The Vampire Diaries at PaleyFest LA 2012: Full Conversation

[Music] she's the vampire in love with the werewolf candace acaba plays caroline forbes [Applause] he's the good boy turn bad boy turn good boy i think paul wesley plays stefan salvatore [Applause] she's the evil genius who keeps it all straight julie pleck executive producer he's the bad boy who finally got to kiss the girl and summer holder she's the girl who's causing all this trouble nina dobra plays elena gilbert he's the vampire hunter who's got some explaining to do matt davis plays with eric saltzman and she's the witchiest of them all kat graham plays bonnie bennett [Applause] [Music] [Applause] let's talk a little bit about the originals i figured they're not here tonight it's a little safe to talk about say whatever we want about it exactly we're safe right we're no one's going to tell them right just talk about the originals have we seen the last of them no [Music] it's why it's why all of us constantly live in the precipice of death and that's why we love you all so much something like that [Laughter] so candace is klaus still you know hanging around the way well what's so funny is that i everyone's so excited about this claire line but klaus is is bad like he's a mass murderer like his hobbies are putting out hybrids to murder people i mean that is a terrible match.com profile so like you know colin mom i met this great guy he likes to murder people sometimes but other than that he's a realtor do you think klaus has a match.com profile [Laughter] serious possibility actually owns magic yeah exactly we started it it'd be great if like season four we had like little tidbits of like one episode we just like revealed the match.com episode like just a random segue the product integration episode exactly yeah exactly let me check my match.com profile let me bangmatch.com yeah so um but uh uh klaus and uh k i just love that their whole relation or whatever relationship there is is all based on manipulation on both of their parts so uh aren't all relationships especially mine and yours buddy that was a definitive joke help me ask a question bit of truth to every joke whatever so about damon and rebecca speaking of originals so exactly so david sounds like she's reading my cards really so let's talk about rebecca then let's not well you see you know the problem is i saw this picture online where she was torturing you so what's going on with rebecca it's like every woman in my life i'm not touching that one um yeah um there's nothing better than uh being hung from the ceiling tortured whipped gaffed bleeding by another woman um they have no idea what you're talking about they're like why is he being hung yeah what is going on why don't you describe the photo we were shooting we were shooting in vancouver we were shooting in evander holyfield's house which is about 45 times the size of this room huge massive it has a ballroom it has a small room it's a bowling alley pulling out a bowling alley bowling i mean he was literally walking back and forth like throughout the house while we were shooting right so yeah and you're sitting there and you sort of walk through this you know open this door he's going to be really pissed off that way he got his house you know he's not like we went into this little room out there yeah okay if you own a house that cool you want if you want a one of the coolest things in the world is to show up at work and evander holyfield is there that is just awesome actually it's not because if you like step on the carpet you're like and you hit like a right hook knocks you out then the makeup is awful uh it takes a lot of time no you know that scene or that particular image um is one where i think there's an amazing bonding moment for both elena and damon and for stefan and damon by virtue of the fact that some pretty gnarly stuff uh you know as demented as you think damon could have been in season one or the you know the capabilities of stefan to been as evil as he was in his past these originals uh have an appetite for destruction and they act on it they have a soft side elijah he's got a little sauce he's so cute he draws pictures of horses and and and nice touch klaus grows orchids did you read that on his match.com i was in his apartment for a dinner party okay leave it there say no more i found out on match.com [Laughter] um but no that that image is uh one that was very very intense damon does something really crappy to rebecca in the next episode after this and she gets mad and decides to rip it apart and and stab him up and make him bleed it's kind of gnarly remember the scene was it was it klaus that made um catherine uh stab herself herself leg repeating yeah just repeatedly stab herself in the leg well rebecca decides that it's fun to slice and dice he'll have no fury like a woman scorned this is true boys let me tell you [Laughter] especially after this panel um julie what about esther and the rest of the clan will be seeing them come back um um yes yes that was an interesting maybe sorry there's a sound of music there's the what has aired versus what have we you could always see people in flashbacks oh yeah yes well no look i mean this is not the last we've seen episode 15 which aired before the hiatus is not the last we've seen of the originals um or of the mother's plan to try to take out her children so there's still a whole other chapter of that story it's like instead of the brothers grim it's the mother's grin the mother is [Laughter] [Laughter] [Laughter] [Applause] i feel the need for an intervention down there please no no let it go boys boys we're always in between an amazing woman that wants to kill us and nina elena seems to have developed the soft side for elijah why is that why does she see oh i know yeah i'm