Ian Somerhalder is opening up about his decision to step away from Hollywood and why he blames Netflix for his choice to stop acting.
The 47-year-old actor is best known for his roles on TV shows like Lost and The Vampire Diaries. He hasn’t been seen on screen since his 2019 series V-Wars aired on Netflix and was canceled after one season.
While being interviews on the Haley on the Go podcast, Ian explained how Netflix’s cancellation of V-Wars led to his decision to walk away from acting.
“I wanted to do V Wars because it was me, not as a vampire, it was me as a scientist. [We] shot the show, 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,” Ian said.
Ian didn’t even want the show to be released because he thought it was so bad.
“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. And they were like, ‘What? What are you talking about?’” Ian said.
Ian then told the studio that he and his producing partner “need creative control of the show and Netflix said, ‘Sure. We’re not giving you a dollar more.’”
Ian raised more than $6 million in funds and did reshoots for six days, getting 10 to 12 hours of footage to fix the show. He says he ended up in the hospital from being overworked.
Despite the show doing well for Netflix, the streamer decided to cancel it.
“The execs were fighting, and someone quietly canceled the show. And 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,’” Ian revealed. “I looked at myself in the mirror, and I said to my wife, 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, [to cancel it]. 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.”
Ian concluded, “So I pulled the plug. That was it. I walked away. These executives are bitching at each other, and I’m like, are you kidding me? Done. I’m out.”
Ian recently revealed how he ended up in eight-figure debt.
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