Recommended for you
Elena and Stefan might have dated in The Vampire Diaries, but behind the scenes, things were a little tense between actors Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley.
“Paul and I didn’t get along at the beginning of the show,” Nina shared on Candice King and Kayla Ewell's Directionally Challenged podcast (via EW). “I respected Paul Wesley; I didn’t like Paul Wesley. I remember everyone would walk up to me after the show aired and they’d be like, ‘Are you and Paul dating in real life?’ because everyone thought that we had such good chemistry. I realize now that there’s a fine line between love and hate, and we despised each other so much that it read as love. We really just didn’t get along the first maybe five months of shooting.”
But, thankfully, their relationship only improved from there.
Here's what Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev had to say about their relationship during The Vampire Diaries.
Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev were "basically married" during 'The Vampire Diaries'.
“We ended up getting to a good place and it was fine, but of everyone, I think I probably see him the most and hang out with him the most [now]. We’re probably the closest. Like, we hang out a lot and we’re really good friends and I love his wife. It’s so funny how much has changed because I never thought that he would be one of my best friends.”
“When you work with anyone or are spending a lot of time with anyone, little things are going to annoy you about them,” she continues. “It’s like a relationship; we were basically married.”
Paul Wesley also remembers the tense, early parts of their relationship, and weighed in during an interview with Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy. He takes "a lot of responsibility" for the way things played out during the early seasons of The Vampire Diaries since he was “a bit of a curmudgeon, grumpy, pain in the ass.”
“We would butt heads on set, but then the minute the cameras rolled, it was like we knew we wanted to make it magical,” he says. “You can have two really good actors and the chemistry isn’t there. For whatever reason, Nina and I had this chemistry. Regardless of us not getting along, it somehow clicked.”
And they play feuding neighbors in 'You Deserve to Know'.
Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images for Paramount+/Amazon/Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Thankfully, we'll see Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley onscreen together again! The duo stars in the upcoming adaptation of You Deserve to Know, a new murder mystery coming to Hulu.
Nina stars as Gwen, whose husband winds up dead in their suburban neighborhood. Paul plays Gwen's neighbor Scott. The characters seriously butt heads during the investigation, which means we'll see some of that charged chemistry come through the screen. Stay tuned for more updates!
Are you surprised to hear that Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley didn't like each other during The Vampire Diaries? Follow Brit + Co on Facebook for more TV news.
