‘The Vampire Diaries’: Daniel Gillies and Joseph Morgan’s Parking Space Battle Ended With a Scratched Car
The Vampire Diaries and The Originals sets had genuine and impressive camaraderie, so much so many cast members continue to be friends today and regard each other as family.
The Originals stars Daniel Gillies and Joseph Morgan played brothers on the show. In real life, they were good friends who played pranks on each other in real life. Gillies revealed they engaged in a parking space battle that ended with a scratched car.
Daniel Gillies and Joseph Morgan loved pranking each other on ‘The Originals’ set
Gillies and Morgan were the highlights of The Originals for the five seasons it was on the air. Their characters anchored the show through their brotherly devotion to the family and the on-again-off-again familial love. The pair may have been immortalized by blood onscreen. But their relationship behind the scenes was equally, if not more, loving.
Morgan and Gillies bonded through their penchant for pranks during the show’s early years. Speaking with Young Hollywood in 2014, Morgan said the pranks started when he and Gillies began teasing one another due to parking spaces.
He said, “We have these assigned parking spots, and it started with him parking his Jeep diagonally across my spot and his spot. So I kind of had to drive and find a new place to park.”
The actor said he once stole his onscreen brother’s keys when he wasn’t looking and moved his car to a hidden spot. Gillies reiterated these sentiments at a recent cast reunion.
He explained, “Joseph and I used to do this silly thing where we compete for this parking space in the morning. It was so dumb.” The actor said he would put garbage in Morgan’s parking spot or place “No Parking” signs to throw his friend off.
Daniel Gillies and Joseph Morgan’s pranks became an expensive affair
Gillies and Morgan’s pranks were never intended to cause the other harm and were all done in good faith. The duo went back and forth, pranking one another for a while and occasionally involving their castmates in lightweight, silly pranks. These included altering each other’s photos and locking the other out of their trailers.
However, Gillies’s actions put an end to the pranking. In an attempt to prevent Morgan from being able to access his car, the other half of the Mikaelson brothers put his foot on the gas, crashing their cars.
“One day, I decided that I was not going to allow him to leave. I was like, ‘I know! I’m just gonna park as close as I can to his driver’s door.’ And I scratched all along the side of his car,” Gillies revealed, saying the ordeal broke his spirit. In the Young Hollywood interview, Morgan recalled the awkward moment Gillies came to fess up.
“I was sitting in the hair and makeup trailer getting ready, and he came in looking all kinds of shameful- ashamed- and had to sort of admit to me that he tried to park too close and he ended up scraping the entire side of my car,” Morgan recalled. The Elijah portrayer covered the costs of the damage, and no love was lost between the onscreen brothers.
‘The Originals’ brothers continued taunting each other
Gillies and Morgan weren’t the only Mikaelsons to tease one another. Their co-star, Nathaniel Buzolic, who played Kol, also continuously poked fun at his onscreen older brother Gillies. Buzolic went viral in 2016 when he imitated Gillies’s portrayal of the robotic Elijah.
Buzolic noted that his co-star liked popping his hand into his pocket and wiping his face when entering a scene. The star’s teasing of Gillies became a running joke which continued even at fan events. Gillies even threw jokes back at him.