so pretty he's not bad looking um he's just true you'd all look great but he um i think because they share similar morals and they sort of he doesn't want to hurt people for the most part um and for the most part what does that mean exactly well because he i don't know i mean spiritually speaking yeah not want to hurt anybody he's honorable he's got honor exactly he does yeah thank you to a certain extent so i think that they bonded over that and they share that mutual respect for each other and um she sees a lot of herself in him and vice versa and and they have like a chemistry or something and that i think i think i don't know we'll see is there an elijah elena make out scene coming he squared wait a minute who is it would that be their fan name no i think elijah has to get in line behind allara [Laughter] [Applause] didn't anyone ever see that movie the guardian they made out by the way i do not advocate this whatsoever but matt davis has taken to twitter too uh to begin the alark elena campaign on our campaign that was actually my list of questions totally unacceptable and yet and inappropriate for the guard yeah but yet fantastic and when the ratings slip so now next target elijah damon where did this come [Applause] let's talk about this fan fiction of yours oh no oh no no let's do let's talk about it oh god no i'm not getting off that fiction bam no i won't talk about the family it's totally inappropriate oh no it's actually your favorite one i have two you know uh if we're being honest about it uh we are there's one i won't mention because it's actually like r-rated but the other one is um is there's a moment where lark is talking to damon this is written as written by matt davis by the way literally on an iphone while i'm like seen with um about why damon loves elena when elena as a young girl doesn't even know who john lennon is and uh and it's actually i mean it's a nice he says to he says to damon why don't you just wait a little man why don't you wait and let her grow up and have a life and become an adult and learn about things like john lennon and science and deep stuff and alaric like gives damon a little you know life lesson and philosophy and stuff and you know it's it's nice it's not gonna happen this season but it's not so it's really no different than the conversations that matt davis and i have in the halls of our production office that's true that's true maybe he's maybe like who's your muse matt well right now it's been tyler i i've enjoyed making him do some twisted things it's just been fun and i and i and i like the the chase between that that's the one we're not going to talk about oh that one yeah that one's amazing that's fantastic [Laughter] i was dying why can't we talk about it yeah okay that's like i guess oh my gosh this could be the menu this is what we're serving put it this way put it this way there's like the there's like the fan fiction universe of you know young fans writing young beautiful sweet innocent elements of the story and then there's the matt davis fanfiction universe it should not be live when i've read it's all smutty i think that one was meant to be a funnier dice get which is why it was going to be really inappropriate out of that wasn't yeah that wasn't supposed to be real i thought the one we weren't gonna talk about was where where i made clouds this is like your dream come true like all you ever wish for [Music] what was that moving on we haven't heard from catherine in a while that seems to worry me [Applause] when will is she what is she up to when we see when will we see catherine again will we see catherine again look i mean catherine spent 500 years running from a class to great success um if klaus is in mystic falls that girl gets anywhere near mystic falls she's dumb yeah 500 years there's no love story that is more important than catherine and her own self-interest and freedom so whatever she feels about either of these boys she is going to stay the hell out of dodge reservation yeah something we we know nothing about yeah these two suckers are like oh let's save the girl [Applause] can i get that ernesto raleigh sign back please just so matt davis right there there you go so we can feed matt and back to our next one there you go so we can spoon feed ernest o'reilly he really is awesome okay by the way you'll never get that on the iphone you know what paul never underestimate the power of the iphone cash cash from apple endorsement right there i wish yeah all right cat i'm so very i'm very worried about bonnie's friendship with elena you and we are is she ever going to be able to forgive her i i mean pregnant claws no i mean i think that they have a great relationship and they've always had a great bond and they grew up together and that's her rock you know i don't think that she really believes that elena did anything to sabotage her relationship with her mother you know i i'm sure that she's gonna eventually have to work through whatever she's dealing with i'm a little hot yeah you are yeah we can't do that in public you might be hot but this one is dead [Applause] this one is like freezing and you're on fire no i mean the mic is hot my mic is oh the mic is hot oh my mic is hot sorry about that again all right paul here i forgot paul we're not at home how will she deal with her mother becoming a vampire in time you know uh you'll definitely see a lot of stuff with caroline and bonnie working together which i thought was really really cool yay girlfriend girls can actually be friends and like each other and not want to scratch each other's eyes tv that's really cool and you know it's not going to be easy for her but i think it's your earrings you think you could kill carolina no it would never that would be hot that's a little ghetto being like bonnie