Image credit: The Star Tracker
When Paul Wesley filmed a steamy scene with Candice King on The Vampire Diaries, the last person he wanted to think about was his co-star Ian Somerhalder.
However, thanks to a printer and some creative wardrobe choices, Somerhalder revealed that he found a way to insert himself into the moment anyway.
Speaking before hundreds of fans at the Anaheim Nostalgia Con, the co-stars revealed the pranks and jokes that bonded them as friends for over twenty years.
Ian Somerhalder pranks Paul Wesley during a sex scene
While Wesley tried to focus on King during a scene with both actors undressed in bed, he found himself locking eyes with Somerhalder instead.
Somerhalder described how he made himself part of the moment.
“She (King) had to be in this scene where they were in bed. And girls, they wear the pasties on their boobs. And they cut out like a hundred pictures of me. They printed out a montage and put it on her pasties. While Stefan (Wesley’s character) was supposed to be all hot and heavy in the scene, he looks down and sees like fifty pictures of me staring back at him,” he said, laughing.
Paul Wesley critiques Ian Somerhalder’s acting
However, Wesley showed that he can dish it out as well as he can take it, and he coined the term for Somerhalder’s acting style.
“Paul used to make fun of me and say that my performance was like a sandstorm,” Somerhalder told the audience.
Wesley explained while squinting his eyes, “It's as if he's in the desert and there's a sandstorm, and he's like, there's sand getting in his eyes.”
“I was smoldering!” Somerhalder protested with a grin.
While the show was a dark and brooding melodrama, the two stars admitted that they spent as much time laughing on set as they did working on their bedroom eyes.
Somerhalder said, “We probably went through over the course of those eight years, probably about a million dollars' worth of lost production time. I think more from just giggling or you not knowing your lines or having to go back because Paul can't get halfway through a scene and then start over.”
Despite their pranks, the two bonded quickly and even rented apartments in the same building during the first season. Somerhalder added that they spent so much time together that they even started dressing alike.
“Remember when we showed up in Atlanta wearing white t-shirts? Same jeans, same boots, and black leather rucksacks. And the same shades. Black Ray-Ban sunglasses. Blues Brothers, bro! We literally looked like the Blues Brothers. We walked into the lobby of the W Hotel in Atlanta, literally dressed completely alike.”
The Vampire Diaries is available to stream on HBO Max for anyone who wants to revisit the Sandstorm.
Somerhalder also explained why he believes Damon Salvatore never deserved a happy ending.
