Ian Somerhalder Confessed His Worst On-Screen Kiss Was With This ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Co-Star

Ian Somerhalder portrayed the immortal heartthrob Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries for eight seasons. Damon became notorious for drinking blood, picking fights, and dropping sharp one-liners. But he also built a sexy reputation with his racy escapades and steamy hookups. Now that The Vampire Diaries is over, Somerhalder revealed which on-screen smooch was the worst of his career.

Ian Somerhalder dished details about ‘The Vampire Diaries’ on Elle’s ‘Thirst Trap’

Although The Vampire Diaries took its final bow in 2017, fans are still pretty invested in the cast and characters. With that in mind, Elle’s Thirst Trap series welcomed Somerhalder as a guest on a 2019 episode.

Thirst Trap is the YouTube series that puts celebrities in the hot seat to answer probing questions. The celebs can either respond truthfully or take a punitive shot of a mystery cocktail, which could either be delicious or disgusting.

During his spotlight on the show, Somerhalder fielded questions about personal and professional topics, including a few touchy subjects about The Vampire Diaries.

The star admitted that his worst on-screen smooch was with a fan-favorite co-star

Somerhalder plowed through a stack of Thirst Trap designer-style notecards until he reached the question about on-camera love scenes. He read the question aloud, saying, “Who was your worst on-screen kiss?” With no hesitation, Somerhalder launched into a story, painting a vivid picture of some very unpleasant lip action with the fan-favorite star, Chris Wood, who played Gemini coven baddie, Kai Parker.

“When we were shooting a spoof reel for a Comic-Con panel, me and Chris Wood had to kiss in this rain because we were mimicking the Damon-Elena kiss. And we had the scene where you see Damon and Elena, and they’re looking longingly into each other’s eyes, and then they go in, and they start to kiss. And then we cut, and we pulled back out, and it’s Chris Wood and Damon, which is Kai and Damon. I think kissing Kai is probably the worst part of my career.”

Somerhalder explained how to prep for an intimate scene

After talking about his worst kiss, Somerhalder explained to viewers how to be a good kissing scene partner.

“You wanna wait to have that, you know, steamed broccoli and salmon later. You know, we had to do these scenes where we were so close, you know,” said Somerhalder before launching into a faux reenactment of a Damon-esque dialog.

Using his hands to illustrate an up-close and personal dramatic scene, Somerhalder performed, “‘Damon, you have to stop killing people.’ ‘I don’t want to stop killing people.’ ‘I love you.’ ‘I hate you.’”

Holding his hands very close together to illustrate two people who are face-to-face, inches away from one another, the actor explained, “And we were literally like this. When you’re next to someone like this for hours [in] a day, and they’re eating salmon and broccoli and onions, garlic mixed with coffee and protein powder, it becomes pretty gnarly.”

Somerhalder threw caution to the wind and sampled the mystery cocktail

After spilling the beans about the kiss with Wood, Somerhalder was technically off the hook with no obligation to drink the punitive cocktail associated with the question. But the star’s curiosity won out.

While holding the drink, Somerhalder asked rhetorically, “What would this have been?” After sniffing the aroma, he said, “Oh, hold on,” then took a sip, paused, and smoldered for the camera.

“That’s Jagermeister, y’all,” the drink connoisseur revealed. “When we cut, I think I’m gonna finish that one.”

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