Photography by Mr Paul Jasmin | Styling by Mr Dan May

Words by Mr Sanjiv Bhattacharya

Sitting in front of a tall mirror in a swish Beverly Hills home, Mr Somerhalder squints at his reflection and musses his hair while a make-up guy called Charles dabs around his eyes. "Oh the tattoo?" he says, pointing at the inscription on his forearm: Hic et nunc. "It means 'I am hung' in Latin. Ha ha! No, I'm kidding. It means 'here and now'. But I've said that to people, and they believed me." He's best known as Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries, a raging hit among panting teenage girls (who call him "Smolderholder" on their blogs). The rest of us may recognise him from Lost. Today, however, he is "the talent" on a photoshoot, a role that he embraces. Despite the hubbub of a full crew setting up for the shoot, only one voice cuts through it all - he's the loudest and most confident person in the room. And he doesn't stop talking. Some stars might retreat behind their handlers, but Mr Somerhalder would rather introduce his handlers to everyone in person. "This will revitalise it," he says, pointing to a tub of hair product. He turns his head, examining his reflection. "It won't make it greasy, it'll give you a great base." Charles checks the label. "Yeah, this gets right into the hair." "OK use it. Go for it baby." All actors are familiar with the make-up chair, but few are quite this comfortable. Mr Somerhalder, however, has been modelling since he was 10. He spent his teens travelling the world and "working it" for the cameras, an extraordinary life by any standard. But the way he tells it, he's just a simple boy from the South - specifically, a small town called Covington near New Orleans, Louisiana. His mum was a massage therapist and his dad a building contractor. They didn't have much, but life was idyllic nonetheless.

The mid-1990s were like this total Dionysian, promiscuous time in the fashion business. An amazing time to be young and not have any responsibility

"Dude, look." He starts scrolling through shots on his iPhone of the bayou near his family home. "That's my nephew on the boat. We're teaching him how to paddle. I did exactly the same thing at his age. Total Louisiana stereotype, with the crawfish boiling in the pot, you know? We had a rope swing and we'd jump off right into the water." There's not a drop of gumbo in his accent through. You'd never peg him for a Southerner. His mum knew he'd be an actor, and a drawl wouldn't help him, so she "used every dollar we had to put me into acting classes," he says. "Losing the accent takes away that first initial... People are extraordinarily judgmental." He soon escaped the conservative South for New York, where he has lived since the early 1990s. As a young model, he and his mother would visit the big city for the summer, renting a tiny apartment that "cost more per month than any house we ever lived in". But even at the age of 11, he was earning a proper wage. And on his 16th birthday - on 8 December 1994 - it became a lot more proper. The photographer Mr Steven Meisel saw a Polaroid of his and decided to put him in a 12-page story in L'Uomo Vogue. Pretty soon photographers such as Mr Bruce Weber were calling. And within a year, he was living between Milan, Paris and New York. "Yeah, it was nuts," he says. "The mid-1990s were like this total Dionysian, promiscuous time in the fashion business. An amazing time to be young and not have any responsibility.

the work Lost The actor in season six of the TV series, with on-screen stepsister played by Ms Maggie Grace

pulse Mr Somerhalder in the 2006 Mr Wes Craven horror, alongside Ms Kristen Bell

the tournament Mr Somerhalder played an assasssin in the 2009 British indie film

the vampire diaries Mr Somerhalder in series three with co-star Ms Nina Dobrev





