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The cast of The Vampire Diaries had a lot of fun on set during its eight seasons. And Ian Somerhalder even admitted before the season 3 premiere that he conspired with one of the crew members to pull a prank on his The Vampire Diaries co-star Nina Dobrev while filming a scene where Damon was naked.

'The Vampire Diaries' stars Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev raise their hands to high five. Somerhalder wears a gray suit over a white button-up shirt and black tie. Dobrev wears a blue dress with silver studs.
Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev | Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev dated for three years

Damon and Elena fell in love on The Vampire Diaries. And the actors who played them also started a relationship offscreen.

Even though Nina Dobrev said she wouldn’t date a co-star, she couldn’t fight her feelings for Ian Somerhalder. The couple began dating in 2010, but they didn’t publicly announce their relationship until 2011. Somerhalder and Dobrev were together for three years until they broke up in early 2013. Many sources claimed that the actors were just at different points in their lives, so they decided to split.

However, Damon and Elena’s romance continued in The Vampire Diaries despite Somerhalder and Dobrev’s breakup. Dobrev would later leave the show in 2015, and she returned for the series finale in 2017. Their characters ended up together, but Somerhalder is now married to Nikki Reed, and Dobrev is dating Shaun White.

The actor pulled a prank on his co-star during a naked Damon scene in ‘The Vampire Diaries’

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2011, Ian Somerhalder revealed that he messed with Nina Dobrev while filming a The Vampire Diaries scene that required Damon to be nude.

“Well, you know, you open up the cover page of season 3 episode 1, and it’s, like, the first half a page, Damon’s already naked,” the actor shared. “So I’d spent almost two days on set completely naked, which is kinda awesome because as if I wasn’t close enough to our crew members, I feel really close after that.”

Somerhalder continued, “So our first AD Rudy, at like 8 o’clock in the morning, came up to me and says, ‘Hey listen, I have an idea.’ When Rudy has an idea, it’s usually pretty good. It was that I should go to the prop master, another genius part of our show, and have them make some elephant ears.”

“The first thing we see is Nina’s reaction,” he said. “So what if I was completely naked and we had elephant ears and double-stick tape, and I put them on each of my thighs. And ultimately, she would be staring at a very small, young elephant. The reaction that we got was f***ing amazing. I hope and pray that that is what we used in the edit because it was such a natural ‘Oh my god!’ reaction.”

Hopefully, Nina Dobrev got Ian Somerhalder back during another The Vampire Diaries scene between Damon and Elena. Nevertheless, it doesn’t sound like there was ever a dull moment on the set.

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Julie Plec wanted to bring the Elena, Damon, and Stefan love triangle back in ‘The Vampire Diaries’

After the series finale of The Vampire Diaries aired, Entertainment Weekly spoke with co-creator Julie Plec. And during the interview, Plec revealed that they originally wanted to revisit the love triangle between Elena, Damon, and Stefan in The Vampire Diaries.

“If Nina had never left, I would’ve loved to have been able to see if Stefan and Elena could’ve found their way back to each other,” she shared. “I don’t know if they could have. But had that departure not been a part of it, the long game would’ve been to see if we could bring the love triangle back around before the series ended and really leave a choice. But her departure sealed the romantic contract between Damon and Elena.”

All eight seasons of The Vampire Diaries are available to stream on Netflix.

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