Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder are the two biggest stars to emerge from The Vampire Diaries [poor Paul Wesley], and a large part of that has to do with their on-screen and off-screen romance. Their characters on the show, Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore, have been in a star-crossed romance for the better part of the show, and that has led to the fans passionately nicknaming the couple ‘Delena’. And of course, when Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder started dating in real life, they just added fuel to the fire.
Things have changed significantly since the earlier seasons of the show, where Ian was definitely the better known star among them. Having done Lost, he already had some experience with crazy fandoms, and it was fairly easy for him to launch a budding movie career. However, his movie The Anomaly flopped pretty badly, and any legitimate shot at becoming a movie star died with that. His fate is more or less resigned to television after this, and if he’s lucky, he’ll land another network TV deal right after The Vampire Diaries ends. Hey, it’s steady employment, right? Nothing to cough at.
Nina, on the other hand, has an actual shot at launching a proper film career, especially since she’s young, gorgeous, and let’s face – a better actor than the material she’s given. She’s managed to make a CW show watchable purely on the basis of her on-screen presence and charm, and that’s a tall order for someone as young as she is. She already has a few supporting film roles under her belt [much more than Ian], and she has agents at CAA – in other words, she’s primed to quit TV and get serious about films once The Vampire Diaries wraps up. Granted, TV nowadays is sometimes richer than film – especially for actors and writers – but unless she’s landing an HBO TV show, I can’t see Nina staying in television.
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