Ian Somerhalder Interview
Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries
by Abbie Bernstein
Some day, actor Ian Somerhalder may grow weary of questions about Damon Salvatore, the young-looking but actually 162-year-old vampire he plays with such gusto on the CW’s THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. That day seems very far off, however, as Somerhalder takes time to individually greet every reporter who approaches him at the Television Critics Association press event for the series, then thanks each journalist for his or her interest in his work as queries are lobbed at him.
VAMPIRE DIARIES, developed for television by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec from the series of books by L.J. Smith, centers around the romantic triangle of Mystic Falls, VA high school student Elena Gilbert, played by Nina Dobrev, and the Salvatore brothers, Paul Wesley’s Stefan and Somerhalder’s Damon, who are returning to their home turf after a long time away. Stefan is the good, conscientious brother who doesn’t believe in killing humans and Damon, who does whatever he feels like to whomever he wants. But does Damon really enjoy his outrageous, homicidal actions, or is he just doing it to get a rise out of Stefan? “He’s having a blast,” Somerhalder affirms.
VAMPIRE DIARIES is actually Somerhalder’s second gig on a TV series that rapidly developed a cult following. Somerhalder was also in the original cast of ABC’s LOST as the unfortunate Boone, who died early on but has appeared in flashbacks and, this year, returns for the final season in an alternate timeline. “Throughout the season, I think there are going to be a couple of episodes,” the actor says. He is of course sworn to silence on exactly what he’ll be doing on LOST, but one thing he knows for sure - alternating between that show’s Hawaiian locations and the Covington, Georgia set of VAMPIRE DIARIES has been, as Somerhalder puts it, “A tight squeeze. I left the set, flew to the other set, worked, got back on a plane, flew back to the other set, landed and went back to work.”
How was it going back and forth between Damon on VAMPIRE DIARIES and Boone on LOST? Somerhalder laughs. Poor Boone. I just think the guy found himself out of his element. He was thrown into a really iffy situation, but Damon is so fun. Boone was at a tough point in his life, at that point, and Damon - I have so much fun playing this role, and to go from Boone - heavy-headed, heartbroken, ‘I just slept with my sister’ Boone - to Damon, it was a really funny transition, and that transition all happened within one twenty-four-hour period. I literally left Hawaii, left set, flew to Atlanta, landed and went to set.”
For the CW, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is a huge success, earning an early pick-up for its second season. Somerhalder says he finds it interesting how different networks judge what constitutes terrific ratings. “What’s crazy is, here’s the difference. When I was in Hawaii shooting LOST, I was in Jack Bender’s office - he’s the directing executive producer - I looked up on his wall and there are all these big newspaper clippings and it says, ‘LOST Season Two Premiere’ or whatever, and there are 31 million viewers in the States. This show [VAMPIRE] has five [million viewers], so it’s significantly less, but it’s the power of the youth culture, and that’s what’s so amazing. Like the fact that VAMPIRE DIARIES won the People’s Choice Award. It’s a numbers game. The people vote. And crazy enough, they voted for our show. It’s a really active audience, and that’s the other thing. They’re active online, and this network [the CW] - they’re geniuses at online network marketing - and it’s so interactive now. We know that this is such a great way to talk with fans.” He likes what can be done with Twitter. “It’s insane. You can push a button and a hundred thousand people will get that instantly.”
Although Damon is attracted to Elena because she looks exactly like her ancestor Katherine (also played by Dobrev), there is the matter of that century-plus age difference, despite the fact that Damon doesn’t look much older than Elena. Somerhalder explains his take on the relationship. “It’s interesting if you think about it. If you were connecting to a ten-year-old on a real basic [non-sexual] human level, it’s interesting. We spend our lives in search of knowledge and money and history and art and music and film and food and travel. Damon has so much of that, and I think what’s kind of interesting and amazing is, when he really is standing there, talking to Elena, who’s seventeen years old, he finds there’s a commonality. There are common denominators there that are unexplained. There’s a little mystery. It doesn’t matter. My niece is a year-and-a-half old. The time that I have with her is my most cherished time on the planet, literally. You’re sitting there with this giant person who’s this big,” his hands describe a tiny being, “who blows your mind, everything they do and say - and you connect with that child. And she’s thirty years younger than I am.”
