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35 Interesting Facts You Didn’t Know About The Vampire Diaries

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You might claim that you’re the biggest fan of The Vampire Diaries, but do you know everything about the show and its cast? Well it’s time to really put your knowledge to the test, and learn more. Here are 35 interesting details and well-kept secrets you didn’t know  about everyone’s favorite show and its gorgeous and gifted cast members.

1. Zach Roerig, Michael Trevino, and Paul Wesley all auditioned to be Damon.

Photo Credit: Giphy

2. Another Hollywood starlet playing all those Petrova doppelgängers? Say it ain’t so! Yep, it’s true. Before Nina Dobrev landed the coveted role of Elena Gilbert, several actresses were actually being considered by The CW network, including Ashlee Simpson, Torrey DeVitto — who ended up playing Dr. Meredith Fell in Season 3 and 4 — and Lying Game alumna Alexandro Chando, who came in four whole times to read for the part. Nina herself almost didn’t get cast since she was ill the day of her audition and gave a lackluster performance; but, due to her tenacity and dedication, she recorded another audition and mailed it to the casting directors who were blown away by her abilities the second time around. Though the other ladies are talented, no doubt, Nina was clearly the best fit. (Interestingly enough, Alex ended up playing twins on TLG!)

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

3. Did you know the name “Salvatore” almost never happened? Apparently it was too “Italian” for the world of Mystic Falls. Stefan and Damon originally went by the surname “Whitmore” just like their Uncle Zach, Elena’s friend Aaron in Season 5, and the college most of the characters have been attending since the fourth season began. Thankfully, executive producers Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec opted to stick to the source material and go with the name used in the book series by L.J. Smith, and we’re glad they did!

salvatore brothers

Photo Credit: Tumblr

4. If you thought Damon Salvatore was too good to be real, guess again! The character was actually inspired by executive producer Les Morgenstein’s childhood friend. In a blog post on Alloy Entertainment, he wrote: “As a young editor I was on the team that worked on developing the novels. While working on the characters for TVD, I thought of my buddy from growing up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. — Damian Salvatore. Damian certainly wasn’t as twisted as Damon, but he was a bit of a rebel and kind of a badass. I am happy to share that he’s now a successful chef, restauranteur, and father. Damian, if you come across this, thanks for the inspiration.” Talk about a major compliment!

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

5. ‘7th Heaven’ alum David Gallagher, who played Ray Sutton in the first two episodes of TVD Season 3, actually auditioned for the roles of Damon and Stefan.

The CW

The CW

6. Katherine Pierce diva curly hair is actually a wig. (Although Nina Dobrev’s hair is pretty darn perfect as well!)

Photo Credit: Giphy

7. The pilot was shot in Vancouver. However, due to tax incentives, they later moved filming to Covington, Georgia.

Photo Credit: Giphy

8. Annie Wersching played Damon and Stefan’s mother, but in real life she’s only a little more than a year older than Ian Somerhalder and five years older than Paul Wesley.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

9. While we’re on the “age” topic, did you know that Nina Dobrev is actually six months younger than Steven R. McQueen, the actor who plays her little brother Jeremy? And that Sara Canning, who played their guardian on the show, was actually no more than a year older than them?

Photo Credit:: Tumblr

Photo Credit:: Tumblr

10. The talented Ashley Tisdale, who was making waves with her role on High School Musical, was offered a lead role on TVD. She turned it down and ended up starring on the fut yet short-lived Hellcats instead.

Photo Credit: Giphy

Photo Credit: Giphy

11. Chris Brochu who played Luke Parker in TVD Season 5 and Season 6 is brothers with Doug Brochu from Sonny With a Chance.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

12. Many of the cast members are talented in the language department; many are bilingual with a few even being multilingual. Nina Dobrev speaks Bulgarian and French. Paul Wesley can speak Polish. However Kat Graham beats them both by being able to speak Spanish, French, and Hebrew.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

13. When he is not on set, Zach Roerig is a devoted single dad to an adorable little girl. The child’s mother is incarcerated in federal prison, so he was granted full custody of his daughter.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

14. Daniel Gilles, who portrayed Elijah Mikaelson on TVD before moving to its spin-off The Originals, is married to Rachael Leigh Cook from She’s All That. Together, the couple has two children.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

