Ian Somerhalder almost wasn't cast as Damon Salvatore on The CW's Vampire Diaries!? How could that be possible? The man not only looks like a bad-boy vampire, but he was utterly perfect in the role. According to an interview by Entertainment Weekly, Ian truly wasn't the guy in the minds of the show's co-creators Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec.
However, it would be safe to say that the casting of The Vampire Diaries was odd. For example, the filmmakers didn't even tell Nina Dobrev she was cast in the leading role of Elena until quite late into the casting process. So, with that context in mind, it's not utterly surprising that Ian was briefly looked over. Here's what happened...
That Dry-Spell After Lost
While the casting of J.J. Abrams' Lost was utter-chaos, Ian Somerhalder did manage to land a role on that show. But coming off of Lost, Ian made it clear to his representation that he wanted to do something a little different. This was who Ian was before Vampire Diaries... but it wasn't going his way.
"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 just didn't buy Ian as that character of Damon. Of course, he could see that Ian could visually pull off the Damon character, but Kevin claims that Ian was clearly "nervous and his headspace was somewhere else". In fact, Kevin said that Ian just 'didn't really do a good job'. Still, Kevin knew Ian's capabilities from previous work, Lost included. However, Kevin had a really hard time selling Ian to others.
"[Ian] just wasn’t giving it [in his series of auditons]," Kevin Williamson said honestly. "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 told him to be in control and act as Damon would. Essentially, he wanted Damon to be far more dominant. Unfortunately, no matter what Ian did, he was also up against another big 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 again!
Yes... Ian failed the audition yet again!
Fortunately, Kevin REALLY hated the other actor that was being considered. So, he decided to really go to bat for Ian. Sure, he thought Ian was way better than what he was giving them in the audition, but Kevin mostly 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 stated. "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 role. It was basically a fluke, but there's no doubt that Ian found the character and turned it into something far better than what anyone saw in his auditions.
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