Given that Damon is immortal, with the ability to see so much change, does Somerhalder find anything tragic or ironic that his character is focused on his immediate goals to the exclusion of interest in the world around him? “Love is all it’s about for him,” Somerhalder replies. “Yeah, it’s pretty interesting that this person who has access to the most unbelievable historical events and access to monetary resources, to travel resources, to everything, he still wants to be in this small town in Virginia, with his brother, and to find his girl. It’s powerful.”
So why does Somerhalder feel that Damon is so drawn to Katherine? That’s complicated, Somerhalder says. “Well, if you look at it, Katherine is a bit of a nut. Katherine is a bit of a kooky narcissist, but she had a lust for life. I mean, she wants to indulge, and I think that Damon - I don’t know if fortunately or unfortunately - picked up a lot of her traits. She’s a nut and I think that Damon is attracted to that, he wants that back. I’ve always been attracted to people who have a lust for life, who love to indulge in experience. And yet you have to have a balance to that, obviously.” Somerhalder says that he’s something like Damon. “With the preface that I am not a sociopathic killer!”
Is Damon frightened of anything? “Nothing scares Damon,” Somerhalder says. In real life, “You know, bad cooking scares me,” he laughs, then adds more seriously, “you know what scares me? Instead of saying bad food, microwaves. Because it’s ruining our cultures, it’s ruining our bodies - it changes the integrity of the protein, it changes the molecular structure [of the food] and our bodies digest it differently, and it’s just killing us.”
Somerhalder is normally very physically active, though he says right now work consumes all of his waking hours. “It keeps us pretty in shape,” he laughs. However, he does his best to make healthy choices for himself. “Health is wealth. When you’re not taking care of yourself, your work reflects it, everything about you reflects it, and I unfortunately don’t have the time any more. I have to take care of myself. I’m a major outdoor dude. Whenever I can, I’m out hiking, biking, skiing - I mean, I’m out there, it’s just right now, and I’m not complaining in any way, shape or form, we do nothing but work.”
Part of Somerhalder’s job on VAMPIRE involves sinking his teeth into his costars. Does he have any discussion with the bitees on how these bits of physical business will be achieved? “No, I just bite ‘em,” he laughs.
This may be one of the reasons why Somerhalder says none of his colleagues try to play practical jokes on him. “No one messes with me - they’re smart enough,” he observes pleasantly.
Damon is also able to gets mortals to do what he wants by putting them under “compulsion,” where his eyes widen. Is this something Somerhalder can do himself? “Where the pupil kind of dilates? No, that’s definitely CGI, but they’re hard to shoot, those scenes,” he relates.
How similar to the Damon of L.J. Smith’s original books is the onscreen Damon? “Well, that’s the thing,” Somerhalder explains. “Paul [Wesley] and I talk about this all the time. We’re going to deviate often from the books. We have to - it’s a series. It’s going to evolve. But I think that staying true to those characters that L.J. Smith wrote [is important], because we feel in love with those characters [in the script] because those were those characters [from the books]. That’s what initially made us fall in love with them. And I would like to stay as truthful to that as possible. Furthermore, he’s just badass in the books. I mean, he’s just a lot of fun. He does whatever he wants. I’m not saying it’s a good or bad thing.”
Are there books that have influenced Somerhalder? “A lot of books have changed my life,” he answers. “Just pick up any book Carl Jung’s ever written. I remember when I was young, I started reading in-depth philosophy way too young, Nietzsche, Freud, listening to Wagner - I dove a little too deep for too many years, but the lighter books on that were heavy-handed as far as psychology. One book that I really loved [is a] book Colin Wilson wrote called THE OUTSIDER. I remember reading all this philosophy and all these great stories, tall-tale stories, everything from Shakespeare on up, and I think Colin Wilson helped me understand. For every twenty-five-year-old guy, you should just read this book, because it really helped me understand a lot of the books I had been reading for so many years, and that changed my life in a big way.”
What does Somerhalder want for Damon? “Here’s the deal. This brooding, not-eating-people, not-having-a-lot-of-power Damon is killing me. I want to be munching, I want power, I want to be eating people and I want to be having a blast.”
By Abbie Bernstein
Entertainment Reporter
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