''I know you're obsessed with me': I traveled to a fan convention where 'The Vampire Diaries' is still the biggest show in town
'Thanks for wearing that shirt,' Ian Somerhalder said to her, before reading the quote emblazoned on Allana's torso aloud: ''I know you're obsessed with me.' It's a great line, isn't it?'
We both had to take 60 seconds to giggle before getting our conversation back on track, and I wouldn't even consider myself a fan. Somerhalder's aura was wildly charismatic, as it should be, since he was there to meet fans anticipating one of the best days of their life, having shelled out hundreds of dollars to take photos with him and hear him speak. It's a surprising feat for someone who starred in the CW's The Vampire Diaries series, which ran for eight seasons from 2009 and 2017.
When I met 24-year-old Allana, she was leaning against the beige wallpaper of the Hanover Marriott with her boyfriend, 24-year-old Michael, who assured me that he 'liked the show' and 'there is no gun being held near me right now.' They live just a few minutes from the venue.
We're all here for Vampire Fan Weekend, which is not to be confused with the merely mortal rock band Vampire Weekend, though I'm sure the playful association is intentional. On the second day of the convention, everyone was there to see the headliners, whose faces were plastered on signs and marketing materials: Somerhalder and Paul Wesley.
The pair, who played the blood-sucking brothers from The Vampire Diaries, weren't the only supernatural actors on site, however. There was a handful of side characters from the CW series there, too, as well as memorable actors from Twilight, True Blood and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But everywhere I looked, people were declaring themselves Team Stefan or Team Damon, taking sides in a war that should have ended more than eight years ago.
Creation Entertainment, the organizers of the convention, ran a well-oiled machine: Attendees paid between $45 and $199 for photos with the stars and between $30 and $129 for their autographs. Between sessions, they could attend talks hosted by actors, who mostly took questions from the audience. Staff kept people lined up against the wall, keeping hallways clear and clearing out loiterers. This was serious business.
General admission to the convention was $55 on Saturday and $75 on Sunday, but there were more expensive packages available for full weekend attendance, priority line access, better seating and free autographs. Those cost between $125 to $750.
Allana was here on a mission: Get a photo with both Somerhalder and Wesley. She came to the same convention in 2014 and got one with Wesley, but a mix-up in filming schedules resulted in her missing out on Somerhalder. Now she was poised to complete the collection more than a decade later. The photo itself would live forever in her home and on social media, and the memory of her interactions with the stars would be a story forever shared with her boyfriend. Michael was also determined to make that happen.
They've been together for five years and hope to get married. Michael just wants to make sure that the proposal is perfect because he knows that Allana, having grown up on Disney princesses and vampire romances, 'loves a good story.'
'I gotta do it just right,' Michael told me as Allana beamed, looking off to the side. They met through his sisters and fell in love watching SpongeBob SquarePants together on a shared laptop at school. It's a great story, just the way Allana likes it.
I, too, came of age when the Twilight books were flying off shelves and dominating big screens, and a few years later, when The Vampire Diaries aired on TV and captivated the internet with GIFs, fan fiction and online debate. I was among the impressionable teenagers scrolling Tumblr and yearning for someone otherworldly and obsessive to fight for me, preferably as part of a love triangle, as with those two staples of vampire media. Desire and drama are the beating heart of the paranormal romance genre, and The Vampire Diaries serves as its seemingly endless blood supply.
The show follows Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), a teenage girl living in the supernatural town of Mystic Falls, Va., as she copes with the recent death of her parents. She falls in love with a kind and sexy 161-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley), but things get complicated when his brooding and sexy older brother Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) enters the picture. The soapy melodrama, romance and action that ensued led to the spin-off The Originals (2013 to 2018), which in turn led to another spin-off called Legacies (2018 to 2022) and years of fandom that has transcended show cancellations and been passed down between generations — literally.
I saw gaggles of teenage girls and middle-aged women, sometimes mingling and other times split off with their own age groups. I spoke with 16-year-old Gianni, who was with her 34-year-old mom Mari and her friend 31-year-old Stephanie. The vampires' timeless beauty brought them together, an hour away from their homes. They were buzzing with excitement in line to meet Wesley, who Stephanie said is her favorite vampire ever because he's 'a little cutie.' Gianni loves him because he's 'funny and cute.' Mari prefers Somerhalder because he's 'spicy.'
