It’s been seven years since Ian Somerhalder retired from acting and moved out of Hollywood to live on a sustainable farm in the countryside near Santa Barbara, California.
And the 47-year-old Vampire Diaries alum has revealed the final straw that made him leave the profession was the way he was treated while trying to salvage his ‘unwatchable’ Netflix sci-fi series, V Wars.
‘[I] moved my whole family to Northern Ontario. Worked really hard on this thing for almost a year, and the show that got turned in wasn’t even watchable,’ Somerhalder told Haley on the Go last week.
The Actor Award winner was excited about portraying Dr. Luther Swann, a scientist trying to stop a pandemic transforming people into vampires, in the 10-episode adaptation of the Jonathan Maberry comic books.
‘I said to the studio, I don’t want to put my name on this. I’ll give you the money back. I’ll give you millions of dollars,’ Somerhalder recalled.
‘And they were like, “What? What are you talking about?”‘
It’s been seven years since Ian Somerhalder retired from acting and moved out of Hollywood to live on a sustainable farm in the countryside near Santa Barbara, California (pictured Sunday)
The Louisiana-born businessman was granted ‘creative control of the show’ but had to raise his own $6 million budget to film six days of reshoots.
‘I ended up in the hospital [from exhaustion]. Literally, the full body just shut down,’ Somerhalder said.
Netflix still decided to ‘quietly cancel’ V Wars in March 2020 – ironically at the dawn of the real-life COVID-19 pandemic.
‘The powers that be at Netflix were like, “It’s unfortunate. Yes, it shouldn’t have happened. We can’t go back, because it would set a precedent that would be terrible, so the show is done,”” he said.
Somerhalder looked at himself in the mirror and then turned to his wife Nikki Reed, whose final acting role was the V Wars character Rachel Thompson.
‘I was like, man, I’m 40 years old. I don’t want to spend two years of my life doing something, working this hard, one year fully unpaid, for this executive who had issues in high school, so they want to exert power now,’ the Lost alum said.
‘I am not here for my career and livelihood to be dictated by someone who has mommy or daddy issues, or they weren’t popular in school. So I pulled the plug. That was it. I walked away.’
He continued: ‘These executives are bi***ing at each other, and I’m like, are you kidding me? Done. I’m out. That’s really the honest, kind of controversial way of why I walked away from the business.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Somerhalder’s publicist for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
And the 47-year-old Lost alum has revealed the final straw that made him leave the profession was the way he was treated while trying to salvage his ‘unwatchable’ Netflix sci-fi series, V Wars
‘[I] moved my whole family to Northern Ontario. Worked really hard on this thing for almost a year, and the show that got turned in wasn’t even watchable,’ Somerhalder told Haley on the Go last week
The Actor Award winner was excited about portraying Dr. Luther Swann, a scientist trying to stop a pandemic transforming people into vampires, in the 10-episode adaptation of the Jonathan Maberry comic books
Somerhalder was granted ‘creative control of the show’ but had to raise his own $6 million budget to film six days of reshoots, and he ended up in the hospital from exhaustion
Netflix still decided to ‘quietly cancel’ V Wars in March 2020 – ironically at the dawn of the real-life COVID-19 pandemic
The Louisiana-born businessman looked at himself in the mirror and then turned to his wife Nikki Reed (L), whose final acting role was the V Wars character Rachel Thompson
Somerhalder said: ‘I was like, man, I’m 40 years old. I don’t want to spend two years of my life doing something, working this hard, one year fully unpaid, for this executive who had issues in high school, so they want to exert power now…So I pulled the plug. That was it. I walked away’
After going ‘eight figures’ in debt working for a start-up, the licensed pilot co-founded Brother’s Bond Bourbon in 2021 with his Vampire Diaries ‘sibling’ Paul Wesley, and they successfully secured $7.5 million in funding last year (pictured Monday)
Somerhalder and Reed launched a pharmaceutical-grade powdered supplement brand called The Absorption Company in 2023 with business partners Zeke Bronfman and Nate Medow (pictured June 23)
The Vampire Diaries alum and the 38-year-old Twilight alum – who both played vampires – will celebrate the ninth birthday of their daughter Bodhi on July 25
After going ‘eight figures’ in debt working for a start-up, the licensed pilot co-founded Brother’s Bond Bourbon in 2021 with his Vampire Diaries ‘sibling’ Paul Wesley, and they successfully secured $7.5 million in funding last year.
Somerhalder and Reed launched a pharmaceutical-grade powdered supplement brand called The Absorption Company in 2023 with business partners Zeke Bronfman and Nate Medow.
The 38-year-old Twilight alum is still running the sustainable jewelry company Bayou With Love she founded in 2017.
Reed – who boasts 7.2 million social media followers – is also every bit the influencer with paid partnerships for brands like Signature Hardware, MagnaWave PEMF, Joi Women’s Wellness, Leica Camera, Prenuvo, Genexa and Cleobella.
Meanwhile, Somerhalder – who boasts 60.5 million social media followers – commands $549 per video on Cameo.
On July 25, the married couple of 11 years will celebrate the ninth birthday of their daughter Bodhi Soleil Reed Somerhalder, and they’re also proud parents of a three-year-old son whose name has not been made public.
Somerhalder and Reed – who both played vampires – originally began dating in 2014 just a few months after she filed for divorce from American Idol alum Paul McDonald.
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