Paul Wesley, who plays Stefan “The Vampire Diaries,” talked producing, directing and his day-job on the CW when he joined TheWrap’s Rebecca Rosenberg at the Yellowtail Sunset for a new episode of “Drinking With The Stars” (presented by Strongbow Hard Cider).
Wesley produced and starred in “Before I Disappear” with Emmy Rossum and Ron Perlman. The film won the audience award at SXSW this past March and is out now.
Before “The Vampire Diaries” returns in January (with an episode he directed), he is promoting “Amira & Sam,” a quirky cross-cultural romantic comedy in which Wesley appears as “Charlie.”
“I’m really proud of it because we made it for no money. I really love the idea of independent filmmaking when it goes well and we are able to accomplish something with very little,” Wesley said.
“It’s a tiny little movie,” he offers, but it does land in 20 cities in January. He is eager enough to start showing it off that he gave us a private screening of a teaser trailer on his iPhone.
Wesley also moves into producing later this year with “Convergence.”
“When you’re on TV, you’re doing 22 episodes a year and there’s not much time to make changes for lines and you’re just sort of going with it,” he said. “With producing, you develop a feature over months and months and sometimes years. With ‘Convergence,’ it’s a story that my friend who is a very successful producer brought to me. I said, ‘I’d love to do this with you. Let’s produce it together, and I’ll be in it.’ We raised the money and we are going to shoot it.”
Watch Wesley’s “Drinking With the Stars” video to learn more about his directing and producing projects.
See the “Amira & Sam” teaser trailer below.