After six years starring in ‘The Vampire Diaries’, actress Nina Dobrev is stepping away, having confirmed the news via Instagram.
The actress has revealed that pay disparity with her male co-stars was the breaking point that led her to leave ‘The Vampire Diaries’ after six seasons.
Speaking in Samantha Highfill’s new book ‘I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries’, the 36-year-old Canadian actor admitted she never achieved salary parity with Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, despite being the show’s central character.
“Candice [King], Kat [Graham] and I were the three lowest-paid regulars in the beginning,” she said. Dobrev explained that while her contract only covered Elena Gilbert, she was also tasked with playing doppelgänger Katherine Pierce, doubling her workload with twice the lines, scenes and filming hours.
“I wanted to play Katherine, but I also wanted fair pay. I wanted to stand on equal ground with the boys,” she recalled. Even after negotiations, she says the network refused to close the gap.
“They told me, on principle, they wouldn’t bring me up to the boys’ level. That was the most hurtful part. I was giving everything, working 18-hour days and still wasn’t seen as equal.”
The pay issue grew so contentious that writers were allegedly barred from including Katherine in storylines, as her appearance meant Dobrev would have to be paid more.
Co-creator Julie Plec admitted, “It got really heated… and we were basically told not to write Katherine at all.”
When discussions began about Dobrev’s return for the series finale, the salary fight resurfaced. “I had to put my foot down. If I wasn’t paid the same as the boys, I couldn’t come back. It wasn’t about money, it was the principle,” Dobrev said.
