‘The Vampire Diaries’: Ian Somerhalder Once Described His Ideal Doppelganger for Damon Salvatore
Tricky bloodlines and body possessions were a normal part of The Vampire Diaries, where old vampires could possess people and supernatural beings could have carbon copies.
For fans, such twists made the series enjoyable. Ian Somerhalder never got to play two identical characters during his run as Damon Salvatore, but given the opportunity, he knew how he would have set his twin apart.
Doppelgängers were a thing on ‘The Vampire Diaries’
Perhaps the most notable look-alikes on The Vampire Diaries were Tatia, Katherine Pierce, and Elena Gilbert, all from Amara’s bloodline. Katherine — aka Katarina — had a ball toying with the Salvatore brothers and the rest of the Mystic Falls bunch.
She often got away with murder by pretending to be Elena, but Nina Dobrev did a remarkable job in creating distinct personalities for both characters.
The other doppelgänger was tied to Paul Wesley’s Stefan. Remember Silas? Bound to Amara through Qetsiyah’s spell, Silas had a bloodline that produced Stefan and his contemporary double, Tom, a kindly EMT who lived in Atlanta.
Poor Tom did not survive all the immortal drama connected to the cure and the doppelgängers.
Ian Somerhalder had an idea for a Damon Salvatore doppelgänger
Though Silas and Amara’s tale involved a love triangle, with Stefan and Elena duplicates, Damon was left out of that complicated fun. But during a 2018 fan convention in Toronto, Ian Somerhalder was asked what characteristics he would have liked if bad boy Damon had a doppelgänger on The Vampire Diaries.
He summed it up by naming a rock star as the blueprint. “I would want him to be like Mick Jagger,” said Somerhalder.
“I always wanted this character to be like Marlon Brando yet by way of Cary Grant and Mick Jagger. I always had these crazy thoughts that we would be able to put a much larger scope into the show and you could see how Damon and Stefan ended up at the same Rolling Stones concert in 1967, and they’re on different sides of the auditorium.”
That never materialized, but Mick Jagger would have been the model with a little sprinkle of the Damon dance.
Somerhalder bumped into Jagger at a party
Though Somerhalder’s spoken in the past about basing his former character on Jagger and Grant, Damon did share some of the rocker’s cool swagger. They had that in common.
Still, the actor once geeked out when attending a Met Gala afterparty in 2012. According to Pop Sugar, he noticed the Rolling Stones frontman was enjoying himself at the party venue.
Somerhalder sent out a tweet about the moment that read, “You know you are at a very cool party when Mick Jagger is dancing by himself next to you chilling and grooving in his own world.”
Unfortunately, viewers will never get to see the Stefan-Damon Rolling Stones scenario come to fruition. Somerhalder shut down the notion for a season 9 of TVD.
