4. The search for the salvators
After finding his leading lady, TVD Needed the two male components of the essential love triangle. No simple task.
“We looked high and low out to Stefan and Damon,” explained Julie, noted Nina “read chemistry after chemistry read with several actors.”
Some of the actors who read for either (and sometimes both!) Roles? Zach turbulent (Who would continue to play Matt Donovan), Michael Trevino (that would land the role of Tyler Lockwood), Nathanial Buzolic (later cast as coal), and 7th heaven star David Gallagherwith Julie admitted the latter, “he impressed us so much originally … but the whole 7th heaven thing, I wonder if he will ever be able to get past it. “(She would later throw him like werewolf after seeing Super 8.)
And then, finally, they found their guys: Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder.
“Paul and Ian came in late in the process. Paul auditioned as 15 times, and Ian appeared from the blue,” Julie said. For her part, Nina recalled Paul (who first read for Damon!) Standing from the rest of the guys who read opposite her in the chemistry reads: “The only one who didn’t try too hard, who didn’t speak to me at some point if we didn’t film, was Paul Wesley,” she told EW“So it’s fun to think he was doing the right thing,”
