Why Ian Somerhalder Connects Vampire Diaries to Twilight

Until Ian Somerhalder was in The Vampire Diaries and Nikki Reed was in Duskthere is no bad blood.

In fact, the 43-year-old actor, who is married to the 34-year-old actress, recently opined that he thinks the popularity of the film franchise has helped the TV show. (The The Vampire Diaries premiered shortly thereafter in 2009.)

“You must remember Dusk hit in 2008 — I only know because I live with Nikki — and so we were riding the tails of that theatrical success,” he exclusively told E! News August 23. “We were the TV version of that.”

Reed was played by Rosalie Hale Dusk and also in the following films The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn the first and second parts (2011, 2012), where the main roles were also played Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. As for Somerhalder, he played Damon Salvatore The Vampire Diarieswhich ran until 2017 and also featured Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley.

And even Somerhalder can’t believe how much time has passed. “If you think it was 13 years ago,” he told Wesley, who played Damon’s brother Stefan Salvatore, “you were 20 and now you’re 40. I was 30 and now I’m close to 40. . . .What the hell?”