The Vampire Diaries stars Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley recall the strange reason they had anxiety while filming season 1 and how they fixed it.
The Vampire Diaries stars Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley reveal the strange reason they had anxiety while filming season 1. Those initial batch of Vampire Diaries episodes were transformative when they first debuted in 2009, turning the cast into global stars and quickly joining the list of seminal teen dramas. But for all of the general ways that the series changed the lives of Somerhalder and Wesley, who respectively played Damon and Stefan Salvatore, there was one way in which that first year was specifically challenging.
At a party for Brother’s Bond Bourbon, which Wesley and Somerhalder co-founded, the actors opened up to Page Six about the anxiety they had while filming The Vampire Diaries season 1. The duo was so hooked on caffeine, at the time, that it began to negatively impact their health. Somerhalder and Wesley recall having to drink a lot of tea during the scenes where the characters were supposed to be sipping whiskey and how it caused them to lose sleep. Read Somerhalder's quote below:
After filming a full season of The Vampire Diaries, the cast and crew came to a realization that the actors couldn't actually drink booze while filming. Wesley reveals they switched to decaf, while Somerhalder recalls drinking herbal tea. It's one of the more specific ways that a large group of actors, writers, and crew had to adjust to filming a new show. But, in more than one way, between finding solutions and establishing a routine, subsequent seasons became an easier sell.
Debut seasons are all about establishing characters and routines. It was important for Vampire Diaries season 1 to show Damon and Stefan as whiskey aficionados, carrying on a tradition that would remain for the rest of the series. Future episodes had the option of easing up on that respect or deploying it selectively because it was already known. It's not too different from how sitcom characters are sometimes written more broadly, or generally, in their first seasons before they even out.
In any case, it might have been a choice that helped Wesley and Somerhalder in their current endeavor, bringing their on-screen experience to the personal project that they co-founded. It's one of the ways that the influence of The Vampire Diaries exists well beyond the Elena, Damon, and Stefan love triangle that it was known for.
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