As it turns out, Nina Dobrev is an even better actress than we thought.
Why do we now say this, more than two years after The Vampire Diaries concluded?
Because we just learned that Dobrev and co-star Paul Wesley actually hated each other at the outset of that drama’s run, despite the sizzling chemistry they exhibited on screen.
We got this information from a very reliable source, too:
Dobrev herself!
“Paul and I didn’t get along at the beginning of the show. I respected Paul Wesley, I didn’t like Paul Wesley,” the actress says on the latest episode of Candice King and Kayla Ewell’s “Directionally Challenged” podcast.
Dobrev, of course, portrayed Elena Gilbert on this beloved CW series, leaving the show after Season 6 and then returning two years later for the finale.
Wesley played Stefan Salvatore, Elena’s love interest for the first couple seasons and then the brother of her even more serious love interest, Damon.
The two shared a countless number of scenes together.
“I remember everyone would walk up to me after the show aired and they’d be like, ‘Are you and Paul dating in real life?’ Everyone thought that we had such good chemistry," Dobrev continued.
She then offered an explanation for why it may have seemed this way:
"I realize now that there’s a fine line between love and hate and we despised each other so much that it read as love but …
"We really just didn’t get along the first five months of shooting."
It wasn’t a secret, either. There was apparently an open, mutual disdain between Dobrev and Wesley.
“Most of the time, love interests in film and TV don’t get along and that reads as really intense chemistry,” Dobrev added, prior to sharing an exchange she had with Wesley while filming the pilot:
"Maybe we had a moment where we actually connected, and he looked at me and he was like, ‘Ten years from now, when we’re not on this show, you’re gonna really miss me. You’re gonna miss these times; you’re look back, and this is gonna be the good old days."
And Dobrev now says Wesley was "so f-cking right."
In fact, the hatred didn’t last too long beyond the shooting of that first season.
"We ended up getting to a good place and it was fine. Of everyone, I think I probably see him the most and hang out with him the most," she says now.
"We’re probably the closest. We hang out a lot. We’re really good friends. I love his wife. It’s so funny how time changes everything because I never thought he would be one of my best friends."
Dobrev did actually date Ian Somerhalder from 2011 through 2013, during the height of the show’s success.
The stars split many years ago, but remain very close.
"When you work with anyone or spending a lot of time with anyone, little things are going to annoy you about them. It’s like a relationship. We were basically married,” she said on this podcast of the cast in genera.
“We were together every day, we were kissing and doing all this stuff but we didn’t have sex so yeah, just like a marriage."
Ouch, Nina. Harsh. There are some married people reading this, okay?!?
Sheesh.