One glimpse at The Vampire Diaries’ badass Damon Salvatore might have given you and Terron R. Moore the impression that the man behind his madness is just as reckless as his brutal alter-ego. But you’d be wrong. Ology flew down to Atlanta and discovered the truth: Ian Somerhalder is trying to save the world.
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OLOGY: What’s your Ology?
IAN SOMERHALDER: ConserveOlogy. I’m all about conservation.
If I can ask, what made you get involved and create The Ian Somerhalder Foundation? A lot of people want to create social change, but people don’t always do something about it.
Just being from a really delicate ecosystem—I’m from the Gulf Coast in Louisiana—so it’s literally one of the most delicate ecosystems in the world. It’s so unique and amazing. 45% of all the wetlands in America are in Louisiana where I grew up. If we lose those, we’re screwed. Which we pretty much did, after BP. And that feeling of helplessness... I decided that no one should ever feel that way.
So our organization is all about empowering people through education. And it’s unfortunate, but the education in this country is lacking. There’s a lack of information out there, but the positive spin on that is that there’s so much media and social networking that we can now transfer information so quickly. And it’s really catching on. It’s absolutely awe-inspiring.
That sounds awesome.
I mean, think about it- 50% of all species will be extinct in 50 years, if we don’t do something about it.
How do you find time to do all of this?
No. [Expletive]. Idea. (Laughs) But the youth of the world… they’re a powerful group. It’s a new Generation X. And our outreach goes as far as Pakistan, India, Afghanistan… and then there’s the ISF Kids Army, and it’s kids from 6 to 15. A year and a half ago, a 6-year old girl sent ISF her tooth fairy money. She wanted to change the world. 6 years old. And she said “I know I don’t have a voice, but I want one.” So we said, okay, we’ll give you a voice. And now this kid has like 10,000 twitter followers. She’s 7 now, and she’s protesting and yelling and screaming at Obama and rallying all of these kids together. She sent me a picture [of her protest] and I retweeted it and it had over a million hits in a few days.
Wow, that’s really cool.
Yeah, there’s kids like that all over that don’t have a voice, but now these little guys get together and figure it out- they’re setting up recycling programs, they’re turning off their TVs when they leave… even showing their parents better ways to do things. It’s crazy.
So let’s talk about The Vampire Diaries. Damon has done a lot of wrong to Elena over the years, but his reasoning for that has been good… right?
Yeah, killing someone’s brother is clearly the best way to say ‘I love you’! (Laughs) But there’s reasons we do everything.
So why is Damon so cynical?
You know, humor is a medicine for pain. It’s like a Band-Aid. There’s so much pain in these guys’ lives, and they use humor as medicine. And it works.
With the fanbase the way it is, people are very adamant that Elena be with either Damon or Stefan. But in your opinion, you see a point where the show ends and Elena doesn’t end up with one of the Salvatore boys?
Oh, I could totally see that. I mean, I think that the best thing for her would be to not end up with a Salvatore. But it’ll be tough. I have no idea. I mean, I think she’d be crazy to be with one of them. But love is weird, and love is odd. People always talk about this Damon and Elena relationship, and I just can’t see that happening. I mean, he is pretty enticing, and suave, and he’s charming. But he’s a dick. He really is.
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The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday nights at 8pm on The CW. Find out more about The Ian Somerhalder Foundation at their official site.
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