Matt Davis on saying goodbye to ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and hello to ‘Cult’
When Matt Davis learned the fate of his character Alaric on “The Vampire Diaries” he probably wasn’t the happiest camper since that meant that he would soon be out of a job, but when fate smiled on him and delivered him the opportunity to be on a new show called ‘Cult’ (and that he would be the leading actor) he realized that it was a bit of a blessing in disguise.
In a new interview with TV Guide, Davis said that after learning Alaric was being written out of the show, he called his agent right away with the news and within just a few days was cast as the lead on “Cult.” He said: “We were winding down Season 3 when [executive producer] Julie Plec let me know that this would be the end of the show for me. I called my agents right away and I said, ‘I’ll be a free agent soon enough. Get me back out on the market.’ That was on a Friday and they called me on a Monday with an offer for this pilot “Cult.”
So why did Davis ultimately end up leaving “The Vampire Diaries”? It seems that there were some creative differences between Davis and Plec on the character of Alaric, so when she found a way to wrap up the character (at the end of his contract), she decided to go with it. he said: “I had my creative differences along the way with the character, and while Julie Plec and I are dear, dear friends, she knew that. I’m very opinionated and when you’re put in a position where you’re getting the story lines that are not necessarily what’s cranking at the back of your mind or digging at the potential of your character and you have to sit on your hands, that’s frustrating. And being a secondary character is equally frustrating. So Julie saw a really great way to wrap up my character, which was in alignment with the end of my contract, and I couldn’t have hoped for a better execution for winding down Vampire Diaries and segueing into Cult.”
Davis’ brand new CW series (“Cult”) will be premiering on Tuesday, February 19th at 9 p.m. where Davis will be taking on the role of a journalist named Jeff who finds himself in the middle of an investigation revolving around his missing brother and his involvement with an underground TV show called “Cult”, headed by a cult leader named Billy Grimm. Will you be tuning in?
Photo: CW