3. IT TAKES HOURS TO BE A VAMPIRE!
TVD featured great writing which gave us memorable moments and emotional scenes, but a lot has to be contributed to the acting prowess of the amazing cast. While acting isn’t only about taking up a character, memorizing the lines, and know how to give the right expressions. But it also involves spending countless hours in the makeup chair. As you are well aware, TVD featured a variety of supernatural creatures, the main characters are Vampires and Werewolves. Actors such as Ian, Nina, Damon had to spend plenty of time in the make-up to transform into a vampire.
The Vampire faces that we see on the screen took an immense three-hour period. The actors had to wear contact lenses, they had to put up the fangs and prosthetics, and a special kind of make-up. If you have read the books then you’ll know that Elena had blonde hair and blue eyes in the books, but the actress Nina Dobrev who played Elena in TV has dark brown hair and brown eyes. While the creators accepted the changes and didn’t go for the blonde look. But in order to portray the evil doppelganger Katherine, the actress had to wear a wig to get the wavy and curly hair look.
2. KEVIN PUTTING HIS CAREER ON LINE
The character of Damon Salvatore is pretty iconic and very significant to the story of TVD. Therefore it became extremely important that the right person is cast for the role. Numerous actors including the other TVD stars originally auditioned for the role of Damon. According to the story, Damon Salvatore should have been 24 years old as he was born in 1839 and 7 years older than Stefan. After several auditions, Ian Somerhalder roped the role. The creators didn’t take any issue with Ian’s real age as he was 31 at the time. Ironically, the actor was rejected for the role of Jason Stackhouse in True Blood because the creators found him to be too old.
But Ian also didn’t had it easy to bag the role of the charming vampire. The actor’s first audition was far from perfect. The Network wasn’t fully convinced with Ian and felt he wasn’t the right person for the role. But the co-creator Kevin Williamson vouched for Ian and even put his career on the line just so that Ian could get the role of Damon. Kevin said that if Ian isn’t cast as Damon, he would leave the show. Kevin was fully convinced that Ian was the right and only choice for Damon Salvatore. But Ian being cast as Damon proved to have a dominos effect. Paul Wesley auditioned for the role of Stefan, but he was told that he is too old to play the character of Stefan. But after Ian was cast as Damon, the creators and studios agreed to have Paul Wesley cast as Stefan.