Hollywood actress Nina Dobrev has revealed that she struggled with pay disparity on the sets of her hit show The Vampire Diaries.
According to Variety, Dobrev earned less than her male co-stars, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, despite playing multiple roles, including both Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce. She reportedly fought for equal pay over the course of several seasons.
The revelations appear in Samantha Highfill’s book I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries. Dobrev said, “Candice [King], Kat [Graham], and I were the three lowest-paid series regulars in the first two seasons.”
She explained the challenges of portraying multiple characters, stating, “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, I had to memorize 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.”
While she received a raise in Season 3, it still did not match the salaries of her male co-leads. Dobrev claims the studio agreed to pay her for portraying Katherine but later instructed creators Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson to stop using the character.
“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 eighteen-hour days sometimes, and nights, and I was putting my absolute heart and soul, blood, sweat, and tears into it,” Dobrev said.
Reflecting on the experience, she added, “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.”
