Ian Somerhalder on Why He Walked Away From Acting

Ian Somerhalder is reflecting on walking away from acting.

In an interview with People published Monday, The Vampire Diaries star explained why he stepped away from the screen to pursue various passion projects. The actor’s comments come amid The CW show’s 15th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of Lost, both of which he starred in.

“Aug. 19 makes five years since I was professionally on camera as an actor/producer,” Somerhalder said. “I stepped away from that after V Wars to build these companies, launch films like Kiss the Ground, Common Ground and Ground Swell and raise my kids. I remember sitting with my management talking about this, saying, ‘Hey, this is the only thing I’ve ever known that’s ever sustained my family, and I’m walking away from it,’ at this sort of peak, could have gone and done anything, but these partnerships mean way more to me.” 

“I say this in all humility, in all respect, but I would much rather do this than go spend two months in some city, shooting a TV show away from my family or transporting my family back and forth,” he added. Somerhalder is married to actress Nikki Reed. They welcomed their daughter in 2017 and son in 2023.

Somerhalder credits working on Fox’s Lost series for inspiring his passion for environmental conservation. 

“I got to work on a lot of reef conservation. I got to work on a lot of soil and water conservation even there,” he explained. “This is 2004. I was already doing this. My voice just wasn’t as big. Cut to 2005, [I] left Lost, which was humbling. And then very beginning of 2009 came Vampire Diaries. And that was a rocket ship. Initially, it was a very, very, very young audience, but that audience matured, and it got bigger and bigger.”

Amid streaming, Somerhalder explained that the CW show, which ran for eight seasons, has been seen by “almost like 1.2 billion people globally” and that has given fans an opportunity to be familiar with his work both on and offscreen.

He explained, “So if you just run those numbers, you sort of step back for a second and think about that. There’s 8 billion people on the planet, so it’s roughly about one-eighth of the people walking the face of the planet have somehow interfaced with this IP, the story. They’ve been affected by it, maybe they’ve seen it, heard about it. That’s an unparalleled platform. So, if you can chain link some knowledge and passion together for me, animals and soil health regeneration at a very large scale, that’s going to be quite substantial.”

He feels “enormous gratitude” for Lost and The Vampire Diaries given the “path has gotten me to where I feel most authentic anyway, which is in a pair of cowboy boots, feeding the cows and running horses.” 

“Once you reach a certain level, you’re like, ‘OK, I want to focus on family and the future of farming and food and energy and the big things.’ I don’t need to chase awards and anything that would make me feel better about myself,” he said.

One of Somerhalder’s projects is also teaming with his Vampire Diaries co-star Paul Wesley for Brother’s Bond Bourbon, launched in 2021. Their brand has become one of the fastest-growing whiskey brands in the country, according to Whisky Advocate.