Overview

• Ian Somerhalder recalls asking out of the series during Season 3, saying he was upset that Damon Salvatore was being steered into a conventional love-interest role.
• Showrunner Julie Plec, he says, told him the character would have layers, called him integral to the show, and reminded him he had signed a six-year contract.
• His remarks appear in an excerpt from Samantha Highfill’s I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries that outlets reported this week.
• He has since stepped back from acting to focus on family, farming, and conservation, telling People he views his acting career as being in the rearview mirror.
• Coverage also revisits reported figures, including a ScreenRant-cited $40,000 per episode in the final season and Brother’s Bond Bourbon, the 2020 brand he co-founded with Paul Wesley, shipping over 100,000 cases per The Hollywood Reporter.