Ian Somerhalder is reflecting on his time starring on two main TV exhibits.

September 2024 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the premiere of The Vampire Diaries and the twentieth anniversary of Lost, which was one of many 45-year-old actor’s first main breakout roles.

In a brand new interview, Ian regarded again at his time on the fan-favorite exhibits and defined why he determined to take a step again from appearing.

Keep studying to search out out extra…While talking to People, Ian known as his Lost job a “very humbling experience,” particularly since his character skilled one of many first main deaths in season 1. While he returned all through the sequence a number of instances for visitor appearances, Ian admitted that his preliminary exit was very arduous on him on the time.

“Losing that, I was the first one cast and the first one killed, that was a sort of tough pill to swallow,” Ian admitted, including that his transient time in Hawaii helped encourage his ardour for environmental conservation.

“I got to work on a lot of reef conservation,” Ian defined. “I got to work on a lot of soil and water conservation even there. 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.”

Ian went on to notice that “streaming changed the game” for each Lost and The Vampire Diaries and launched a complete new viewers to his work each on and off display screen.

“[The Vampire Diaries] now has been seen by almost like 1.2 billion people globally/ 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,” Ian stated.

“They’ve been affected by it, maybe they’ve seen it, heard about it,” he continued. “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.”

Ian then added that he has “enormous gratitude” for the exhibits as they gave him a platform to talk about initiatives near his coronary heart.

“That 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,” Ian stated, who now lives on a farm with spouse Nikki Reed and their two youngsters – 7-year-old daughter Bodhi and a 1-year-old son.

While he’s grateful for his previous roles, Ian admitted that his predominant priorities are off display screen initiatives.

“August 19th makes five years since I was professionally on camera as an actor/producer,” Ian identified. “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,” Ian defined. “Once you reach a certain level, you’re like, ‘Okay, 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 concluded, “The fact now is I get to partner with people that are launching things like the Greater Ground initiative where they’re literally holding the hands and investing in these groups of people, these farmers that are actually creating this food that our pets and us eat. That’s huge. So you go and you do all these fancy things and you realize at the end of it, it’s the grounding stuff that matters.”

In an interview from earlier this 12 months, Nikki, 36, additionally opened up about stepping away appearing and from Hollywood.

Find out what Ian‘s Lost co-stars have been as much as because the present ended.