Here's Why Paul Wesley Had to Shave His Chest For The Vampire Diaries
Stefan Salvatore was a decade younger than the actor playing him when The Vampire Diaries started filming.
It is the main problem with any teenage drama. The cast gets older at a far greater speed than the characters. Especially if the show is long-running. Especially if it is a show about vampires, who aren't supposed to age. From that point of view, The Vampire Diaries seems to have hit the jackpot.
With the main characters being high school students, every cast member was older than their character at the time of casting. Nina Dobrev was 20 when she landed the role of 17-year-old Elena Gilbert. Ian Somerhalder was 30 when he started playing forever-25-year-old Damon Salvatore. And Damon's younger brother Stefan, who was converted into a vampire at the age of 17, was portrayed by 27-year-old Paul Wesley.
This age gap came at a price for the actors, especially male ones. Naturally, the makeup team aimed for youthful looks, and it meant not only sporting youthful hairstyles but also removing every single hair on the face and chest.
When asked by People how he got ready for his on-screen appearance, Paul Wesley explained:
"Clearly a lot of working out. A lot of tanning. A lot of shaving of my chest… Well, I was playing a 17-year-old, so I kind of didn't have a choice in the matter."
It seems that getting rid of the excess hair has become a challenging task for the actor, given his natural predisposition to excessive hair growth.
"All the men in my family have hairy chests," the actor shared in a short San Diego Comic-Con interview. "I'd like to keep that."
From his choice of words and the way he proudly shows off his chest hair in the hilarious video, it becomes clear that for Wesley, the best part of shooting The Vampire Diaries was probably the hiatus between filming when he could happily put aside any rejuvenating procedures and grow his chest and facial hair back.
In 2017, the then-34-year-old actor was most likely relieved to learn that after 171 episodes and eight seasons, the supernatural show was coming to an end, and he would no longer need to hide his natural hair. And the actor's fans know that no one flaunts facial stubble and chest hair better than Paul Wesley.