Ian Somerhalder almost wasn't cast as Damon Salvatore on The CW's Vampire Diaries!? How may just that be conceivable? The man not only looks as if a bad-boy vampire, however he was completely very best in the role. According to an interview by Entertainment Weekly, Ian in reality wasn't the man in the minds of the show's co-creators Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec.
However, it would be secure to say that the casting of The Vampire Diaries was bizarre. For instance, the filmmakers didn't even tell Nina Dobrev she was cast in the leading position of Elena till rather overdue into the casting procedure. So, with that context in mind, it's not completely sudden that Ian used to be in brief looked over. Here's what took place...
That Dry-Spell After Lost
While the casting of J.J. Abrams' Lost was utter-chaos, Ian Somerhalder did organize to land a job on that display. But coming off of Lost, Ian made it transparent to his illustration that he sought after to do something a bit other. This was once who Ian was before Vampire Diaries... however it wasn't going his manner.
"I had come off of Lost and I saw the whole network dog-and-pony show and I said, 'I want to be edgier, have fun and do really cool weird s—.' And I tried and I fell on my face a few times," Ian Somerhalder told Entertainment Weekly, explaining that he hit a dry-spell after Lost. "I fell off the map for sure. It was a very rebuilding, humbling time, but the one thing I said I wasn’t going to do again was some network show. So they sent me this pilot and I was like, 'This is Twilight on TV, I have no interest in doing this.' I didn’t read it. Cut to: I’m in Vegas with my family, I read it and I’m like, 'Holy s—, this is an amazing piece of material, what the hell am I thinking?' I called and they said, 'They’ll see you tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.' I’m sitting there thinking, 'Oh my god I’m in Vegas.' So I taped the [script] sides together from the business center at the hotel, put them on the dashboard of my car and starting at like 5 in the morning, drove through the desert with the light on in my car because there was no light yet and as the sun came up over the Mojave, that’s where I started figuring out Damon."
The Audition(s) That Really Didn't Go Ian's Way
According to the interview with Entertainment Weekly, The Vampire Diaries co-creator Kevin Williamson simply didn't buy Ian as that character of Damon. Of route, he could see that Ian may just visually pull off the Damon persona, but Kevin claims that Ian was clearly "nervous and his headspace was somewhere else". In truth, Kevin said that Ian just 'didn't actually do a good process'. Still, Kevin knew Ian's features from earlier work, Lost integrated. However, Kevin had a in point of fact exhausting time selling Ian to others.
"[Ian] just wasn’t giving it [in his series of auditons]," Kevin Williamson said truthfully. "The network wanted somebody else. It was split. Some people wanted him and some people didn’t. The president of the network, Dawn Ostroff, looked at me and said, 'Go talk to him. I understand why you like him but he’s not doing it.' So I took him out in the hallway and I was like, 'Dude you’re blowing it.'"
Ian explained that Kevin informed him to be in keep an eye on and act as Damon would. Essentially, he sought after Damon to be way more dominant. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what Ian did, he used to be additionally up towards another giant actor.
"[Ian] was just nervous. They were all leaning toward this other actor, who will remain nameless, who I just refused to consider," Kevin said. "I just would not go down that road. I said [to Ian], 'Will you please take a breath, think this through and just go in there and own it? This is your part, it really is.'"
So Ian took a deep breath... prepared himself... went back in... and blew it once more!
Yes... Ian failed the audition over again!
Fortunately, Kevin REALLY hated the opposite actor that was once being considered. So, he made up our minds to really cross to bat for Ian. Sure, he thought Ian used to be method better than what he used to be giving them in the audition, however Kevin most commonly loathed this unnamed actor.
"[The Network] said, 'I’m sorry, we need to see a little bit more before we can say yes to him,'" Kevin said. "It was the only time in my career where I said, 'If he doesn’t get the part I’m going to have to leave the show.' That’s how much I didn’t want the other person to get the part. I was like, 'I know the other guy gave a better audition, but this role is Ian, and I think I can write for him in a way in which I cannot write for this other guy. Please trust me on this. Because if you can’t see it, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to continue on with the show.' Julie [Plex] stood with me and Peter Roth, the president at Warner Bros. Television, said, 'Let’s go with Kevin.'"
Not long after, Ian's management phoned him up and informed him that he had got the function. It used to be mainly a fluke, but there's no doubt that Ian found the character and turned it into one thing a long way higher than what somebody saw in his auditions.
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