When I was turned away from attending a premium panel reserved for the 'Gold Package' attendees, who had paid $750 for the highest level of access, I wandered into the vendor room. Dozens of tables were covered in vampire-themed items for sale: T-shirts with quotes from The Vampire Diaries like 'I was feeling epic' and 'Hello, brother,' glamour shots of actors that they could autograph for you and tie-dye sweatshirts like the one Somerhalder was wearing. My personal favorite thing was a DIY blood-juice box — a bundle that included a pouch, a straw and a packet of Hawaiian Punch powder that could be purchased together and assembled with water from the fountains outside.
Once I'd pillaged the vampire merch zone, I headed into the auditorium to watch a few speakers. I was relegated to the back, which was packed. The front rows — about 20 of them — were reserved for guests who had paid for seats, but they were sparsely populated, leaving a sea of open chairs between convention-goers and talent. David Anders, who played Elena's protective (human) uncle on The Vampire Diaries, took the stage.
'By round of applause, whose favorite character is John Gilbert?' Anders joked about his role on the series, pacing around as just a handful of guests clapped enthusiastically. 'Everybody? Surprising!'
He urged the audience to ask him anything: His character, his acting career or even his family. People asked him to pick which roles were his favorite (iZombie over The Vampire Diaries), which actors he enjoyed working with (he loves Nina Dobrev and wondered aloud how she was doing after her e-bike accident) and whether he's Team Stefan or Team Damon ('Can't it be a throuple?')
Anders is funny. He spent a lot of time, well, vamping — rambling about his life and joking about his career. It takes a lot of charisma to dominate the stage and answer the same questions you always get asked at conventions again and again, knowing these people are here to see you and going to characterize their one-sided relationship with you by the tone of your voice and the content of your answer. He apologized after answering a child's question with a couple of F-bombs. He burst into renditions of show tunes when the crowd fell silent.
Chase Coleman took the stage after him, pulling double duty as an actor who briefly played a werewolf on The Originals and the frontman for the convention's house band, Mercy Mode. It performed a concert the night before and played songs between panels to fill the time.
Coleman spent a lot of time talking about his personal life: His fiancée and her brother were in the audience holding his small dog, whom he called his daughter, and discussed her bowel movements for the day. He encouraged the crowd to applaud when it was revealed that she pooped. He plugged his Patreon page, where fans could pay him a monthly subscription fee to get access to his Discord — an app that lets people connect and chat in various rooms. People can talk to him directly there and join him for game nights and movie nights.
'I don't want to just be plugging,' he assured the audience. 'I want to be getting to know and gotten to know!'
Coleman explained onstage that his investment in his music career came after the 'second apocalypse of his career' — the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The first apocalypse was COVID. His ability to get work has been repeatedly compromised, but tapping into relationships with fans seems to have kept him afloat. He was less self-deprecating than Anders and more enthusiastic about his art. It broke my heart when, as he was speaking, a deluge of fans poured out of the auditorium to line up for the ultra-popular photo op with both Wesley and Somerhalder, but I let myself get caught in the flood, and I left too.
In that line — and in several photo lines throughout the day — I asked attendees who their favorite vampire of all time was. I was expecting a range of answers because of all the different generations present, and because vampires seem to be having a moment again. Nosferatu surprisingly slayed the box office during Christmas 2024, and Sinners is still breaking records. AMC's Interview with the Vampire series has a rabid fan army ahead of its third season.
But most Vampire Fan Convention attendees had the same answer: Stefan and Damon, because they're really, really hot. In retrospect, that should have been obvious. I was talking to people shelling out hundreds of dollars for photos and interactions. Their fandom is as eternal as its fictional subjects.
'I've been looking at this event for years and now I can finally afford it. I finally get to meet them!' a fan named Desziree from a nearby New Jersey town told me, giddy with excitement. 'I've been watching them on my screen since I was like 12 years old … I'm currently 24. Half my life!'
