'I felt like he deserved death.'
Paul Wesley was rooting for a beloved character's death on The Vampire Diaries' series finale.
The 37-year-old actor stopped by Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on Monday to promote his show, Tell Me a Story, and revealed that he wanted his TVD character, Stefan Salvatore, to perish in the CW show's final episode. Wesley got his wish, as Stefan sacrificed himself in the finale, thus allowing his brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder), to have a life with Elena (Nina Dobrev), and saving the town, Mystic Falls, from being consumed in hell fire.
"I was very happy that he died and I actually had requested that he die," Wesley admitted. "He did a lot of bad things and I felt like he deserved death."
It turns out that all those bad things Stefan did actually came at Wesley's request.
"I was playing the good guy. I felt like I was starting to become a little bit type cast as the good brother. And I really tried my best to influence them to allow me to be 'the bad guy' and they made that happen," he said of the show's writers. "Season three I turned into 'the ripper' and I felt like that was a big part of my doing."
While Wesley generally felt "good" about the finale, he revealed that he wished one other person had died during the episode.
"I honestly think both brothers should have died. I feel good about it, although I would've liked that we both died and that Elena, the girl at the end of the show, all her memory was wiped and she went on to live a normal life and forgot that we ever existed," he said. "I think that would've been nice."
Despite wishing that his onscreen brother had perished at the end of season eight, Wesley had nothing but praise for both his and Somerholder's fictional and real-life relationships.
"Ian's a very loving guy. We hug a lot... We have cuddled... I'm sure we've cuddled up maybe on a plane or something," Wesley said. "We haven't spooned. Yet...We hug each other. He gives me kisses on the cheek all the time."
When it came to his own role, Wesley said that, though he took the job "very seriously," there were some necessary preparations that required a sense of humor.
"Based on the chest photos, clearly a lot of working out obviously. A lot of tanning. A lot of shaving my chest," he said of how he groomed for the role. "... I was playing a 17-year-old, so I kinda didn't have a choice in the matter."
"... I was playing 160-year-old guy and I had to be stoic and brooding and I had to just think about what it was like to be on this earth for 160 years [and add] a deadpan expression," he added.
Even with all his praise of the show, his role, and his co-stars, Wesley admitted that he had one major problem with the series as a whole.
"Everyone was a supernatural being! What the hell? There need to be some humans! We're in the real world! Everyone! Everyone in the whole town was a mystical creature," he exclaimed. "I feel like... it should've been 50/50."
Watch the video below for more on TVD.
