What The Cast Of The Vampire Diaries Never Wanted You To Hear

Feelings Drama

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00:00For a brief time in entertainment history, vampires were all the rage.

00:04Buffy, Twilight, and True Blood proved that audiences thirsted for vampire-human romance.

00:10So The CW capitalized on that craze with an adaptation of L.J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries

00:15novels.

00:16The series, which immediately claimed its own audience, became a major hit for the

00:20network.

00:21But it wasn't all sunshine rings and crows for this show.

00:24Here's the story you might not know about The Vampire Diaries.

00:28Five Differences

00:30Kevin Williamson, a beacon of the teen scene thanks to Scream in Dawson's Creek, initially

00:35snubbed the idea of The Vampire Diaries.

00:37The writer-producer admitted his fear to The Independent, saying he didn't want fans to

00:41see it as,

00:42"...a Twilight ripoff, no matter which novel series came first."

00:46Due to the ultra-similar premises, a small-town girl falls for impossibly handsome boy who

00:51just so happens to be a secret vampire, and she kind of digs his undeadness.

00:56It was co-creator Julie Plek who changed his mind about that, though, and convinced him

00:59to check out Smith's novels before giving it a hard pass.

01:03She explained,

01:04"...I began to realize that it was a story about a small town, about that town's underbelly,

01:09and about what lurks under the surface."

01:11Williamson responded to the central character's struggle with grief from the loss of her parents,

01:15and that there was a sense of hopelessness about her situation that could really resonate

01:19with the Dawson's Creek crowd.

01:21That dramatic distinction was ultimately enough for him to put his stamp on the effort.

01:26Casting sliding doors

01:28Nina Dobrev made a household name for herself by becoming Elena Gilbert, then Katherine Pierce,

01:33then the third doppelganger, Amara.

01:35But she almost wasn't the face of the series.

01:38The network's first choice for the role was actually singer-actress Ashley Simpson.

01:42Yep.

01:43Dobrev only won the role after producers gave her audition a second look and determined that

01:47she was a better fit, and before Ian Somerhalder earned his nickname, Ian Smolderholder, for

01:52his work as steely-eyed Damon Salvatore, future co-stars Paul Wesley, Zach Roerig, and Michael

01:58Trevino were all amongst those who tried out for the role, too.

02:01They eventually earned their own memorable and long-lived characters on the series, of course,

02:06but Somerhalder as Damon is show-canon, so it's hard to imagine any of them in his place.

02:11Bubble bubble toil and trouble

02:13The pilot for The Vampire Diaries was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the

02:18Twilight Saga films were shot.

02:20However, the rest of production took place down in Covington, Georgia, and it was there

02:24that the cast found themselves in a little bit of a legal snare shortly after the series

02:28premiered.

02:29Just a day after the pilot hit the small screen, several of the series' cast members, including

02:33Nina Dobrev, Candice Acola, Kayla Ewell, and Sarah Canning, were reportedly arrested

02:39for not only distracting drivers on a freeway during a photoshoot with photographer Tyler

02:43Shields.

02:44"...No comments, I'm not going to say anything."

02:47Although reports initially indicated that they may have been flashing traffic as well,

02:51Ewell later denied that's what went down during the incident, and the first season ratings

02:55remained strong despite the hubbub.

02:57Delayed spin-off

02:59Due to the initial success of The Vampire Diaries, The CW began to entertain the idea of a spin-off

03:05series right away, settling on a fall 2011 date as the hopeful premiere window.

03:10Williamson, who'd previously planned doing a college campus-set paranormal investigation

03:14sister series, became involved with his now-defunct The Secret Circle instead of moving forward

03:19with the follow-up idea.

03:21So, those plans were postponed until Plec picked up the torch and carried forward with

03:25her idea for The Originals, which carried over several of The Vampire Diaries' own secondary

03:30characters as a companion series, and aired in October 2013.

03:34Real-life relationship drama

03:37It's not uncommon for a show that involves so much physical and emotional passion to transpire

03:42into some unexpected off-screen romance, but with The Vampire Diaries, there have been

03:46an unusual amount of real-life couplings to happen amidst its cast, for better or worse.

03:52Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder, for one, proved that their on-screen chemistry as the ultra-shippable

03:57Delaina duo was inspired by some real-life heat between the actors.

04:02It was all well and good for a while between the two, but when they broke up in real life

04:05and had to continue doing love scenes, things got tricky.

04:08And then we started dating on the show.

04:10We started dating in real life.

04:11And then we broke up in real life.

04:13And yet our characters are still dating on the show.

04:15It's a good thing it's not awkward.

04:18After Somerhalder married Dobrev's former friend Nikki Reed, it wasn't long till Dobrev announced

04:23her departure from the series.

04:24They've since quashed any rumors of lingering bad blood, but the show's final season suffered

04:29without her presence.

04:31Theirs wasn't the only cast coupling to go south while the cameras were still rolling.

04:34Paul Wesley's real-life wife, Tori DeVito, also joined the cast in a recurring role before

04:40the two split, leading to her character counterparts suddenly taking her leave of Mystic Falls.

04:45After their separation, he began to date the show's guest actress Phoebe Tonkin, who starred

04:50in its sister program, The Originals.

04:51And after an on-and-off relationship of four years, those two called it quits for good in

04:56October of 2017.

04:58Meanwhile, Candace Acola and Zach Roerig were once an item for a brief period of time early

05:03on in the series, although they've both since moved on.

05:07And actor Joseph Morgan also found love on the set of the show with actress Purja White,

05:11who had a brief recurring role in the show, and the two married in 2014.

05:16Off-screen parallels

05:18Budding and busted romances weren't the only true life takeaways from the show.

05:22When Candace Acola got pregnant with her first child with guitarist Joe King, the show

05:26also wrote in her on-screen surrogate pregnancy to explain her growing baby bump.

05:30There was also a fire at the real-life set of The Mystic Grill, which was a little spooky

05:35considering the show had previously torched its fictional version of the setting the season

05:39before.

05:40The Summerhalder shutdown

05:42Ian Summerhalder accidentally preempted the show's end date announcement when he told reporters

05:47that The Vampire Diaries' eighth season would be its final run.

05:50Seeing as the network hadn't confirmed the same at the time, the actor had to eat his words

05:54a little bit and backtracked to say that he was merely speaking for himself.

05:58Ultimately, though, the showrunners confirmed the same with the news that season eight would

06:02indeed be the final stand for The Vampire Diaries, and it came to a close in early 2017.

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