After chatting my way through the lines of people bubbling with anticipation, I stood by the door where fans exited after having their photos taken. They gathered in small groups, making microjudgments about their brief, paid interactions with celebrities. Most were wearing merch, but the few dressed more like they wanted to seduce a vampire than reflect their fandom for one caught my eye. No shade, it's an expensive photo!
'He was so disinterested. He was very distracted. It was so disappointing. But it was probably a good picture,' said one of the young women. 'That big cowboy hat covered his whole face … mom, I think that ruined the whole weekend.'
Based on the mention of the cowboy hat, I assumed the woman wasn't pleased with her experience with Somerhalder. That's the risk you take investing so much in someone who's still a human in real life — and being paid to deliver a memorable, heartwarming experience with so many other fans, churning through an assembly line of photos and autographs for hours at a time.
'I've been watching them on my screen since I was like 12 years old … I'm currently 24. Half my life!'Desziree, a "Vampire Diaries' fan
That's also the risk that actors like Somerhalder take. Some interactions may be better than others. Some may fortify their relationships with fans and others could harm them. Either way, they're making money.
The relationships that fans have with romantic dramas like The Vampire Diaries are deep, emotional ones. One could argue that they're especially intense now that the show is off the air; since there's nothing new coming out, revisiting and digging deeper into the plot and characters in the show can dredge up a lot of feelings. Getting to see them, take photos with them, talk to them in Discord and buy their merch just sends them deeper.
But is it so wrong to admire a beautiful actor who plays a vampire, pay to meet him and hope it goes well? It benefits those actors financially, keeps them employed in an unstable industry and probably feels pretty flattering.
What is it that keeps these fans coming back for more? I found the answer as I was leaving the convention. I walked past two middle-aged women admiring their 8.5 x 11 printed meet-and-greet photo with Somerhalder.
'Who did you get?' I asked the one who was clutching the picture. She showed me. I was struck by Somerhalder's bright blue eyes, intoxicating beneath a goofy cowboy hat. I realized that when I saw him earlier, I couldn't make out much more than a tie-dye blur. He was otherworldly.
'He looks so good,' I mumbled, clapping my hand over my mouth and correcting myself. 'And so do you!'
'That's the point,' the fan laughed. It was then I understood.
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Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa Cover Cosmopolitan for ‘The Map That Leads to You'
'Should I cut all my hair off?' Madelyn Cline asks, pulling her blond waves out of an updo. 'I was thinking of getting a pixie cut and—' KJ Apa cuts her off: 'No, no, no,' he says, incredulously. 'You're crazy right now—you've been working too long. When you work too long, you start thinking, Maybe I should dye my hair pink, or maybe just shave it all off! I love your hair. Don't chop it off.' It feels like I've crashed a private catch-up between friends versus what I'm actually doing, interviewing two costars on a press tour. The actors each rose to fame on the waves of teenage TV catnip; Madelyn on Netflix's hit Outer Banks,¹ KJ on the seven-season CW show Riverdale. And now their paths—and palpable chemistry—have converged in The Map That Leads to You, a Prime Video romantic drama by director Lasse Hallströn.² 1. Outer Banks season 4 debuted with a whopping 1.2 billion minutes watched, making it a huge success for Netflix. To no one's surprise, the show will return for season 5 in 2026. 2. The director behind What's Eating Gilbert Grape and nearly all of ABBA's music videos, fun fact. In the movie, Madelyn plays a straitlaced student named Heather who collides with KJ's spontaneous stranger Jack while on a Mamma Mia!–coded European sabbatical. 'It turns her girls' trip upside down in the best way possible,' explains Madelyn. 'They say opposites attract, and together Heather and Jack form one very complete Venn diagram.' In real life, Madelyn and KJ's bond is less 'opposites attract' and more 'two kids with race car brains hyped up on pixie sticks,' a pair of sprinting hares in a world of tortoises. In the beginning, they had only a passing familiarity with each other's work. KJ first caught an episode of Outer Banks while shooting The Map That Leads to You, and Madelyn watched season 1 of Riverdale while recovering from wisdom-tooth surgery (meaning, she remembers basically none of it). Yet the two have obviously now forged a deep, if chaotic, friendship full of playful fighting, flirting, and finishing each other's sentences. 