Ian Somerhalder Wanted To Leave "The Vampire Diaries" In Season 3

Dan Lalonde
Sep 3
3 min read

Ian Somerhalder Damon Salvatore Paul Wesley Stefan Salvatore Nina Dobrev Elena Gilbert

When I first watched 'The Vampire Diaries', I thought it would be more of a sappy teenage crap like 'Twilight', but I was gladly surprised when it turned out more like '24.' Storylines were fast-paced, and main characters were killed off in great twists.

Season 3 was probably the best as it introduced the Original family, but it was also a factor in Ian Somerhalder, who played Damon Salvator, into wanting to leave the show as his character changed from a villain to the love interest of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), who up to that point was dating his brother Stefan (Paul Wesley).

Somerhalder recently talked about his struggles with creator Julie Plec in an interview with Variety: "I was so upset about the trajectory of Damon, so much so that at one point I was sitting across from Julie in her office in Atlanta, almost in tears—actually, my eyes were quite misty—and asked out of the show. I was so angry about it. I wanted off. Because I saw the writing on the wall. Damon was heading toward the love-interest role. I was like, “Shit, I’m in my early thirties, I’ve got a lot of this heat because of this show, I’m sure I could go find something that’s really cool and dark and edgy.”

"I was like, “They’re going to turn me into a sappy character.” Julie was like, “You’re not leaving the show. First of all, you’re one of the stars and one of the parts of the beating heart of the show; and two, you signed a six-year contract, so that’s not happening; and three, don’t worry, there has to be layers.”

Julie Plec also talked about the issue: "All I kept hearing were rumblings like, “Ian’s not happy; Ian doesn’t like this season.” I have a sit-down with him when I finally get to Atlanta, and that’s what he was upset about, it was because it had become such an Original-centric season and because Stefan was getting to be Ripper Stefan, so Damon had to be the hero. He just was so sad that Damon had to be the hero and that Stefan got to be the villain and that Klaus was the villain and everybody else was the villain, and it felt like an identity crisis. That’s what was bumming him out."

"I said, “If one’s going dark, the other has to go light, there’s a balance in the narrative that we want to be playing around with these characters and giving you all exciting and interesting things to do, and this is Paul’s time. Let Paul have his time.” Then he’s like, “But why do you write so much for the Originals?” And I said, “Have you heard them talk?” [Laughs] I said to Matt Davis, who had a similar complaint, I said, “When a bunch of English and Australian actors are reading your words, it makes you feel like you are the best writer on this planet, and maybe we just need a little confidence boost over in LA.” We were in series fatigue with everybody else, so it made our jobs so much more enjoyable than normal. And they felt it, those boys felt it.

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