TV
Many of 'The Vampires Diaries' cast members left after a few seasons, but Matt Davis played Alaric Saltzman for years. However, the actor recently revealed he was supposed to appear in only four episodes.
Published on November 2, 2022
2 min readThe Vampires Diaries is one of the most enduring TV shows on The CW. The supernatural romance series catapulted actors Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder to fame and cemented the mythical vampire’s status as a pop culture trope. The drama enjoyed a successful run, spawning a merchandising empire and several spinoffs and programs. Though many of The Vampires Diaries cast members left after a few seasons, Matt Davis played Alaric Saltzman for years. However, the actor recently revealed he was supposed to appear in only four episodes.
Matt Davis portrayed Alaric Saltzman in ‘The Vampire Diaries’
The Vampire Diaries featured a large ensemble cast, including Matt Davis as Alaric Saltzman. On the surface, Alaric is an unassuming history teacher, but by the show’s third season, he had become a main character, a vampire hunter, and a major force to be reckoned with in Mystic Falls. At the end of the third season, Alaric dies, but his resurrection in the fifth season revives his recurring character once more.
Alaric remained a staple throughout the seventh and eighth seasons of The Vampire Diaries — becoming one of the most beloved and enduring characters in the show’s mythology. Davis reprised his role in the spinoffs The Originals and Legacies.
What did Matt Davis say about his casting as Alaric in ‘The Vampire Diaries’?
Appearing in The Vampire Diaries and its spinoffs, Matt Davis portrayed Alaric Saltzman for over a dozen years. That feat is even more impressive, considering the actor was initially supposed to play only a minor part.
“I auditioned once for a recurring role … They were like, ‘It’s a — we don’t know — a vampire-hunter/teacher. It’s gonna be a four-episode arc,'” Davis revealed during a September 2022 Comic-Con panel, posted on the Monopoly Events YouTube channel.
“I sent in my audition, and I thought I didn’t get it … so I just let it go. And about a month later, I got a call on a Tuesday, saying, ‘Hey, you want to go do this part?'” Davis recalled. “I was supposed to do four episodes, and I went down the next day … By the end of season 1, they wanted me to stick around a little bit longer. I didn’t know they meant 13 years. But, uh, I did it.”
Matt Davis has appeared in various movies and TV series
Though Matt Davis is known best for his role as Alaric in The Vampire Diaries franchise, he has acted in other TV series and films over the years.
According to IMDb, he has appeared in movies such as Legally Blonde, Pearl Harbor, Into the Sun, Wasting Away, S. Darko, and Waiting for Forever. His TV credits include What About Brian, Cult, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Damages.
Davis has proven himself a versatile actor adept at comedic and dramatic performances. Still, for fans who’ve followed his career closely, Davis’ work as the intense and dedicated Alaric Salzman has defined his career.
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