Nina Dobrev has revealed her struggle for equal pay on The Vampire Diaries.
Nina Dobrev had a real struggle for equal pay on The Vampire Diaries
The 36-year-old actress – who starred alongside Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder in the first six seasons of the supernatural teen drama – has recalled the arguments she faced as she was being paid less than her male castmates, despite playing but Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce on the show.
In Samantha Highfill’s new book I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diarie, Nina said: “Candice [King], Kat [Graham], and I were the three lowest-paid series regulars in the first two seasons.
“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.”
She alleged despite having a more demanding schedule thanks to playing doppelgänger versions of Elena, she wasn’t compensation fairly in comparison to her co-stars.
She added: “I had to be on set for double the amount of time, I had to 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.”
After pleading her case, she has alleged the studio actually asked wrtiers to stop writing for Katherine to avoid having to pay more.
She recalled: “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 later returned for the eighth and final season, but the offer was “five times less” than what she was paid in season six.
She said: “I needed to be paid parity to the boys. I had to put my foot down and say if it didn’t happen I wouldn’t be able to come back.
“And it wasn’t about the money — I didn’t give a s*** about the money at all — it was the principle.”
Nina argued she was concerned less by the “actual dollar amount”, and more by getting equal pay, and when that happened, she “politely declined the offer”.
Co-creator and showrunner Julie Plec backed her, with the studio agreeing to bring her back at her asking rate, but for just one episode instead of the entire run.
While she “wanted to be part of the goodbye”, Nina added: “It was heartbreaking that the artistry had to suffer because of this.”