‘The Vampire Diaries’: Paul Wesley Previews Very ‘Human, Emotional’ New Episode

Stefan Salvatore’s soul was trapped in the Phoenix stone
after Rayna caught up with him on “The Vampire Diaries” last week —
until the suicide drive by heretics Nora and Mary Louise.

The Phoenix stone sword was in the couple’s car (Rayna had
chucked it in there) as the pair chose death rather than their own stone
imprisonment. After they did a spell together, the stone cracked and the force
of the spell exploded the car, the witchpies and the stone. Where the vampire
souls that were previously stuck in the stone (including Stefan’s) have gone remains to be seen, but a trailer for this week’s
“TVD” hinted that Stefan’s body is going to be used by another host.

Paul Wesley offered some hints at what’s in store on Friday night’s “TVD” episode on The CW when Access
Hollywood spoke with him earlier this week. 

AccessHollywood.com: It looks like from the trailer that
whatever character you’re playing – which I’m going to get to later – is having
a lot of fun, especially [with] that rave scene. Was that fun to shoot?
Paul Wesley: I didn’t see the trailer… I know what you’re talking about,
but that was actually quite a short little scene. It’s more montage-y, but it
sort of alludes to the next episode. But, yeah, it was a lot of fun playing
this character. He’s a real sociopath and in a sort of more typical fashion,
the sense of like, I guess you would say Jack the Ripper. He’s not like some
magical wizard who does magic, he’s just sort of like literally one of those old school
killers. It’s pretty bad a**.

Access: [Your executive producer, Julie Plec, directed
the episode.] I’m curious what sort of things did you notice about her directing
this time around. What are her little things that she tries to insert into the
style of ‘The Vampire Diaries’?
Paul: She really knows what she wants and Julie co-wrote the script and it
was a really beautiful script. And I think that when a writer conceives
something, they don’t always know how to replicate the words and put them on
the screen, but I think Julie’s very visual and so she really knew what she
wanted and I gotta say, this episode I was – and not just because I’m heavy in
it, and not just ’cause I like watching myself, in fact I prefer not to — but
it’s one of my favorite episodes of the season. It’s really just quite a human
story. I know we’re talking about oh, he’s in another body, this, that – it’s
really not as complicated as it seems. It’s quite a human, grounded episode and
that’s what I like. It’s a concept episode and it’s a very simple, human,
emotional story that I think it will appeal to people in that regard and I like
that. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o2ONs1Js3g

Access: [In last week’s episode, Damon realized] he didn’t
want to take the Phoenix stone scar because he realized he’d be dying as Elena
woke up because of his connection with [an aging] Rayna. If Stefan knows that
or if he finds that out at some point, I’m curious if you think he is going be
OK with it? Maybe he’ll understand?
Paul: No… He thinks it’s selfish and he’s destroyed by it. Yeah, I think
that’s one of the main sort of themes of the episode. He feels Damon betrayed
him and I think he wants Damon to acknowledge that and Damon has a hard time
acknowledging that.

Access: I’m curious how he’s going to react… to finding
out Valerie knew she could switch the scar, and she was [keeping the
information to herself] to stay on the run with him and kind of have him fall
back in love with her? 
Paul: I don’t think he looks at it that way. I don’t know. I don’t think he
looks at Valerie as having done anything. I don’t think he sees it that way,
no.

Access: How do you think he sees it? He does have a soft
spot for her.
Paul: He does. I think he has a soft spot for her and he kind of fell in love
with her. You know, when you’re around somebody enough and you get to know them
and you just sort of all of a sudden fall in love with them, I think it was one
of those things, but I think his heart is maybe somewhere else deep, deep, deep down
inside.

Access: The character that you’re playing in the
someone-else-in-your-body [scenes] – his name is Ambrose, right?
Paul: Correct.

READ: ‘The Vampire Diaries’: Ian Somerhalder Talks Directing Approach

Access: Are you also playing Stefan somewhere out there
in the world in this episode?
Paul: Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Yeah. … Ian had the sort of — that Civil War
episode and this is sort of the Stefan concept episode where we get to really
get into his psyche and to really understand what he’s going through. It’s for
people who are interested in sort of understanding Stefan’s working and dealings
with his mind. It’s really good and it’s a grounded story, like I mentioned
before. It’s a very grounded sort of emotional story into Stefan’s mind. I
really enjoy it.

Access: [You’ve directed the show before, but] have you
ever been interested in getting involved in the writing of the show?
Paul: I love concepts. I’m not a guy who writes dialogue. I can, but my
brain isn’t quite wired for dialogue. I’m an ideas guy. I always pitch ideas
and I love to come up with concepts and I love to look at the things in a grand
scope, and I like to look at the emotion of it and the objective and the
motive. That’s what I’m interested in. I’m interested in breaking stories, but
actually sitting down and writing and sitting down and actually doing the
scenes and plotting it — it’s a really, very specific task. It’s a really
difficult thing and I don’t know if I necessarily am the guy to write an
episode of ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ but I would love to be a part of breaking
story on a more sort of producorial level.

Access: Lastly, I wanted to ask you about – it obviously
already happened – but about how much fun you
had on ‘The Originals.’ I’ve interviewed a [number of people from] that cast
and whenever I said, who would you like to see cross over?’ [most] said you.
Paul: I really love the people on the show there, obviously because a lot
of them started on ‘The Vampire Diaries.’… I’m really good friends with Daniel
Gillies, and Joseph [Morgan] I don’t see as much, but when we see each other,
it’s always really lovely and so it’s just kind of — it’s very nostalgic, I
think.

Access: Charles [Michael Davis] and Danielle [Campbell],
they love you too.
Paul: Oh my God, I love Charles, I love Danielle. Really, there’s not a
single bad egg, or so to speak. They’re all so cool and so nice and they all
work really hard and there’s a lot of humility and obviously it was great to
see Phoebe [Tonkin], and it was, just really — it was really nice.

“The Vampire Diaries,” directed by Executive
Producer Julie Plec, airs Friday at 8/7c on The CW.

— Jolie Lash