taking out her earring i don't think that's you don't even feel like that's awesome you guys how much fun was it having your wife on this cast this season oh good how'd you get the part uh how'd she get the part julia how'd you get that part i don't kiss and tell i mean i don't oh i mean she had thought you know she had to audition and and she had to uh julie's a fan of pretty little liars right so you know it just kind of worked out two words casting couch [Laughter] [Music] no she's amazing actually by the way wait what by the way but [Laughter] or do you want to show me later you know what buddy i don't know what that is and i can't show you anything the shirt's coming off again the shirt's coming up i feel like this is turning into one of these stories it's been great it's been great but you know matt got to work with her a little bit more than you did what's going on here [Laughter] how is it that you know when you're you know cause i've done scenes with her and she's amazing great better than paul actually i think i learned my my moves yeah exactly how do i turn do i turn to the left right you learn it from tori but um i know that and i say this because it's very difficult to embarrass matt davis i'm gonna go out on a limb don't embarrass me when oh right when when when tory you know because there was this love interest that was coming for lark and matt davis was psyched like yeah he's gonna be really cool man you're gonna have some like lark's gonna just get some it's gonna be really cool and then it shows up and it's his buddy's wife then all of a sudden matt davis is horrified well i mean like he's horrified [Laughter] what if what it like what the hell are you talking about man whatever that make would have like would have didn't make out with her i was like well you just gotta go all right this conversation is ridiculous answer my questions for me my behalf please moving on here's a question for you how much fun did you have playing bad stefan that's a good thing uh that's pretty quick like i like that transition no good segue um no it's trying no i don't know i mean obviously you know i tell julie all the time you know like that season three the first sort of you know ten episodes or whatever when we got to really explore stefan's dark side was just the most fun i had in a while you know it's just it's just and i really want to maintain that but julie's i don't know i mean he's starting to get what is this i watch this episode and he's all like i don't want to kill innocence i don't want to do it anymore it's a weird tapping thing that we shot in this episode paul was doing this but it was in the script going on julie yeah yeah it's a journey it is it's a journey no paul the other day he's like i was nice in this episode in the scene that you guys just wrote i'm like yes you were sir and he goes do i have to be nice i'm like yes you do right now you do um you know it is a stefan's on a journey uh of the beauty of stefan and damon is that both of them though one began the show as a hero and one began the show as a villain is that in their core they both have sides that are as dark and as light that that really fight against each other and then when in when you add the vampire context into it it's a constant battle for both of them for damon it's battling against the parts of him that want to be pure and good and for stefan it's battling against that sort of demon inside of him that wants to take over so they're on the the brothers are sharing a journey it's just manifesting itself is stefan ever going to have like a medium like a sort of a i think he's got to i mean i don't think that the stefan that we met now going having gone through everything and knowing what he knows now can never be right just oh i'm so good and honest and pure and everything like is he still eating bunnies he's still no he's he's still stephan at his core he's still strong and loyal and full of love and full of light but he's got a terrible darkness that haunts him and it's always going gonna haunt him and so now it's about you know the path to moderation or whatever it's it's about stefan finding that balance inside him so he can both be a man and a hero and and love someone and be loved but also function as a vampire because it's not you know he can't get out of that he's stuck with that so [Applause] so true and you know what i do love the creator executive producer and writer i do i do love that inner turmoil i obviously love playing the dark side it's more fun for an actor it just is you know it's just more fun but that turmoil that's what creates that's what makes stepping dynamic you know and i and i and and i feel like that that's what uh i enjoy going to work every day because i get to explore both sides i'd get sick of one or the other if it was full-time you know what i mean and there's not a lot of traffic what [Laughter] what what let's say something you see traffic i think i think you know people talk about damon all the time too like oh damn such a hero and he's so good damon's no more good than stefan is evil they are equal they have equal components yeah i mean they're oh dear don't don't hate tweet me for that hate tweeting no i think that they're i mean they as paul i think will agree they equal they have equal capabilities of good and evil i mean that's the whole push in the pull of the whole they're like soul mates [Laughter] she just maybe they're more soulmates than elena they are so well look i've said this a million times the brother relationship and this episode one of the reasons why i like it is because it's a real showcase for team salvatore as i as i call it it's you know that is the love story team salvatore ring power right [Applause] blow it up but you're right i think [Music] [Applause] i i you