his Ian Somerhalder Foundation was under fire. People said that this foundation only gave $550 to a worthy cause and Ian took the rest of the $400,072 that he got.
11 Elena And Damon Weren't Going To Date At First
It's always interesting to look at your favorite television couples and think, what if they had never gotten together at all? The show would definitely look super different… and maybe you wouldn't have been such an obsessive fan. Fans always love a good love story, and TVD has a whole bunch, thanks to the love triangle among the three main characters.
As it turns out, Elena and Damon weren't going to date at first. As showrunner Julie Plec said, according to Fame10.com,
"In season two, there was an influence pushing Damon and Elena together faster than we would have ever done it… "
"… And we did everything we could to try to create obstacles, to tear them apart, to bring Stefan and Elena closer together. But you could feel the magnetic pull - not just of Twitter, but the fandom really rooting for this."
10 Ian Wouldn't Sign Autographs On His Honeymoon
According to the rumor mill on the Internet, when Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed went on their honeymoon, he absolutely refused to sign autographs for some adoring fans who spotted him.
This happened back in the spring of 2015 and the two went to two different places for their honeymoon: Tulum, Mexico, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Fans were definitely pretty upset and pissed off that they couldn't get autographs, and apparently, Ian was having none of it and wanted to just enjoy his honeymoon without all of that fame stuff. You can definitely see how signing autographs would get old, but a lot of people agreed that he should have just sucked it up and done it. After all, your fans are super important, right?
9 Ian Somerhalder And Paul Wesley Said No Way To A Spin-Off
When a show is as successful as The Vampire Diaries, it's only natural that fans would really want a spin-off of some sort. And, well, TVD did technically get a spin-off with The Originals which was about Klaus Mikaelson and his vampire/werewolf fam. But there was talk of another spin-off when The Vampire Diaries was winding down, and apparently, two of the show's main stars didn't think that it would happen.
According to fans, both Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley shot down the idea of starring in a spin-off when they were asked about in interviews.
Sure, it makes sense that they would want to do something else with their careers and move on from the show, as that's only natural. But this was probably upsetting news for fans who wanted to keep the stories going about the vampire brothers.
8 A 7th Heaven Star Was Rejected
David Gallagher played Simon Camden on 7th Heaven, which you probably watched back when you were a kid. It's honestly impossible not to have seen at least a few episodes since it was such a popular show. Maybe your parents were nervous about some of the issues that were dealt with on the series, but you were probably allowed to watch it anyway, especially since the show had a positive message overall.
David Gallagher apparently auditioned for The Vampire Diaries but didn't get a major role. He wanted to be either Stefan or Damon. He was rejected but given another part later on, which was definitely exciting for fans who knew him from his days as Simon. It's always fun to see your fave stars on a new show, even if it's a fairly small role.
7 Ian Wanted His Character To Stay Dark And Evil
As any fan of the show knows, Ian Somerhalder's character Damon was originally super evil. That was the whole appeal, of course. Everyone loves a bad boy, even if they say that they don't, and that was why so many fans went crazy over this handsome heartthrob.
After a while, Damon started softening a bit and even became kind of a good guy. Apparently, this was something that the man who played him, Ian, wasn't super into.
He didn't think that Damon should become good and wanted him to stay dark and evil. Maybe he just loved playing that side of the character? He was definitely really good at it, so that would make sense. It was probably really fun to play a role like that.
6 The Co-Showrunner Originally Called It A Twilight Rip-Off
Julie Plec worked as the showrunner on the series and Kevin Williamson was an executive producer. If Kevin Williamson sounds like a familiar name, that's because he created Dawson's Creek and wrote a bunch of horror movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer.
When Julie Plec told Kevin Williamson about the series and wanted him to work with her, he said no at first, as the story goes. He didn't want to work on the series and he had one major reason. What was it? Well, he said that it was a rip-off of the Twilight franchise. He ended up changing his mind. Although of course both stories involve a teenage girl and vampires, it's clear that there are some major differences between them.
5 Ian Wanted His Character To Die
When Damon passed away in season five, it was super sad for fans because he had been such a staple character for so long.
Apparently, Ian was super behind this idea and he actually wanted his character to die. That might be hard to believe because it's not something that you hear every day, right? You definitely assume that actors and actresses want their characters to stick around so they can, you know, keep playing them. But this is what Ian wanted.
According to rumors, he wanted this because of his break-up with Nina Dobrev, and because of the awkwardness that it caused.
Hmmm. At least fans still got to enjoy watching Damon on the show since he did come back for the sixth season and for the final eighth season.
4 The Books' Authors Didn't See Elena As A Brunette
Did you know that The Vampire Diaries was actually a book series first? Yup, it's true. There were a total of 13 books published and L.J. Smith wrote the first seven books. She wrote Elena as looking very different from the way that Elena looked on the show, which is another fun fact you might not have known if you didn't read the novels.
In the books, Elena doesn't have brown hair and she actually has blonde hair. When the show started airing, apparently the author found it took her a while to get used to seeing this character with different colored hair. It's pretty interesting since everyone has had the experience of reading a book and seeing the characters and setting a certain way and then seeing the movie adaptation and feeling like it just wasn't the same.
3 Ashley Tisdale Wouldn't Audition For Elena
Yup, as the story goes, there were two famous girls named Ashley (or Ashlee) who might have played Elena Gilbert on The Vampire Diaries.
Ashley Tisdale apparently was asked to audition to play the main character (or one of the three main characters if you count the brothers) on the show. And she said no. It's interesting to hear that since you would think that someone would audition for something even if they weren't sure that they wanted it. It's kind of like when you go on a job interview when you're not super into the idea of actually getting that particular job. You just never know, right? Well, she probably had her reasons, like maybe not wanting to be tied down to a television show since you do have to sign a contract that lasts for several seasons/years.
2 James Van Der Beek Got Rejected, Too
Can you picture James Van Der Beek playing the role of Alaric on The Vampire Diaries? It would have been pretty awesome and epic since, let's face it, it's pretty hard not to be a big fan of Dawson's Creek. That series is a true coming-of-age gem.
As it turns out, James Van Der Beek auditioned for the show, and he had his eye on the part of Alaric.
Unfortunately, he got rejected and the part was given to Matthew Davis instead. Of course Matthew Davis did an awesome job, so no offense to him. It just would have been cool to have Dawson starring on another teen drama, even if he was playing someone who was older than the role that made him famous.
1 Ian Somerhalder Let It Slip That The Show Was Ending After Season 8
It's always tricky when actors and actresses get interviewed about the project that they're currently starring in. And that gets even trickier when they're on a super popular TV series that is nearing its final episode. They don't want to give spoilers away, of course, but reporters want all the spoilers and so those two things are definitely at odds.
When Ian Somerhalder was interviewed, he apparently let it slip that the show would be ending after the eighth season.
This caused a bit of an uproar, naturally, since fans didn't have that information yet and it wasn't official. Sure, you could say that he shouldn't have said anything, and he probably shouldn't have, but it must be really hard not to say something to the press that you know is true. Just part of the fame game, right?
