Ian Somerhalder

Ian Somerhalder has opened up about the ongoing evolution of his character on The Vampire Diaries.

Somerhalder, who plays the vampire Damon Salvatore on the CW series, spoke to the New York Post about how Damon has become a completely different character from how Somerhalder originally pictured him.

"I had called Kevin, freaking out because I wasn't ripping more people's heads off and dancing half-naked with sorority girls," said Somerhalder. "He told me, 'Damon is evolving'. There is a 100-episode arc to this guy's journey and he must evolve... or die."

Somerhalder went on to describe the appeal of the series: "It moves very quickly, which is fun because TV doesn't typically move that way all the time. So Damon went through a pretty quick process of coming to town with an agenda to finding out that his agenda was completely wrong to staying in town because he started to care for people.

"That raised the stakes for him in a big way. When you forge relationships, you run the risk of caring. That makes it hard to walk away. And Damon, unfortunately, found himself subconsciously wanting to nurture those relationships. Now, he really cares about someone he wouldn't have normally given a flying shit about, pardon my French."

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8pm on The CW.  In the UK on ITV2, ITV Player and OnDeman on BT Vision and around the world.