know i tried to steal my ring from props this weekend to bring for you guys but they caught me i did it for people's choice uh and i prop master did you give one away no no no i brought it with me i left set with it that was such a genuine reaction yeah what as my boss no i did not give it away uh but i did take it from set one day we wear the same ring just we only have like one of those rings it's the weirdest thing we only have like one paul sorry you would think we'd have multiples those are like really nicely made rings yeah when the show's done it's all over those those are going to me [Laughter] not the guys that wore them for six years the woman that wrote about them his ring on the other hand okay never mind we're not talking about it i know we're not talking about that you know we we all share this love for each other and we you know bump wrists and fists you know hey yeah good scene good scene good scene problem with that we do swap a lot of laughs that's like a football team good game see in the showers [Laughter] [Applause] but these rings are big and cumbersome and they hurt and not davis when he yeah a good scene it hurts that's all i'm saying i'm sorry my my manicurist does not appreciate by the way he's dead serious so wrong but so all right all right so let's talk about the love triangle so julian a recent interview you said it's definitely going to come to a head by the end of the season is it really i'm glad you read these articles it's going to come to a head yes maybe not the head but ahead for sure again ladies and gentlemen julie let's see you let's see you talk yourself i might i might be blushing i'll suddenly under all these um no i mean look here's the thing here's where we are we had a beautiful love story between stefan and elena us we had a burgeoning and evolving friendship and contentious friendship and then possible romantic relationship between damon and elena that was born out of that was born out of a shared desire for each of them to help this person stefan who's so important to them damon wants to help his brother elena wants to rescue stefan and in stefan's absence and then subsequent like awful tony bologna he had intention come on we got they got an agenda oh he wanted to get in her wouldn't pants the lovely elena and her pure soul chase yeah um you know it's it's all part of it's all part of growing up it's all part of the journey of growing up and what we'll see before the end of the season is elena having to ask herself a lot of questions about who who do i care for what do both of these men mean okay and i think she needs to go abroad and go to europe and meet some new boys yes yes she's right by the way she's right i have a very in italy i'm sure there's a lot more salvatores acceptance except it's salvatore yeah they won't bite her or kill her and all of her loved ones that razors are real that raises a really good europe episode gossip girl did it gossip girl go to europe yeah maybe like the french version of salvatore is like it's like salvatore you know what i mean really no i mean we raised what gospel girl did it raises they went to france we should go to england france so julia totally different totally different so so is there any chance you would end up with someone other than a salvatore brother hopefully for her [Applause] you're not saying i'm just saying there's a reason there's a reason that we've set the seating order is the way it is tonight is very carefully designed damon ends up with julie evolution okay wait a minute i like where this is going um i i honestly i think if i even tried to answer that question i would be just it would be a really dumb answer so i'm just gonna let it be and say this season maybe she has a choice to make okay i would really like to know with that will everyone survive this season but then would anyone watch if she made the choice no one would watch nixon no one watches now [Applause] make it up to them take your shirt off i thought i thought you meant pants i got confused [Laughter] [Laughter] again is everyone going to survive this season i uh i don't know oh okay okay oh whoa i didn't expect you to prepped answer that okay um let's go down the line with the question what's been your favorite plot twist this season my my favorite plot choice this season or the most shocking one one of the most shocking ones because julie does about eight per episode yes right yeah um i really really loved it when um tyler turned into a hybrid and vampire i thought that was a really great look painful yeah it was really well done matt matt um i think mine is about to come the big the big one that i'm afraid a big fan of is is yet to come so we'll wait and see wow all right that's helpful nina yeah me too actually no i don't um it is really hard to say what the favor i mean every episode there's so many and [Laughter] um i just did that you just you just ripped on my line yeah you sounded like a cat meowing thanks okay um oh when elena stabbed in the rebecca yeah and then when she keeps coming back and and because you never saw that coming because elena is so nice all the time she's gonna hurt anybody and then she goes and stab someone back that's awesome in uh well i think we need to come back to me it's a lot yeah i mean we just by the way i'm not even joking we just got episode 21 of season three which is effectively episode 65. [Music] [Applause] and as much as i would love to come up with some really cool fun like huh moment i really can't so i will beg it you know i will think until we come back i liked that klaus and stefan were friends once that was cool i love that just that question of like why have you taken such an interest in me well it's because at one point i looked at you like a brother and i i just thought that was great i love