About 16 hours ago by Erica Strauss

We have a hard time picturing The Vampire Diaries’ Ian Somerhalder (Damon) as anything but the sexy and snarky Salvatore brother (besides maybe the adorable Paul Denton in Rules of Attraction). You may think he has it all, but the hottie has one regret about his chosen path: He really wishes he would have studied art history!

“I love art. I wanted to go to NYU, but I ended up booking a television show and moving out to L.A.,” the 33-year-old Louisiana native tells Status.

Ian notes that there are other ways to explore the art world without tedious lectures and 30-page papers on Impressionism, but he still laments not getting a formal education. “I wish I just had been able to take a crash course in it,” he says, adding, “I eventually wanna learn how to paint.”

Hey, it’s never too late to start — especially now that you’re a certifiable star.

Luckily for us, Ian’s mother saw his theatrical potential. As a child, Mr. Smolderhotter had an invisible friend named — get this — Ian. “Ian liked everything I liked so I asked my mom for this whole pack of gum and then she found me an hour later with my mouth full of it,” explains the TVD star. “And my mom said, ‘Wait a minute, Ian. I thought some was for Ian, too.’ And I said, ‘Nope, nope. Ian doesn’t like this kind.’ [laughs] So I used to do things like that. It just kinda made my mom realize that I was meant to be an actor.” We’re certainly glad she did. Our Thursdays wouldn’t be quite the same if Ian was appraising paintings in a gallery instead.

我們看到《吸血鬼日記》里的Ian Somerhalder (Damon) 的照片，除了想到性感犀利的Salvatore哥哥很難想到別的（也許Ian在Rules of Attraction 里飾演的可愛Paul Denton除外）。你也許認為他已無所不有，但這個小帥哥選擇演繹道路有一個遺憾：他真的很希望自己當初會去學藝術(shù)史！

“我熱愛藝術(shù)。我原本打算去紐約大學，但最終我簽了一個電視劇取而代之，并且一路搬到洛杉磯，”這個33歲的路易斯安娜州本地人這樣告訴Status。

Ian雖然提到除了通過聽單調(diào)無味的講座和寫30頁的印象派方面論文，還有其他方發(fā)去了解藝術(shù)世界，但他還是對未能接受正規(guī)的教育感到難過?！拔蚁Ｍ夷軈⒓舆^這方面的速成班也好，”他補充道，“我最終想學會如何畫畫。”

嘿，現(xiàn)在開始還不晚——尤其對于你現(xiàn)在是實力派明星來說。

對于我們來說幸運的是，Ian的母親看到了他的演繹天賦。小時候，Smolderhotter有個隱形的小伙伴——暫且叫做——Ian?！拔蚁矚g的東西Ian都喜歡，于是我向我媽要了一整包口香糖，一個小時后她發(fā)現(xiàn)我吃的滿嘴都是，”這個TVD 演員解釋說?！坝谑俏覌屨f，‘等等，Ian。我覺著應該給Ian也留點，’然后我說，‘不，不。Ian不喜歡這個’（笑）所以我過去常常做這種事。這使我媽開始有點意識到我注定成為一名演員?！蔽覀兇_實對她的做法欣慰。如果Ian當初選擇走在畫廊里賞析的路，那么我們現(xiàn)在的每周四（美國時間）也就大不相同了。