The Vampire Diaries became one of several shows to tap into the rich vein of horror shows based on popular novels about bloodsuckers who all look very pretty while they drain the life out of their victims. Along with True Blood – which was aimed at a much more mature audience – the series proved such a crowd-pleaser that even years after its cancelation, fans are still hoping for some kind of revival. That kind of continued interest is usually, in part, down to characters being brought to life by the right cast. However, series lead Paul Wesley was almost rejected for the role of Stefan Salvatore as creators Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson didn’t believe he was right for the part.
In a retrospective interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the series creators looked back on how they almost rejected Wesley, who starred alongside Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder, believing that he was too old to play Salvatore – funny when you consider the character is a 161 year old vampire – but once he arrived on set, they realized very quickly that their initial judgment had been wrong. Plec said:
“Paul Wesley came in amidst a sea of 10 other possible Stefans, and Kevin and I — we’ve also said so, I don’t feel like I’m talking sh*t — just thought he [Paul] was too old, and so we said, ‘No, we don’t want him. He’s too old.’ And then the network said, ‘Well, make him Damon instead of Ian.’ And we were like, ‘Oh, no, we can’t do that. A terrible idea.’ So Kevin and I were like the last two people to be on board the Paul Wesley train, and it wasn’t really until his first day shooting when he was shooting in the cemetery with Nina Dobrev in a scene where they run into each other for the first time in the cemetery where we were like, ‘Oh my God, we were so wrong. How embarrassing, because he’s perfect.’”
The Vampire Diaries Almost Didn’t Have Its Perfect Casting Combination
The trepidation around Wesley’s casting was not the only decision that Plec and Williamson almost made the wrong choice on. As Plec explained, the role of Elena Gilbert almost didn’t go to Dobrev due to her being sick during her first audition. Plec said:
“The roller coaster of casting the leads was sort of hilariously well-documented because we really struggled with all three roles. Nina came in early in the process and was sick, and so we kind of didn’t look twice at her and she had to fight to be seen again and put herself on tape so that we would take a second look at her when she felt better. And it came perfectly, right at the time when we were sort of throwing our hands up in the air.”
When it came to the final piece of the puzzle, Damon Salvatore, that was just as much a near-miss moment for the show, as Somerhalder did not deliver the greatest audition, which Plec joked is so well known that “it’s canon at this point.” She said:
“And we were instantly interested in Ian because I had actually been a fan of Young Americans … anyway, so he tanked [his audition] and he knows he tanked and everyone knows he tanked and it’s canon at this point. But we had a moment where we were like, ‘Well, if he’s not our Damon, then who is?’”
In the end, the casting of the three leads may not have been simple, but the success of the show proved that somehow their eventual casting was perfect for the series. Not only did The Vampire Diaries deliver one of the biggest debuts on The CW, as well as eight successful seasons, but it also produced two spin-offs in The Originals and Legacies.