that biasly enough i feel the same way i thought that was i thought that was brilliant played unbelievably by stefan the actress yeah that was great that was the that was the speakeasy era was great um we should do a flashback with uh in the 70s with damon and steph you know what by the way that's what i always said why not this long hair long hair like front stage or backstage at a rolling stone concert why not in the bahamas what if you yeah in the bahamas what if you're the one who killed jim morrison in the bathtub oh tune in you know how forrest gump was in every like major yeah like stefan and damon in like every major historical event you should be like elena will be like flipping through photos of like historical events and er and you see like damon in the background stefan's like same haircut brooding oh my gosh that's pretty funny there is a tumbler out there of catherine you know like that somebody tweeted at us like the stuff in every scene that stefan's in catherine's just kind of like yeah it's awesome what about you oh caroline oh man um i i really loved the reveal of all of the originals together i love um i love watching klaus start to sweat because he is he's starting to you know it's he's starting to be affected at this point um i mean um i'm saying ian and nina um damon and elena like macking it whoa [Applause] omg omg and uh yeah it's just been a roller coaster of a season i've loved um you know meeting caroline's father and watching someone go through the transition and choose not to fully transition and um that was sad that was that was not a high note but there's been a lot of great moments i think it's been a heck of a season and there is so much more to come way to make everybody wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait and make everyone smile what he said way to make a wait what did i say yeah like i said i don't know if it was like my dad dying was like that's really gross thank you yeah those are thank you great pants thank you hands great giving back to me yeah this is the this is for the 70s yes way to make it happen awesome have you guys ever made any suggestions to the writers that have made it into the scripts no we end up dead [Laughter] no i no julia welcomes opinions yeah they never end up on the page no that's not true that's not true wait i i i i don't know if it was it was inevitable or what but i was in season two remember i was like he sat you and kevin down i was like can we please make stefan dark and then you were like yeah but that was and i was like oh my god that's totally what we're doing you're right wow paul how cool were that in sync that's the thing i think that the way these guys tune into their characters they get they get a sense as actors and in the rhythm when the characters behaviors are starting to feel stale or or or not uh not surprising and we like to as writers pride ourselves on always kind of being right there so that we're making changes and making decisions for the characters just as the actor themself is starting to feel a little bit like constrained or as the fan base is starting to feel a little bit tired by it i always notice you know we're always like five or six or seven episodes ahead and i can always track in the social media feedback just when somebody's starting to complain really loudly about a storyline i'm always like because i know that we've already we've already made the turn and we're already going in the direction that the fans are clamoring for um they don't know that but that we that's we like to feel in sync with everybody like that do the fans ever influence the direction uh you know i'll tell you it's hard it's hard to shut out that and and not take some of that into consideration because it's it's loud you know and i mean that respectfully and beautifully it's beautifully loud yeah but you know it's like you also have seriously you have to try to be true to character all the time and uh and there's obviously been you know certain moments where we sit in the writers room and we say oh we can't do that because boy will that piss somebody off and and then but then we talk about it we say no no let's not make decisions based on based on satisfying everyone satisfying everyone let's be true to our the core of our theme the core of our characters and the journey that they're all on you have to be controversial to certain groups in order to yeah i mean with the you know whatever you have to piss people off to make it good it's true you know when we all get like you'll get you'll get criticism every now and then and and someone will say the fact that somebody is so angry about what it is that that you guys are doing means they care that much to be angry and that is its own badge of honor that is pretty phenomenal and um i think one of the reasons why the show has had the success it's had is because the fan community is that invested so it's pretty it's amazing [Applause] that's all we get for you like being awesome so i have one more question then i'm going to open it up to the audience for q and a's i just want to remind everybody to wait for the mics please um but so get your questions ready um so are we going to find out more about the death of elena's parents whoa hello now you know what it's like are we going to find out more about the death of elena's parents um we are do we don't know we're we're talking about we're talking about having um a flashback as we get to the end of the season that shows us elena's life uh as before she had vampires in it and that would involve her parents obviously um so uh but it's not written yet so we'll see all right we're looking forward to that i think it'd be nice to see okay all right um so raise your hand all right just a reminder to everybody in the live stream universe that