4. Search for Salvatores
After finding the leading lady, TVD needed two essential male components of the love triangle. No task is easy.
“We were more or less thoughtful in casting Stefan and Damon,” Julie explained, noting that Nina “had repeated chemistry with multiple actors.”
Are there any actors reading for either role (or sometimes both!)? Of the cast, including Zach Roerig (who later played Matt Donovan), Michael Trevino (who was cast as Tyler Lockwood), Nathanial Buzorich (who was later cast as Kol), and 7th Heaven star David Gallagher, Julie admits of the latter, “He really impressed us to begin with…but when you think about 7th Heaven as a whole, I wonder if he’ll ever be able to overcome that.” (She later cast him as a werewolf after watching Super 8.)
And finally, they found allies, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder.
“Paul and Ian kind of came on late in the process. Paul had about 15 auditions, and Ian kind of came out of nowhere,” Julie said. Nina recalled that Paul (who was the first to read for Damon!) stood out from the other guys reading opposite her during the Chemistry reading. “The only person who wasn’t trying too hard was Paul Wesley, who didn’t talk to me at any point other than during filming,” she told EW. “So it’s crazy to think he did the right thing.”