'I always know that whenever KJ and I are going to be doing something together, it's going to be an absolute mess and a really good time,' Madelyn says. 'We're like Mr. and Mrs. Smith—if it was mixed with Dumb and Dumber.' Where does that leave our chances of staying on topic during this interview? Truthfully: doomed. KJ: I do now. So much crazy stuff happened while we were shooting. MC: Oh my god. KJ: We spoke to this dude who clued us in to how you have relationships with people in your current life that you potentially had relationships with in the past. MC: He told me that in a past life, we lived in Italy and I was your mom. KJ: Yeah! Wasn't it in the 1800s? MC: And then in another past life, we were brother and sister. KJ: Now we're just colleagues. MC: We got downgraded. KJ: I will say this: A good 60 percent of what he said has not happened. MC: True, but I think that's because we asked him for specifics. He did say that, for our mutual friend Alex Fine,³ this was his first lifetime on Earth and he's an alien. That I believe! KJ: We all believe that because, honestly, he doesn't have any logical sense. 3. A triple threat in his own right, having founded the wellness/fitness company Almost Home, acted in 1883 and American Primeval, and married singer Cassie, with whom he has three kids. KJ: With Madelyn, I felt like we'd known each other for a while. Everything was just easy. I wish it was like that working with most actresses. What can you say? Look at her, she's an absolute monkey beast. KJ: Basically, being a beast is all know what? I can't say it. It's just something you feel in someone. MC: If you know, you know. If a fellow beast is looking at you and says, 'I see you…you're one of us, you're a beast,' then you don't question it. KJ: I'd go to the dentist, honestly. I haven't been to the dentist in a long time. MC: Oh wait, I haven't either. We should make an appointment. KJ: I have a 3-year-old⁴ and any spare time I get, I'm doing my own shit. So honestly, I wouldn't go anywhere. I'd stay home and get all the things that I need to get done done. MC: That's some real dad shit. Daddy beast. If I had time off— KJ: I bet you would choose to work. MC: You're completely correct.⁵ If I had a month off and I could somehow make work happen, I would do that. Or I would stay home and sleep. I love sleep. I love being in my enclosure. I find it to be so much fun being nonverbal. 4. KJ shares his son with ex-girlfriend Clara Berry.5. Madelyn's filmography reflects her hustle: In addition to The Map That Leads to You, she was recently in I Know What You Did Last Summer and continues to lead Outer Banks. KJ: I want that to happen to me, honestly. It's lonely these days. MC: I think yes, but for me, it usually happens through work or mutuals. KJ: Honestly, cool things still happen to me in real life sometimes. I was flying back from Paris and the flight attendant gave me her number on a napkin. I loved that. MC: Did she really? KJ: Oh yeah, and I hung out with her. MC: You did? KJ: I did. I'm not going to tell you what we did. But also, I find that the grocery store is another great way to meet people.⁶ People aren't really on their phones much, so it's an easy way to have conversations. 6. Is KJ being 100 percent serious about all this? Maybe not. Did we still publish it verbatim just in case? 100 percent. KJ: Yeah. Honestly, for me too, I can just ask my son to go talk to a girl for me. I say, 'Go tell that girl I love her.' KJ: One time. My son is so unashamed. He'll just go do whatever I tell him to do. KJ: He's a beast. And he knows what he's doing, I'll say that. MC: He learned from the best. KJ: Not accurate. Because a lot of the time, he goes up to the wrong woman. MC: I don't have a son to do that with yet. KJ: I'm your son! MC: You have been. My son with an even tinier son. We're like a Russian doll set. KJ: I'm your freaky beast. MC: As soon as we get together, all of a sudden we start talking in code. MC: Yeah, it's funny. KJ operates solely on feeling. He leads with how something makes him feel, and if it doesn't make him feel a certain way, he's on to something else. KJ: I'd say that's accurate. By the way, that's why I'm sober now. MC: I know this because I'm your mom. MC: I can be spontaneous and instinctual, but I'm also a workaholic. KJ: I mean, you're on another planet most of the time, in a beautiful way. You're constantly teetering the line of somehow getting everything done at a very high standard, while making fun of everything at all times. Somehow everything becomes pink and fluffy and stupid.