CITAZIONE
LOS ANGELES — Strictly between us blood-suckers, Ian Somerhalder of The Vampire Diaries hasn’t watched the Twilight flicks.
“I’ve met Robert Pattinson before — he’s a nice guy,” Somerhalder said. “But I don’t know anything about (Pattinson’s character) Edward, because I’ve never seen any of the Twilight movies.
“I hear he’s a stud, though.”
We’re sure a lot of viewers would say the same thing about Somerhalder, not to mention his character on The Vampire Diaries, Damon Salvatore.
The Vampire Diaries, which also stars Paul Wesley and Canadian Nina Dobrev, returns with a new episode Thursday night on CTV and its network of origin, CW. The first season has been a pop-culture and ratings hit on both sides of the border, which isn’t unusual for CTV, but it’s a godsend for the little CW in the United States.
“Our fans our so enthusiastic,” said Somerhalder, 31. “The real key demographics for this show are so specific, and what we’re finding out is, in that specific age range, the amount of enthusiasm and the things they can do vocally to express that enthusiasm ... ”
Yes, there’s nothing quite like the sound of teenage girls squealing for their favourite stars.
But this isn’t merely kids’ stuff. If you like spooky stories, The Vampire Diaries will speak to you, regardless of your age or sex.
“There’s a very interesting historical aspect to this town,” said Somerhalder of the fictional Mystic Falls, Va. “The town is a character in itself.”
Set in modern times, The Vampire Diaries centres on vampire brothers Damon and Stefan Salvatore (Somerhalder and Wesley), who for different reasons have become fascinated with a teen mortal named Elena Gilbert (Dobrev). Elena is a dead ringer — no pun intended — for the vampire named Katherine who originally turned both Damon and Stefan back in the mid-1800s.
Dobrev gets to play the evil Katherine in flashbacks — at least, thus far it has been in flashbacks. Just before The Vampire Diaries went on its mid-winter hiatus — as many series did during the Olympics — we discovered Katherine still is alive somewhere.
So what’s going to happen when Katherine meets Elena?
“If,” Somerhalder corrected.
“I think Damon and Katherine should go on a double-date with Stefan and Elena. Yeah, (Dobrev) will be working a lot.”
As this batch of new episodes begins, the Damon-Katherine relationship — or lack thereof — is at the heart of the drama.
Damon spent decades believing his true love, Katherine, was trapped in a spellbound vampire purgatory. But Damon now realizes Katherine never was trapped and has been roaming the earth all this time, never bothering to seek him out.
Stefan and Elena are very worried about Damon’s new attitude.
“You start to understand why and how the brothers became vampires, how that whole thing went down, which paints a picture of how you view Stefan and Damon, collectively and individually,” Somerhalder said.
“The events that led up to getting to Mystic Falls in the present day are not what they seem. There are a lot of paths we go down that one would have not thought of. It really illuminates this different picture of both Stefan and Damon, which is fun, because we needed a change.”
Well, don’t change too much, Ian. Fans seem to love your portrayal of Damon as exciting and engaging, but dangerous and mean.
“He’s not mean,” Somerhalder insisted. “It’s all a matter of perspective.”