15. The role of Stefan Salvatore was the last one to be cast and after fifteen incredible reads, Paul landed it due to his breathtaking chemistry with Nina Dobrev! “Oh my God. I can’t remember how many guys there were, but there had to have been at least 11,” Nina told Entertainment Weekly, reminiscing about the arduous yet well-worth-it process. “There might’ve been more than that, and I’m just trying to forget some of them.” She adds,It was the longest day ever and they were all so different. I had already booked the part, and so they all had to have chemistry with me. And they were all trying real hard to have chemistry with me. 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—so it’s funny to think that he did the right thing. Kid got the part.” And in case Paul couldn’t get any more interesting with his good looks and charm, he is a self-professed believe in the paranormal. He shared the following story with Girlfriend magazine: “When I was a kid my family was staying in a rental in Rhode Island in Cape Cod. I woke up and saw a woman standing with her arms crossed, starring out the window. I realized she wasn’t with our group, so I called out to her and she turned to me and faded. I was confused and I didn’t realize it was a ghost until later, but by that point I was scared.”

Photo Credit: Tumblr

16. The writers almost scrapped Tyler character entirely! Though the showrunners ended up getting rid of another one of Elena friends from the book series (Meredith), they were far too impressed with Michael Trevino’s performance. “[He] is somebody who we could have done without, perhaps, in the beginning of the show,” Julie Plec admitted to The Hollywood Reporter. But it was his future werewolf/hybrid storyline that kept him around. We knew it was going to be really important, so we wanted to include him in the series regular group, even though we knew he probably wouldn’t get to the real meat of the story until season two.” Oh, and not only that but they changed his unfortunate last name, Smallwood, to Lockwood. Phew!

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

17. The American Red Cross had a blood drive called “Starve a Vampire. Donate Blood” inspired by the show.

Photo Credit: Giphy

18. Isobel Flemming’s phone number 919-399-2507 appeared in season 2, episode The super sleuth fans who called it heard a recorded message from Elena, Damon, and Stefan.

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19. Speaking of Isobel, did you know that the role of Elena Gilbert’s birth mother almost went to Party of Five and Scream queen Neve Campbell? She ended up turning it down, so it went to The L Word’s Mia Kirshner instead.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Wiffle Giffle

20. Taylor Kinney, who played werewolf hunk Uncle Mason Lockwood, is engaged to Lady Gaga IRL, whom he met while starring as her love interest in the music video for “You and I.”

Photo Credit: Giphy

21. Nina Dobrev’s favorite episode of the show is “Lost Girl” season 1, episode 6. Although Kevin Williamson didn’t want to feature flashback scenes at first, Julie Plec convinced him that they’d make meaningful additions to the story.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

22. Nearly every episode in TVD Season 6 — with the exception of a few, including 6×17, “Bird in A Gilded Cage” and the final two — pays homage to popular songs from the 1990s due to the prison world storyline. For example? “Yellow Ledbetter,” “Black Hole Sun,” “Welcome to Paradise,” and “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get.”

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

23. Did you know that Stephen Amell, who now stars as the phenomenal Oliver Queen on Arrow, originally auditioned for Mason Lockwood and Elijah Mikaelson? He ended up snagging the role of bad-to-the-bone werewolf Brady.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

24. James Van Der Beek, who had worked with Kevin William on the acclaimed series Dawson’s Creek, was THISCLOSE to portraying everyone’s favorite history teacher/vampire hunter, Alaric Saltzman. The part eventually went to the oh-so-smoldering Matt Davis. Ironically though, he starred alongside Matt’s TVD love interest, Sara Canning aka Aunt Jenna, in the harrowing television drama Taken in Broad Daylight. Talk about a small world!

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

25. Brace yourselves for this one, fang fans: Ian Somerhalder almost starred on another vampire series — HBO’s True Blood. Thankfully, the part of adorable-yet-obtuse Jason Stackhouse went to the Ryan Kwanten and Ian’s fate as Damon Salvatore was sealed. Clearly this was the role the blue-eyed actor was meant to play!

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

26. Though Nina Dobrev’s on- and off-screen relationship with Ian Somerhalder was the obsession of many fans, did you know that other romances took place off set? Paul and Torrey were married prior to TVD, and after their split in 2013, he started dating Phoebe Tonkin who, before heading over to The Originals, guest starred as Tyler’s friend Hayley Marshall. Joseph Morgan, who turned Klaus Mikaelson into a household phenomenon, is married to Persia White, the actress who plays Bonnie Bennett’s witch-turned-vampire mom Abby. After the two of them grew close on the set of Joseph’s short film, Revelation, they exchanged vows in 2014 in an intimate beach ceremony held in Jamaica. Additionally, Candice Accola also dated two of her co-stars: She hooked up with Steven McQueen in 2010, then fell for Matty Blue Blue aka Zach Roerig in 2011. However, she ultimately found true love in The Fray’s guitarist, Joseph Aaron King. After meeting at Direct TV’s celebrity Super Bowl event (Nina actually helped set them up!), Candice and Joe got engaged in Italy, and tied the knot a year later in New Orleans!

