‘Vampire Diaries’ Star Nina Dobrev On Fight For Equal Pay To Male Co-Leads

Nina Dobrev is opening up about her fight for equal pay to her male co-leads on The Vampire Diaries.

Dobrev starred opposite Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder on the CW supernatural teen drama for the first six seasons, playing different characters.

The star was the female lead, Elena Gilbert, in the series, and also doubled as the devilish Katherine Pierce. In a new interview for Samantha Highfill’s I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries, Dobrev recalled she was getting paid less than her male counterparts.

“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.”

Dobrev said that she “had to be on set for double the amount of time,” adding, “I had to memorize double the amount of lines. I wanted to play Katherine, but I wanted to be compensated fairly for that, and I wanted to be an equal to the boys.”

After asking for fair compensation, Dobrev claims that the studio asked writers to stop writing for Katherine as they now “had to pay” for the actress to play the additional role.

Co-creator and showrunner Julie Plec added that they had to “basically beg the network” to “let Nina play Katherine” by negotiating a new contract for her, adding, “It got really heated, and so it basically got phoned down back to us writers that we were not allowed to write Katherine in at all ever, which of course was not something that I felt was right or fair.”

Although the book reveals that Dobrev was able to negotiate a higher salary, she was never paid the same as her male co-stars, Wesley and Somerhalder.

“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,” she said.

Dobrev exited The Vampire Diaries after six seasons, but made a return for the final season, which also caused a dispute about her pay.

The show’s co-creator, Kevin Williamson, noted that Dobrev was supposed to be back for all of Season 8. Dobrev added that the offer for her “was five times less” than what she made during her final season on the show.

“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 s— about the money at all — it was the principle.”

Dobrev continued, “It was my second time trying to make this point. It wasn’t about the actual dollar amount, it was about being an equal. They really didn’t want to give it to me and I politely declined the offer.”

Plec stepped in to intervene for Dobrev, and the network ultimately agreed to have her back for one episode at her asking rate.