Ian Somerhalder is revealing just how close he came to leaving The Vampire Diaries at the height of its popularity.
In an excerpt from the upcoming book I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries, the actor opened up about his frustrations during Season 3. At the time, his character Damon Salvatore was evolving into a romantic lead, while Paul Wesley’s Stefan was diving into a darker villain arc. For Somerhalder, that shift felt like a step backward.
“I was so upset about the trajectory of Damon, so much so that at one point I was sitting across from Julie [Plec, co-creator] in her office in Atlanta almost in tears—actually, my eyes were quite misty—and asked out of the show,” he admitted.
“I was so angry about it. I wanted off. Because I saw the writing on the wall. Damon was heading toward the love-interest role. I was like, ‘S–t, I’m in my early thirties, I’ve got a lot of this heat because of this show, I’m sure I could go find something that’s really cool and dark and edgy.’”
Julie Plec recalled convincing him to stay, reminding the actor of his six-year contract and promising more complexity for Damon. “I said, ‘If one’s going dark, the other has to go light, there’s a balance in the narrative that we want to be playing around with these characters and giving you all exciting and interesting things to do, and this is Paul’s time. Let Paul have his time.’”
Somerhalder ultimately stayed, and the show ran for eight seasons from 2009 to 2017.
Fans of The Vampire Diaries often cite Season 3 as one of the show’s strongest, making Somerhalder’s near departure all the more surprising. For viewers, it’s hard to imagine Mystic Falls without Damon’s charisma and moral ambiguity.
By sticking with the series, Somerhalder not only cemented Damon as a fan-favorite but also solidified his own career as a leading man in supernatural drama. His candid reflections show just how much creative tension can shape the stories that end up defining television for a generation.