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

27. One of the cast members is related to an on-screen icon. Care to take a gander at who it is? None other than Steven McQueen, whose grandfather is the legendary “King of Cool” Steve McQueen! Moreover, his stepfather is retired NHL hall of famer Luc Robitaille.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

28. The historical Glenridge Hall, whose gorgeous facade was used for exterior shots of the Salvatore Boarding House, has been demolished. Developers made the controversial decision to tear it down in April 2015.

Photo Credit: Wattpad

Photo Credit: Wattpad

29. In honor of Paul Wesley’s directorial debut in TVD Season 5 Episode 18, Nina gifted her co-star a life-size portrait….of herself. “I personally hazed him a lot and it was awesome,” she told our Alloy Entertainment team in 2014. “He was actually a really good director and he did a really great job [and] was very prepared. But before his first day of shooting, I gave him a copy of the script signed by the whole cast — because every time you shoot an episode, you receive a script cover with the name of the episode and who it’s “directed by” and it said Paul — along with a little letter saying, “Paul over the last decade we’ve come so far, and just as a token of this new step in your life and in your career, I wanted to remind you where we started and what’s most important at the core of our show.” Laughing, she adds, “I also gave him this big present, and when he opened the gift, it was a giant painting of my face. I mean, it was a joke, obviously, but he thought it was hilarious and it’s actually hanging in his dressing room right now.”

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

30. Every year, the executive producers treat the cast to awesome TVD-related gifts, and at the Season 4 prom-themed wrap party, everyone got a yearbook that featured behind-the-scenes pics and memories from set. It also featured some precious cast superlatives: Ian Somerhalder and Kat Graham were named “Most Likely to Save The World” and Candice Accola earned the title of “Best Musician” due to her fierce performances with the crew’s 1990s cover band Straight 2 Video.

Photo Credit: We Heart It

Photo Credit: We Heart It

31. After camera assistant Sarah Jone’s tragic death on the set of Midnight Rider in 2014, the cast and crew have been honoring her memory at the start of each day by dedicating the first take to their friend. The directorial slate board also features #SlatesforSarah on it.

Sarah Jones and Nina Dobrev on the set of The Vampire Diaries

Photo Credit: ‘Slates for Sarah’ Facebook Page

 32. Oh hell naw! Apparently Klaus was supposed to be killed off by the end of his villainous arc on TVD — mostly because the producers thought Joseph wanted to leave at the end of the year to pursue other projects. Not to worry, though, because this talented Brit cleared everything up with his boss. “I went to see Julie Plec [TVD executive producer and Originals creator] and was honest with her like, “I just want you to know I think there’s a misconception that I want to be killed off at the end of this season and I’m actually having a lot of fun and want to stay on another year if you’ll have me,” he told Complex. “She was a bit taken aback by it. I think she thought I wanted to leave after that year. So a little while later she wrote me an email saying, “You’re 100% going to live until next season, we cleared it with the network and the studio had always assumed that was the case anyway.” He adds, “So it was great, I got to do another season then around about the end of season 3 was when little whispers of the spin-off started to materialize. It was a long time before [The Originals] became a real thing.”

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

33. So, remember when Elena and Bonnie are driving around town towards the beginning of the pilot – you know, right before a bird dies on their windshield? Apparently a crew member was crouched down in the back seat the entire time; and according to Nina, Kat ran a stop sign and freaked her out!

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

34. The producers decided to change the town’s name from Fell’s Church (as it’s called in the books) to Mystic Falls. “No disrespect to Fell’s Church, but it felt very based in religion and spirituality, and we knew we didn’t want the show to be the kind of vampire show that’s just about heaven and hell and demons and the devil and God — that kind of thing,” Julie Plec told The Hollywood Reporter.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

Photo Credit: Tumblr

35. Another major component of the books Kevin and Julie decided to leave out? All the supernatural mythology! They kept the vampires, werewolves, and witches and omitted the angels, foxes, mystical creatures, and multiple hell dimensions (and, eventually, creepy fog and bird) to keep the show from becoming cheesy complicated. Kevin wanted more Dark Shadows, less Twilight.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

What’s another little known fact about The Vampire Diaries, sweethearts? Hit the comments and let us know!

*Go behind the scenes of TVD Season 6!*


Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Twitter

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

Photo Credit: Annie Wersching via Instagram

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The post 35 Interesting Facts You Didn’t Know About The Vampire Diaries appeared first on The Vampire Diaries.


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