4. The Search for the Salvatores
Once TVD had found its leading lady, the series still needed the two men at the center of its defining love triangle. Finding them proved far from simple.
“We looked high and low to cast Stefan and Damon,” Julie Plec recalled, explaining that Nina Dobrev went through “chemistry read after chemistry read with multiple actors.”
Several future The Vampire Diaries stars auditioned for one or both of the roles. The list included Zach Roerig, who ultimately played Matt Donovan; Michael Trevino, later cast as Tyler Lockwood; Nathanial Buzolic, who went on to portray Kol; and 7th Heaven actor David Gallagher. Plec said Gallagher “impressed us so much originally,” but wondered whether he could move beyond his 7th Heaven image. She eventually cast him as a werewolf after seeing him in Super 8.
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At last, the production found the actors who would bring the Salvatore brothers to life: Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder.
“Paul and Ian kind of came in late in the process,” Plec said. “Paul auditioned like 15 times, and Ian kind of appeared out of the blue.” Dobrev also remembered Wesley—who initially auditioned for Damon—as the standout among the actors reading opposite her during chemistry tests. “The only one who wasn’t trying too hard, that didn’t speak to me at any point unless we were filming, was Paul Wesley,” she told EW. “So it’s funny to think that he did the right thing.”