you know when you as you guys ask questions that there are things that you've seen circle of trust [Laughter] really big circle of trust um wait for the mic and stand up and please ask a question hello um i was wondering um will we ever see bonnie with someone who's decent that isn't going to die at all um yeah you will you will i love so many fans you guys are everything so thank you for being so invested in her and her love life and shipping her with everyone even if they don't make sense then they don't care shipper so yes yes you will they meet on match.com it's not a business [Laughter] whichmatch.com which which match which bad i actually like that next question um i was just wondering do you like playing katherine or elena more and what one do you find more challenging i i mean i think it's very similar to what paul was saying about stefan being dark and good and it just it depends on kind of the day and and if you do one more than the other you kind of you're itching to do the other one so um there's always challenges every day when we're on set whether it's because an emotional scene or a comedy sometimes or whatever the character's going through it that there's always going to be challenges but um i think the challenge is keeping it fresh and and keeping it um like to to make sure that you're that it's as exciting and that you are just as excited about it and like like making catherine fun and different than elena and vice versa like making elena lovable but not more so than catherine like for me that's a challenge to make them both lovable and hateable and killable and just like like making them into all these exciting different layered people that all the ables yeah yeah basically like making them exciting and different go ahead my question's for julie uh i've said it many times that this is one of the best written shows on tv it moves so fast you can never see what's coming uh can you tell us a little bit about the process you guys go about breaking an episode and and the season uh yes yes it's horrible first of all let's not get her head bigger than it already is yeah first of all i'm a horrible egomaniac and that just ruined me forever now um and let me give a shout out kevin swore he was watching on the live stream from atlanta where he is right now and i think most of the writing staff is actually here in the audience and uh they can attest to the horribleness well done of the process they are there they are where hi brian which is essentially we start every episode with a blank white board and no formula and no procedural elements and no franchise elements and essentially every episode is its own new movie and we do it um we do 22 over the span of seven months and we immerse ourselves completely uh into trying to decide what's the next move emotionally for all these characters we usually start there we start with what's the best emotional move and then what's the next move in our mythology and then how can we thematically link those things together so that they organically feed off of each other and then we come up with our fabulous mystic falls very special event with a capital e um which you know i'll tell you is is kind of a joke but also it is from a storytelling point of view is crucial to our show because more often than not it is the the central uh element that brings all of our characters together and can link all the stories together so that the episode feels like a movie with the beginning middle and an end so while we share the joke and we share the laugh about you know oh this week is the ball at the whatever and next week is the great chili cook-off shrimp fest you know um it it actually gives it it makes the show feel like you you're tuning into a movie each week as opposed to just an endless serialized mass of of nothing so that's the process thank you for that first of all ian paul you guys are gorgeous well done [Laughter] thank you [Applause] thank you uh thanks mom dad oh yeah really thank you um [Laughter] i've worked years perfecting this you've done a great job so my question is to julie do you think that the two brothers are ever gonna like be friends and not hate each other oh god i hope so uh you know if if i've if i've said out loud and you know kill me for it that that the brothers relationship is the is the epic love story of this series then for them to never actually um have that be uh requited would be it would be really sad so i'm i'm hoping that as a brother level season 14 yeah damon stefan go to dinner i mean i think stefan has a little too much wine the casting couch comes after and then they cuddle i'm starting to understand what the casting couch is but i also think that you know this episode is a perfect example of of something i was talking to the boys about recently which is you know damon damon's struggling with the villain inside but he's being a good boy and they're a bad boy and stefan's being a good boy or a bad boy and they're they're alternating villainry but right now where we are in the series in spite of the love triangle of it all the brothers are trying to be heroes to each other and that is where we are and um and i hope that we can keep them that way for a little while you know what's interesting not to sorry nobody asked me anything [Laughter] let me just tell us what's interesting no i was just thinking that it's kind of interesting that i think that there's a camaraderie in the fact that they're both in love with the same girl yes because they know what each other's going through you know it's like you know i mean i think i think the worst cliche is letting letting a girl tear two people apart i think the smarter path is watching how in spite of the conflict of that girl how can it still bring two people together and um and that's where we