Despite being the only actor playing multiple characters during the early seasons of The Vampire Diaries, Nina Dobrev has revealed that she was paid less than her fellow male co-stars Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley.
The actress opened up about the behind-the-scenes equal pay battle in Entertainment Weekly editor Samantha Highfill’s new book, I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries. Dobrev not only played Elena Gilbert in the hit CW series, but also her character’s evil doppelgänger, Katherine Pierce, starting in the season one finale.
“Candice [King], Kat [Graham], and I were the three lowest-paid series regulars in the first two seasons,” Dobrev said. “It was a bit of a tricky situation because my contract only said to play Elena, but I was playing multiple characters, which doubled my workload. I had to be on set for double the amount of time, I had to memorize double the amount of lines.”
In the book, Highfill wrote that actors are typically able to start negotiating their contracts in season three, which means Dobrev was making less than Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore) and Wesley (Stefan Salvatore) for the first few seasons.
“I wanted to play Katherine, but I wanted to be compensated fairly for that, and I wanted to be an equal to the boys,” Dobrev added. The actress eventually got more money, Highfill wrote, but she never received equal pay to her male co-leads.
She recalled being told that “out of principle” the studio “wouldn’t bump me up to being equal to the boys, and so that was probably the most hurtful because it felt like I was really working hard and we shot eighteen-hour days sometimes, and nights, and I was putting my absolute heart and soul, blood, sweat, and tears into it.”
“I remember feeling like the studio didn’t appreciate what I was bringing to the show, and it felt like they were saying that all the hard work I was putting into it didn’t matter to them and that I wasn’t an equal to my male counterparts, and so that was upsetting to me,” Dobrev continued.
Vampire Diaries co-creator Julie Plec also shared in the book that things “got really heated” with the studio when they told the show’s writers they couldn’t use Katherine anymore because it meant the studio would have to pay Dobrev more each time.
However, Plec said that “was not something that I felt was right or fair,” leading them to “beg the network to let us even write story for Katherine.”
Plec said that the writers were eventually allowed to write for Katherine but recalled, “I literally think we had to say, ‘We’ll kill Katherine,’ in order to get permission to use her.”
“Over time, between Nina being generous and gracious and the tension simmering down a little bit, we were granted a certain number of episodes,” the co-creator said. “[But] I literally think we had to say, ‘We’ll kill Katherine,’ in order to get permission to use her.”
Dobrev exited the show after season six, when her character Elena was put under a sleeping spell by villain Kai Parker (Chris Wood), which linked Elena’s life to that of her best friend Bonnie Bennett. But since Elena wasn’t killed off, this left the door open for her to return (which she did in the series finale, titled “I Was Feeling Epic.”)
However, her return for the eighth and final season sparked another battle over pay, as revealed in Highfill’s book. Plec and co-creator Kevin Williamson said they initially intended to have Dobrev return for the entire final season.
“I really wanted Elena and Stefan to end up together,” Williamson admitted, “that would’ve been my preference, but we didn’t have Elena to bring that relationship back around. You couldn’t bring them back together in one episode.”
But Dobrev stood her ground and was only going to return if she was paid the same as Wesley and Somerhalder, who had gotten multiple raises since her departure from the series.
“I was always open to coming back for the finale, and storyline-wise it made sense. I felt like it was important and it needed to happen for the show, it needed to happen for the fans,” the actress explained. “It was just really important to me that at the end of the show, as a woman, I wanted to make sure that I was compensated and that I was an equal to my male counterparts on the show, and so it came down to that.”
Dobrev shared that the studio’s offer for her to return for the show’s finale “was five times less” than what she made when she left at the end of season six.
“That’s the only reason why at one point I almost didn’t come back,” she added. “I needed to be paid parity to the boys. I had to put my foot down and say if it didn’t happen I wouldn’t be able to come back,” she said. “And it wasn’t about the money — I didn’t give a shit about the money at all — it was the principle.”
Plec defended Dobrev, saying in the book, “She should’ve been making what those boys made all along, and nobody should’ve blinked at that request, but at the time it was very shocking. To her credit, she advocated for herself and she stuck to her guns.”
When Dobrev declined the studio’s less-than-equal offer, she said that’s when Plec stepped in and “put her foot down and spoke to everyone.” Though the studio eventually only agreed to pay for one episode at the actress’s requested rate.
“The reason we couldn’t have her for more than the one episode is because they just wouldn’t pay,” the co-creator shared. “It took a lot of work before they finally relented, but it came back that it was one episode only that they’d say yes for.”
Dobrev added, “For the fans I felt horrible and I wanted the story to be told in the best way possible, and it was heartbreaking that the artistry had to suffer because elf this, that we didn’t get to maybe have the few episodes at the end of the show that Julie wanted. … I’m very happy that we were able to make it work and that I came back, because I wanted to be part of the goodbye.”
I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries is now available for purchase.
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