⁷ MC: Pink and fluffy and stupid…that is what my brain looks like. It's fluffy because there's a little bit of mold on it. It's a little rotted. There's a bit of brain rot going on. 7. For the record, KJ also describes Madelyn like this: 'She has such a lightness about her that makes coming to work so enjoyable, because you smile every time you look at her. I'm moody, but I can't not be in a good mood around her—it's infectious. It's really a blessing for me to be with people like her. It makes my job easier, it makes my life easier, and it makes my life more enjoyable.' MC: Let's say we're in a cartoon. And you know how in parts of a cartoon, they zoom into a person's brain and it's this physical space with little people inside? KJ has three of them, and they're all shooting BB guns at the walls. There's a thousand of these little BB guns just shooting around, pinging off the walls, and it's not stopping.⁸ KJ: Do I have ADHD? MC: Hmm, any more silly questions? KJ: Fuck off. Do you think I do? MC: KJ, we both do. KJ: I don't even know how we shot a movie together. And with Lasse! MC: I don't know how we finished any of our scenes. KJ: He was wandering around looking for seashells during filming. MC: One day, we did genuinely lose him. We couldn't find him for 30, 45 minutes. I think he was trying to get on the wrong train. He's wonderful. KJ: Really wonderful. I love him so much because although he's in his 70s, he still has all of his curiosity for life. I think that's why he cast us in the movie—he casts like-minded people.⁹ 8. Madelyn also has this to say about KJ: 'KJ is an open book. I really felt like we were a team on this one. He was my partner, and we were fully in it together.' 9. 'I think onscreen chemistry is really hard to replicate if it doesn't naturally exist,' Madelyn says about likeness and similarities. 'I mean, you can do what you can, but there's nothing quite like it.' KJ: I'm similar in that my relationship with my higher power is very strong,¹⁰ and I rely on it every day. I always turn back to, Okay, I'm not in control. Whatever's happening to me is happening to me for a reason bigger than I'll ever understand. In taking on this movie, I was coming out of a really, really dark point in my life, and the script was one of those scripts that kept following me around. I knew I had so much to learn from that character, especially where I was in my life in terms of control and acceptance at a time when I was like, 'I can't do this anymore. I have to put my hands up and ask God to help me.' I knew that this character could help me. That's just how God works in my life. I do think my character is more resilient than I am for sure. MC: I think you're a very resilient person. KJ: I appreciate it. I was nervous about this because I hadn't acted in a really long time and I hadn't worked since Riverdale. I was just coming out of a really difficult time, so I was like, Shit, do I still have it? But I did it. Something that I try to combat every day is this idea of self-worth. I think in our industry, as artists and as people who want to make a name for ourselves, a lot of self-worth is pulled from recognition of creation. You want to be recognized for what you've created, and you want people to see you. 10. KJ brought this part of his life to screen by playing a Christian singer/songwriter in 2020's I Still Believe, which recently hit Netflix. MC: That's actually something I was talking about the other day. Being an actor can be a bit of a mindfuck. People always say, 'Don't compare yourself to others' and 'Don't base your self-worth on things that you can't control.' But ultimately, we do base our self-worth on our work because that's our calling card, that's our paycheck. KJ: It's the currency of what we do. When I think about these things, it all comes down to the people you end up attracting in your life. Working on this movie and working with someone like Lasse, like Madelyn, it's a breath of fresh air to be like, Oh, I can put my ego away. There are certain people where your ego wants to jump out a little more and you feel like you have to be a little more defensive or protective, but there are certain people who make you feel at peace. I want to spend more time with people in my daily life who make me feel like that. KJ: You know what? That's why I love what I do, because I get to live it. I get to experience it through someone else and so it is my reality at some point. I'm not going to lie, I fell in love with Madelyn on this movie in many ways that, one, are part of my job, and two, happened because she's an amazing person. You lean into it because it's fucking fun, and it's life, and I like feeling great.¹¹ MC: Actually, this was a conversation KJ and I had pretty early on, about our own belief systems and how they tie into our characters. I want every project I do to be illuminating. It should feel like it's holding up a mirror to you, because then I get to learn and experience things outside of my life as Madelyn. Each filming experience is so wonderful and beautiful and holds its own memories. How lucky are we to be able to live these tiny little forevers? 