The former costars are launching Brother’s Bond Bourbon on May 1.
Sitting side by side in their new Malibu creative space,Ian SomerhalderandPaul Wesleyare talking about Malcolm Gladwell.
Or rather, they’re talking about bourbon when things somehow lead to Malcolm Gladwell.
courtesy Ian Somerhalder
In his bookOutliers, Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something.
“The Beatles played for 10,000 hours together,” Somerhalder says.
“Bill Gates programmed for 10,000 hours before he started Microsoft.”
courtesy Ian Somerhalder
So what does this have to do with these formerVampire Diariesstars who are launching theirown bourbon?
“We’ve had 10,000 hours to perfect our friendship,” Wesley says with a laugh.
“10,000 hours to figure out how to tolerate one another.
the cw
And we mastered it!”
In early April, the former co-stars sat down to drink three rounds with EW via Zoom.
This time around, they were drinking to celebrate.
PAUL WESLEY:Yeah we’ve been talking about doing this for a decade.
For those who haven’t seen the show, we played brothers who drank bourbon on-screen.
Off-screen, Ian and I also bonded drinking bourbon.
Obviously we weren’t drinking bourbon on-screen otherwise, well, his performance would’ve been a lot better.
He would’ve forgotten even more lines.
SOMERHALDER:It’s the only way that we could actually tolerate each other.
[Laughs]
WESLEY:So we fell in love with it.
And when the show ended we finally had some time and we really put this thing together.
We’re just so proud of it.
SOMERHALDER:We did this in the middle of a global pandemic together.
Let’s talk “firsts.”
What was your first alcoholic drink?
WESLEY:I grew up between America and Poland.
It was just something that adults would have when they were bonding.
SOMERHALDER:I’m from New Orleans, my grandmother was French.
You’d have wine at dinner, and she would sometimes give me a little spoonful.
It wasn’t taboo.
Those were very special times.
It was never about alcohol.
It was more about family.
SOMERHALDER:We were in Atlanta for eight years.
Career-wise, what was your first audition?
And I was like, “Yeah, of course.”
So I auditioned for the soap opera and I got the job.
SOMERHALDER:You were young, right?
WESLEY:Yeah I was really young.
That was my first real audition.
But that was my first real audition and I got the gig.
The show got canceled like three months later.
[Laughs]
SOMERHALDER:What show?
WESLEY:It was calledAnother World.
I don’t think I was the first choice but regardless I got the part.
It was really cool.
I knew very early this is what I want to do.
[Turns to Wesley] you and I been doing this a long time.
WESLEY:[To EW] Why’s he looking at me so seriously?
That was so intense.
SOMERHALDER:I’m just saying that’s pretty cool.
WESLEY:But we’re still not any good.
SOMERHALDER:No doubt, but we have an amazing bourbon and that’s all that matters.
WESLEY:If you drink a lot of Brother’s Bond our performances get better.
WESLEY:I’m like a whiskey sour and you’re the port.
SOMERHALDER:No you’re just sour.
WESLEY:I’ll tell you a funny iced tea story.
So the first season I couldn’t sleep.
I was jittery, I thought I was nervous.
Turns out I was just consuming so much caffeine.
So season 2 we switched it out to decaffeinated iced tea.
SOMERHALDER:Season 1 we were lunatics because we were drinking this tea.
Did you end up rehearsing a lot?
WESLEY:We flew to Atlanta together so we could find apartments.
We literally got out of the car, it just so happened we were wearing the same outfit.
SOMERHALDER:No we arrived at the airport.
WESLEY:Same jeans–
[IN UNISON]:Same boots–
WESLEY:And the same glasses.
SOMERHALDER:And the same backpack.
WESLEY:And backpack.
SOMERHALDER:Oh yeah we had black Ray Bans!
[Laughs]
SOMERHALDER:We looked like the Blues Brothers, I’m not kidding you.
WESLEY:The show hadn’t premiered yet.
It was really funny.
SOMERHALDER:It hadn’t premiered yet, we hadn’t even shot it yet.
WESLEY:We spent a ton of time rehearsing.
SOMERHALDER:That’s why we wanted our apartments next to each other.
We knew that we needed to be brothers but we wanted to rehearse everything.
WESLEY:Hey you know what, in this new creative space should we get a bunk bed?
[Laughs] And then have sleepovers and talk bourbon?
SOMERHALDER:Big brother gets the top bunk.
With us it came pretty easily.
WESLEY:I think that’s what kind of allows it to sort of co-exist.
I think that it’s a unique but really fantastic synergy for not only friendship but business.
SOMERHALDER:It’s also been tested.
You’re talking about over a decade of testing.
I mean it, our souls are in this bottle.
WESLEY:Don’t quote me on that.
What made you all decide to direct some of your proceeds elsewhere?
That’s why we are so proud of this company.
A portion of all of our sales is going towards regenerative agriculture.
We’re interested in people purchasing this and experiencing a bond with whomever they’re sharing it with.
WESLEY:I thought my last word was best.
