Despite being the lead in “The Vampire’s Diary,” Nina Dobrev didn’t make as much money as her co-stars Ian Summerhalder and Paul Wesley. In “I Was Feeling Epic: Oral History of Vampire Diary,” Samantha Highfil’s book was released on Tuesday, with Dobrev fighting the seasons with equal pay.
“Candace (King), Kat (Graham) and I was a regular in three low-wage series in the first two seasons,” says Dobrev, who portrayed Catherine Pierces in addition to Elena Gilbert. “It was a bit difficult because I said my contract was just going to play Elena, but I was playing multiple characters so I doubled my workload. I had to set the time twice as many times.
In season 3, she got a pay raise when the cast negotiations began, but that was by no means equal to what her male co-leads were making. The studio agreed to pay her when she painted Katherine. And it is said that they told creators Julie Pleck and Kevin Williamson not to use Catherine.
“They said from principle they wouldn’t hit me like a boy, so it was probably the most hurting I put in my absolute heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears because I was really working so hard and sometimes I shot the night for 18 hours,” Dobreb recalls. “I remember feeling like the studio wasn’t grateful for what I was bringing to the show. They felt like they were saying that all the effort I put in it wasn’t important to them and that I was upset with me because I wasn’t equal to my male counterpart.”
Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley
©CW Network/Courtesy Everett Collection
Ultimately, the studio was “given a certain number of episodes” with Katherine, Plec said, and he had to kill the characters in the end.
Dobrev left at the end of season six, but managed to return to his eighth and final season. Another pay gap has made it impossible for the creators to make her happen, despite the fact that they want her in multiple episodes.
“I was always open to coming back for the finale. It made sense in the storyline sense. It felt important and had to happen for the show. It had to happen for the fans,” Dobrev says. “At the end of the show, as a woman, I wanted to make sure I was compensated and on par with the men on the show, but that turned out to be.”
The network was not upset as Wesley and Somerhalder had received multiple pay raises since the exit. Initially, Dobrev claims that the “opening offer” for the finale is “5 times less than what he made when he left in season 6.”
She continues, “That’s the only reason I barely got back. I had to be paid equally to the boys. I had to put my legs down and say that if that didn’t happen, I couldn’t come back. And it wasn’t about money. I politely declined the offer.
After Plec stepped in and worked on the transaction for a few weeks, CW and Studio are said to have agreed to a salary, but only in one episode.
“The reason we couldn’t make her more than one episode is because they just don’t pay,” Plec says in the book. “It took a lot of work before they were eventually tolerant, but it’s back that it was one episode when they said yes.”
