On Friday night, “The Vampire Diaries” will take its final bow.
Beginning at 8/7c, The CW is celebrating the departing drama, airing a retrospective featuring cast interviews, followed by the last-ever episode of “TVD” – “I Was Feeling Epic.”
Paul Wesley, who plays Stefan Salvatore, told reporters (at recent screening of last week’s “TVD”) where he was when he read the show’s series finale script.
“I read the script on the plane. It’s just a culmination of so many emotions. You’re like, ‘OK, this is the last script I’m ever going to read for this show,'” he said, adding he “got a bit teary-eyed.”
“I took a selfie with just like a little bit of red eyes, and I sent it to Julie [Plec] and Kevin [Williamson, the executive producers who co-wrote the script]. And I was like, ‘Good work, guys,'” he added.
Ian, who plays Damon Salvatore, also shared his first reaction to reading the finale.
“From a story standpoint, I was blown away. I thought, ‘Wow, they actually summed it all up into one 44-minute piece,'” he said.
While we don’t know which scenes were the castmembers’ last, the actors said there were a lot of emotions when they filmed their final moments for the show.
“I didn’t realize how affected I’d be,” Michael said. “I’m all business when I get to work. I care deeply about what I do, and I was just like — I wanted to just treat it like every other day, just smash it and finish and give Julie a hug. And so the last scene I’m doing, I think there’s another take, so I’m kind of pacing around, you know, doing my thing, and then I hear this voice which is Julie coming in the doorway saying, ‘Michael, It’s time.’
“But [Julie] gave a great eulogy for everybody … about our place in the show, and everything, and I remember being pretty deeply moved by that,” Michael said.
For Zach, who plays Matt Donovan, his final scene – whatever and whomever it involves – was one that tugged at his character’s heartstrings.
“I had kind of an emotional scene to end on, so I was trying to keep myself well-calibrated and make sure that my emotion was based in the scene and not because it was my last scene of the show,” he said.
“At the end, Julie like, knew. She’d seen my lip quivering and the snot bubbling, and she’s like ‘Zach, this is a free one. Just let it rip.’ And I … just really let it out. And same thing. She gave us all a really nice speech. It was very tender. It was very fitting to end with her, and then giving that speech — because not only was I there Julie and Pascal [Verschooris] and the people who have been there since the inception, but our A camera operator, our good friend who’s been there for a lot of parts of my life — to look around and see him there and just stuff like that, it was very [moving].”
Although the show is ending, there are still new fans that approach the actors who find the show on Netflix, giving it a sort of forever life even though its ending, Ian said.
“The four of us live in airports. We travel a lot and I see people all the time — teachers, young people, anyone comes up to me and says, ‘Oh my God, so I just started watching your show. It’s so good.’ … But I always think, ‘That’s so crazy, man. You’re like a 14-year-old kiddo, and that’s right, eight years ago, you were 6.’ … It’s never gonna die. We’re going to continue to be able to watch it and I think that’s a really interesting, new thing about this sort of modern digital world.”
“The Vampire Diaries: Forever Yours,” a retrospective, airs Friday at 8/7c on The CW, followed by the series finale of “TVD.”
— Jolie Lash