are right now with them i think she's setting you guys up i don't know when that's going to happen but so oh sorry i'm going to embarrass my best friend right here it's her birthday happy birthday happy birthday sorry you're wasting your birthday with us she's very happy um i guess if i could take a moment to separate ourselves from the television show because we are fans and we love the show i think there's a very unique thing kind of happening in your own lives being having the ability to be a part of this show and i was i mean guys there's so many people here i i guess i'm just kind of curious when you take yourself back through all the auditions through all the moms and dads driving you to all of that commitment and you finally are on a pedestal you're kind of on this element where you are going to have some unique opportunities happen because of the success of the show i'm just curious if you wouldn't mind talking a little bit maybe about some of that experience some of the no's that you had some of the yeses that you had and maybe you can connect with some of the audience today who might be aspiring actors or or maybe julie you wouldn't mind addressing for those of us who don't necessarily want to be faces of television but who are interested in being the creative aspect of a tv show what can you tell us being in the city of angels in the city of los angeles trying so hard to do what what you all have been able to accomplish how could you answer that question that was such a good question yeah well that was a great question thank you first you must be a writer this is not a pedestal this is a really uncomfortable small director's chair [Laughter] i think this question was designed for you i think it was designed for all y'all but i'll answer it first just because you just follow y'all even oh y'all you've been in atlanta too long girl um yeah i think that uh you know actually as zach rorig said this the other day so i'm actually talking about the actor's experience more than the writers sorry but he said you know like the greatest thing about all this is that in 20 30 40 years when people talk about television talk about this era they'll talk about twilight they'll talk about true blood they'll talk about the vampire era the the explosion of the vampire zeitgeist and they will always talk about this show as being part of that and being a successful part of that and and he said and i will always be that guy that got to be a part of that and and and it was so sweet zach when he said it and i just you know his little blue eyes um but i think that you know i think that speaking for everybody the opportunity to do this is such a dream come true obviously um it can happen after like a long long hard road or it can happen in an instant and everybody's experience is different it's like the proverbial discovered at the mall versus you're 45 you've been at it for 25 years and somebody finally says hey i like what you do um but you never take it for granted because it doesn't really happen very often success doesn't happen very often and multiple success doesn't happen very often so we just are very incredibly grateful to be part of that so yeah a lot of it's i mean i would think the pilot world in general is a lot of it is a fluke i think you know even if something's good if it doesn't you know test well or something it doesn't go and then it doesn't find an audience and this that it's such a for talking about television i feel like it's such an arbitrary kind of thing and i feel like you just sort of have to sit at a blackjack table and hit 21 eventually or something i don't know you know there's a very interesting thing um and it's an old adage but the idea that luck is when opportunity meets preparation yeah nice luck does not just fall in your lap right and up an opportunity can come at you and if you were not prepared for to take advantage of that opportunity it's essentially never going to happen right so by virtue of that it's a very strange thing because this aspect of whether it's writing directing producing acting this entire business life in general is a lot about when you are prepared to accept the opportunity that's given to you conversely can you be prepared and never have any luck you know there are a lot of people that that is you made that but that is where positivity comes in yeah exactly very big part like how i went immediately my dad always told me um no doesn't mean never it means not yet and so with all the no's that came a lot of the time um it's good to see you know just to keep working and better yourself and more opportunities the more opportunities for yes and just to see the light and know that it always works the single most important thing is to believe in yourself yes i really believe it's a single even when no one else does because the amount of rejection yeah uh that happens actually you want to hear about rejection the first time uh yes julie rejected me once it was awful but we made amends no um and julie was there for this and it was really brutal her and kevin as well you know the process of booking a television show is an extensively nerve-wracking nail-biting awful experience do not kid yourself you can believe in yourself so much when you realize you want something in life it becomes the stakes are raised it becomes very difficult to differentiate between whether you are worthy of this or you aren't you just have to do what you do as best as you can namely so i knew this was my role i wanted this role i knew i could do it you go through a series of testing you know you meet the directors and producers and the writers and then they go through a testing phase and then you get an offer and then you go test for the studio which would have been warner brothers and then you test for the