`Felt like I wasn`t equal`: Nina Dobrev on pay disparity in The Vampire Diaries

Hollywood actor Nina Dobrev has revealed that she struggled with pay disparity on the sets of her superhit show The Vampire Diaries.

Dobrev never made as much money as her male co-stars, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley. She fought to get equal pay during the course of the filming of the show’s multiple seasons, as per reports.

The claims have been made in I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries, Samantha Highfill’s book.

(L-R) Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev, and Paul Wesley in ‘The Vampire Diaries’. Pics/AFP, Instagram

Dobrev, who was also portraying Katherine Pierce in addition to Elena Gilbert, said, “Candice [King], Kat [Graham], and I were the three lowest-paid series regulars in the first two seasons.”

She further mentioned, “It was a bit of a tricky situation because my contract only said to play Elena, but I was playing multiple characters, which doubled my workload. I had to be on set for double the amount of time and memorise double the amount of lines. I wanted to play Katherine, but I wanted to be compensated fairly for that, and I wanted to be an equal to the boys.”

As per reports, in the third season, when cast negotiations began, she got a raise, but it was never equal to what her male co-leads were making. The studio agreed to pay her when she portrayed Katherine, and then allegedly told creators Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson to no longer use Katherine.

“They just said out of principle they wouldn’t bump me up to being equal to the boys, and so that was probably the most hurtful because it felt like I was really working hard and we shot 18-hour days sometimes, and nights, and I was putting my absolute heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into it. I remember feeling like the studio didn’t appreciate what I was bringing to the show, and it felt like they were saying that all the hard work I was putting into it didn’t matter to them and that I wasn’t an equal to my male counterparts, and so that was upsetting to me,” she added.

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