Ian Somerhalder is opening up about a difficult moment he experienced while filming The Vampire Diaries .

In an excerpt from the upcoming book I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of the Vampire Diaries , the actor revealed that during Season 3, he was so unhappy with the direction of his character (Damon Salvatore) that he nearly quit the CW show.

Ian explained that he didn’t want Damon to become a romantic lead as the character of Stefan ( Paul Wesley ) got to explore a dark villain arc.

“I was so upset about the trajectory of Damon, so much so that at one point I was sitting across from Julie [Plec , co-creator] in her office in Atlanta almost in tears—actually, my eyes were quite misty—and asked out of the show,” he admitted.

“I was so angry about it. I wanted off

See Full Page