11. Another reason KJ thrived in this role? His New Zealand accent: 'Playing Jack is the first time I'm using my natural accent, the first time in 10 years I've been able to live in the moment with another actor without feeling like I have a separation between me and the character with my voice, which is huge for me.' KJ: I know that no matter what happens, everything's going to be okay. If I believe that, then I'm not allowed to stress. I'm not allowed to worry. It actually takes such a load off me. That's what Jack taught me. MC: I have this thing where I love spontaneity, but sometimes I catch myself trying to control outcomes of a situation, outcomes of a feeling, or what I think I should be feeling. Heather taught me how to completely give permission. You know what I also learned on this project? MC: How to be a beast. MC: I highly recommend the friends-to-lovers pipeline. KJ: Don't be afraid to love somebody. If you love someone, fucking give it everything, just don't hold back. You live one time. You never know when that opportunity is going to happen again. MC: If you love someone, just say it. It shouldn't be this thing that is meant to be put into a case and opened up when you feel like it is the 'right' time. Love is something that just happens. It's nothing to be afraid of and you should express it. KJ: Life makes you practical and logical. Go back to your first instinct, man. It's to love. (Title Image) On Madelyn: Mugler blazer and pants, Tom Ford shirt, Hermès tie, Madelyn's own earring (worn throughout), Cartier ring. On KJ: Paul Smith blazer and pants, Carter Young shirt, Ray-Ban sunglasses, David Yurman jewelry. (Cover Image) On Madelyn: Khaite coat, t-shirt from The Society Archive, R13 shorts, Falke tights, Hermès boots, Bulgari necklace. On KJ: Loewe jacket and pants, t-shirt from The Society Archive, Frye boots, David Yurman jewelry. Styled by Brandon Tan. Hair by Ledora for R+Co. Makeup by Jennifer Tioseco for Revlon. Production by Deer Studio NYC. Shot on location at the TWA Hotel.
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Taylor Lautner Reveals If He's Team Conrad or Jeremiah & 'Twilight' Is The Reason for His Answer
Taylor Lautner Reveals If He's Team Conrad or Jeremiah & 'Twilight' Is The Reason for His Answer originally appeared on Parade. Actor Taylor Lautner, who famously played one of Bella Swan's (Kristen Stewart) romantic interests, Jacob Black, in the Twilight film franchise, is sharing his thoughts about another famous love triangle. While speaking to People magazine in August 2025, Lautner shared that he and his wife, Taylor Dome, watch the Prime series, The Summer I Turned Pretty, which premiered in 2022. The series follows Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) who's had romances with two brothers, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno), at different times. In the show's current third season, Belly is engaged to Jeremiah. However, she seems to still have feelings for Conrad, whom she dated for a few months about five years prior. Lautner referenced that fans of the series are divided into two camps, Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah, which is similar to how Twilight fans reacted to Bella's relationship with Jacob and her eventual husband, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Lautner said he wants Belly to end up with Jeremiah because he thinks the character is similar to Jacob. 'My wife watches that show religiously. I would be lying if I said I didn't ... I've been watching this current season with her, so it's been a fun thing. I don't think she's super excited about watching the show with me like she is with her friends, but I get it. I get it," said Lautner to People magazine. 'I feel like because of my roots, I have to be Team Jer. But that's just because I feel like I have to. I feel like [Jeremiah] resonates a lot with Jacob. I know that'll irritate a lot, a lot of fans.' Lautner then shared he thinks his wife wants Conrad and Belly to end up together. 'I think my wife may be on the other team, and that makes sense because she was Team Edward as well,' said Lautner. During a July 2025 interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, alongside Casalegno and Briney, Tong discussed the fans' response to Belly's love life. She said fans will often tell her if they are on Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah. She also clarified that she is "Team Belly, always." "I'm all for her following her heart and what she needs to do in the moment," said Tong during the interview. Taylor Lautner Reveals If He's Team Conrad or Jeremiah & 'Twilight' Is The Reason for His Answer first appeared on Parade on Aug 16, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 16, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