network and at the end of that network test if they want you then you get the job you can pass the studio or you cannot pass the studio you'll never make it to the network i passed the studio got to the network and whether it was too much coffee or that b12 shot that i gave myself whatever it was i choked in the network test and i bombed it and the first take of the network test first of all you're in a theater where you say a word and it doesn't move it's this like vacuum of a room and i finished the first take of it and i walked out no kevin williamson goes like walk outside so i walked outside and kevin williamson walks out and goes yeah that wasn't good wasn't it [Laughter] that was but kevin wanted this to happen and he said that was not good was it and i said no it wasn't and he said just go back and do what you did at the studio go back and do what you know you need to do and i did and it necessarily and i'll make this really quick and it necessarily i did what i thought i needed to do i left feeling awful and guess what it wasn't good enough and i had to go back and retest because the head of you know our all our big boss les moonves did not buy it the fact that i was damon and i wanted to jump off of a building and you know what i went back there and i realized and there was some other guy in the room i don't remember what he was doing something distracting he was like singing while reading a book trying to be really cool and i said you know what screw this this no this is mine this is not his and i went in and did it and oddly enough ended up getting the call but it was not after 10 days of virtual hell and you don't always win but every time you lose you get better and that is brutal i would add to your question um the where do you find yourself when you're on the third season of a really popular wonderful show where do you go what do you do what was the experience like and and for me it's been interesting growing with everyone here you know we've come together we found ourselves in an extremely rare and precious circumstance and you're living your life and you're living a character's life and you're you're in a creative collaboration and it's and it's and it's an up and down experience but it really forges you together and it bonds you and we've had all these amazing life experiences together and i think the joy for me is imagining where everyone's going to go after the show what everyone's going to do next because i think everyone is so tremendous and so talented and and it's been such a joy working with everyone and it is a wonderful opportunity that we all have and i hope that we do the best that we can to to make the most out of it hopefully that won't be for a while yeah exactly right exactly in a few more years yeah if we can pull it off you're in the first row so thank you all for being you we love you thank you cat sings like an angel and we know this already have you heard some of her songs and we know that many scenes of the show take place in the local bar are we going to have a drunken karaoke night at some point in time in the future and get to hear the rest of you i love a drunken karaoke night it's a heart you know i mean i would say that once more with feeling that the buffy musical episode favorite favorite thing in the world um i you know i don't know that our show could sustain that kind of um tone shift to be able to do a musical episode as much as my fantasies i would love to but the but to to be able to you know showcase the gifts and the talents of people like candace and the girls the girls are all singers everybody girls freaking david anders was on set with his bongos and singing from miss saigon all the time too everybody's got a pretty special gift so maybe good maybe oh my gosh can you imagine that all right we've got time for one last question go ahead um sorry i'm nervous i'm sorry you're good me too hey we're in the same boat you're verified you're all wonderful by the way um growing up as a little 15 year old i read these wonderful books that the show you know the their name for obviously the show is very different and it's awesome loved it love it love it um in the books things happen you mostly forgive me if you've already had this question but i just i'm curious for my own sake elena turns into a vampire in the books and i know that's probably not going to happen on the show i'm just curious if you've like explored that if that's a possibility or if you're like hell no yeah i love it i think you said when we when we got when we kevin and i got the job basically to do this show we said by the way do you guys know that the like heroine turns into a vampire at the end of like book one and then and then by the end of book two she's dead and then i think she's an angel like right we were like so is it cool if we take a little license with that and and they said yes and and they allowed us to take those licenses so i the answer is we'll see i mean it's there's a wealth of of stories that have been given to us from those books there's things that we've decided to do and things that we've said maybe not for us and um so i would say i don't know thank you thank you thank you well thank you thanks for your courage

Channel: The Paley Center for Media

Views: 1,258,408

Rating: 4.9667873 out of 5

Keywords: PaleyFest LA 2012, Paley Center, The Paley Center for Media, The CW, Debra Birnbaum, Julie Plec, Candice Accola, Caroline Forbes, Paul Wesley, Stefan Salvatore, Ian Somerhalder, Damon Salvatore, Nina Dobrev, Elena Gilbert, Katherine Pierce, Matt Davis, Alaric Saltzman, Kat Graham, Bonnie Bennett, Torrey DeVitto, Meredith Fell, Kevin Williamson, Vampires, Supernatural, Horror, Brothers, Romance, Drama

Id: 3-uGvqZO8b8

Length: 61min 36sec (3696 seconds)

Published: Tue May 05 2020