In November of that same year, the firstTwilightfilm hit theaters.
(Hint: He sparkled in the sunlight.)
Little did they know, the trend seemed to be as immortal as its subjects.
And then Jen was like, “You just need to work.”
It’s a series calledThe Vampire Diaries."
And then everyone passed on it and that was the end of it… until that lunch.
[Laughs]
WILLIAMSON:It was a big, “Hell no!”
I just didn’t want to be the end of a trend.
Who knew that it had a long way to go before it died out?
And Kevin goes, “Oh alright let’s do it together.”
I said, “Why?”
The problem with the book was it was so similar in set-up toTwilight.
WILLIAMSON:I thought about: What is this really about?
It’s about this young girl who is dealing with death.
I went, “Okay check that box.”
It’s about how this dead man comes along and brings her back to life.
I went, “Okay, wouldn’t that be lovely?
That’s certainly what I need right now.”
And in a weird way, the whole show was my Stefan.
I will meet them anywhere, anytime."
Let’s talk romance."
SIEGA:What I responded to in the script was the love story.
The horror aspect of it, the scares didn’t even sort of present themselves to me.
I fortunately just wasn’t given enough time to think.
He’s saying all the magic words."
I think I just hit a chord with both Kevin and Julie.
And within another two weeks I had the job.
She was dead inside, and he was just dead.
But together, they’d bring each other back to life.
I remember it was a big whirlwind and we had to decide which one to go do.
SIEGA:We went through a pretty extensive search.
DOBREV:I sent in an audition tape and then I came in-person a second time.
We did and it was just undeniable at that point that she was the one.
And they wouldn’t see me for Stefan because they thought I was too old.
[Laughs]So I went in and read for Damon and had a callback and did okay.
Then I didn’t hear anything and went on with my life.
I actually think I tested for another show.
PLEC:Stefan was the hardest to find.
So you really need a true actor.
She kept shoving me down their throats.
WESLEY:Lesli was like, “Just see him one more time!”
And they were like, “Okay we’ll see Paul Wesley again ugh, whatever.
We’re over this kid.”
[Laughs] So Lesli put me in the room again, this time for the role of Stefan.
Because, if nothing else, Stefan and Elena’s relationship had to be … passionate.
I could see she was giving it her all and he was too but it just wasn’t connecting.
Everyone had flown out.
DOBREV:I read with a lot of guys and I had different experiences good, bad, indifferent.
It’s not that one person was perfect for it; everyone was just so different.
I was trying to get a vibe: who did I have the most sexual tension with?
And because Paul didn’t speak to me, we had the least sexual tension.
WESLEY:I didn’t even look at her.
[Laughs]
WILLIAMSON:We didn’t want Paul until we met Nina.
I liked him; I just didn’t love him.
It’s the guy we passed on 15 times."
[Laughs]
WESLEY:Apparently my silly little plan worked.
DOBREV:Then Paul got cast and we ultimately had the best chemistry.
I fell off the map for sure.
I didn’t read it.
WILLIAMSON:He came in and you could see Damon but his audition didn’t say Damon.
SOMERHALDER:When you want something that badly, the stakes are very high.
I did really well in my studio test, which was fun.
And then I bombed my first online grid test.
The first take I did was awful.
[Laughs]
WILLIAMSON:He just wasn’t giving it.
The connection wanted somebody else.
Some people wanted him and some people didn’t.
I understand why you like him but he’s not doing it."
SOMERHALDER:The door closes and he goes, “Well, that sucked.”
I said, “I know!
I don’t know what’s going on!”
You gotta do this."
WILLIAMSON:He was just nervous.
I just would not go down that road.
This is your part, it really is."
WILLIAMSON:And Ian came back in and he blew it.
That’s how much I didn’t want the other person to get the part.
hey trust me on this.
And the rest is history.
“I’M ELENA.”
“I’M STEFAN.”
That was literally day one, scene one.
And I wasn’t happy.
DOBREV:I just remember there being so much excitement.
Even if we weren’t shooting we’d be behind the monitors watching.
There was a sense of camaraderie that’s so hard to duplicate.
I think they have beautiful chemistry when she says, “We have history together.”
It was almost like this really weird little magic, a practical magic.
SIEGA:In terms of film conventions, I just kept emphasizing beauty.
That’s how we shot it.
It became very obvious that the right decision had been made [in casting Paul].
It’s easy to fall in bro-love with Ian Somerhalder.
So they were able to spark to each other quickly.
SOMERHALDER:Paul and I met in the valley.
It was a fitting for our fangs.
It was very cool, we met, we gave each other a hug.
It was like, “Wow so we’re brothers.
Here we go.”
WESLEY:They took a gamble.
Casting a show is a risk.
You never know if it’s going to work.
I think I said “hello, brother” seven or eight times.
It was all there.
They really did a good job with that.
WESLEY:Ian and I both agree that the best love story is between Stefan and Damon.
Ultimately, their brotherly love-and-hate relationship is probably the most interesting thing.
That was one of the most complex relationships in terms of depth and layers.
That relationship got off the ground quickly … literally.
They’re fine, of course.
But one thing that didn’t survive the fall?
SIEGA:If I’m sitting in a room and that scene pops up, I turn away.
I just think it looks cartoony.
WESLEY:That was a bit cheesy, wasn’t it?
PLEC:[Losing wire work after the pilot] was born out of logic for me.
Kevin liked to keep things as grounded as possible, as did I.
So we liked to have a scientific understanding of how certain things could work.
Because it also seemed like, “How in the hell is he psychically manipulating a crow?”
We dropped that real quick.
[Laughs] We killed that bird by episode three.
PLEC:The fog in the pilot was a bridge too far for us.
Set to The Fray’s “Never Say Never,” Elena invites Stefan inside.
WILLIAMSON:Everything was geared toward that moment.
Everything was going to grow from that and there you have a series.
Then we put the Fray against it and it worked.
I said, “How did you know how to do that?”
And she goes, “Well you said you wantedThe Notebook!”
DOBREV:I’m a chick.
HIS STORY
As the pilot started to screen for test audiences, something wasn’t quite right.
The show was reading as more of an average teenage story than a supernatural one.
The testing score was dead until that moment, the first moment of something supernatural.
It will improve the test score."
[Laughs] That was all just leftover footage and we put it together and we wrote that voiceover.
That was 30 seconds in and we’re like, “Okay we’re picked up.”
It was a testing trick to get picked up and we decided to keep it.
And Marcos Siega was like, “Just get ready.”
There was no denying that the show had struck a vein.
You could feel it.
WESLEY:The Vampire Diariescame out pre-social media.
We looked like the fing Blues Brothers.
[Laughs]
WESLEY:We literally were wearing the exact same outfit by complete coincidence.
We looked liked twins.
I described it to her and then she was like, “What’s it called?”
I said, “The Vampire Diaries.”
I was a little nervous about signing a 6-year contract at that point.
And she was like, “Vampires?
What are they going to write about for six years?
So, thanks mom!
WILLIAMSON:Turns out, the vampire phase was not over!
