Ian Somerhalder opens up about the toxic side of The Vampire Diaries fandom. (Image Credit: Pinterest)
Ian Somerhalder, who gained fame playing Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries, has talked about the toxic side of the show's fandom. Even as the show catapulted him to global fame and a loyal group of fans, he admits that sooner or later, the fan culture became too much for him to manage and even turned violent, making him decide on a hiatus from acting.
Somerhalder revealed how he used to be the "biggest Delena fan ever," referring to the romance between Damon and Elena on TV. At first, he liked that fans were so passionate about the characters' relationship. But as time went by, he noticed that enthusiasm turned into something darker.
He explained that fans began crossing boundaries, recalling that the narrative was fictional. Instead of watching drama and romance on TV, others began beating up one another and even assaulting the actors. What ought to have been a celebration of narrative made a war zone of hatefulness.
Social media was the cause of this shift. The more online debates they had, the hotter they got. Fans developed communities surrounding favorite characters and couples, and sometimes those groups would turn on each other. Good-natured debates turned to bullying and personal wars.
The show's co-creator also embraced this transition, commenting that occasionally fans blurred the lines between the characters on television and the actors themselves. When there were crossovers of on-screen love with real-world relationships, it was becoming quite challenging for everyone involved to meet expectations and judgment.
For Somerhalder, though, this toxicity got too extreme. He admitted to being grossed out by the sight of fans fighting and being cruel to one another. The mean-spiritedness robbed the pleasure from building the show.
He disclosed that one of the reasons he quit television and went into other business and family ventures was because of this. He said that he loved the art of story-telling but could no longer handle the psychological burden of being in such a polluted environment.
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Part of the issue was with the off-camera relationship between Somerhalder and his co-star Nina Dobrev. Their relationship showed the fans' excitement but it only went to further the blurring of the line between reality and fiction. When they broke up, it was difficult for some fans to separate the actor from the character in their minds.
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