Paul: In the mansion. My mansion. This is my home. Welcome.

Interviewer: Well, we don't Stefan in this home, though, at the beginning

of the season. He's kind of stuck in the safe.

Paul: Right. That's my other home.

Interviewer: Is he settling in, is he putting up drapes, is he getting

comfortable?

Paul: He's getting comfy. He went to Bed Bath & Beyond. And he got

himself... all he can fit is a neck pillow. So, he's got one of those.

Interviewer: Well, I'm just imagining you filming scenes in this confined

little space, supposedly underwater. How is that to do?

Paul: Actually, it was a bit of a fiasco. I don't want to get into it, it's

a little boring. But basically, if you ever try to lay down 100 percent

sort of horizontal underwater, it's a physical reaction where, I'm thinking

about blood, man. Where water will go in your nose and you sort of start

drowning. And they needed to shoot it horizontally. So, there was this huge

conversation about how I was just trying to explain to him that I needed to

be sort of somewhat vertical.

It was a big fiasco, man. We had to rebuild the thing. And anyway, we

finally made it happen where I'm at a 45-degree angle, but we're cheating

at that I'm horizontal. So, when the audience see it, there's a little

tidbit of exciting knowledge for you. That I'm on a 45-degree angle. I

think everybody tuned out at this point.

Interviewer: No I don't think so.

Paul: This TV fanatic has no more followers.

Interviewer: Talk about playing the doppelganger. Because we've seen you

play different sides of Stefan before. But this is a different character

impersonating Stefan. Can you talk about that a little bit? And working

with Ian in those scenes.

Paul: It feels like my everyday life, man. When I leave work, I don't what

the hell, Stefan, Paul, I don't know. It all becomes interchangeable. It's

nice to play a different character. I like playing different characters,

especially with Damon, because he doesn't treat me like the little brother.

It's kind of more, Damon's my little brother in a way. So, it's nice, sort

of, with the different changes and power shift, I suppose.

Interviewer: Nice. We know that Stefan will eventually get out of this

confined space.

Paul: Let's hope. Or not.

Interviewer: When or if he ever gets out, what do you think his first

objective will be? Is it just to rush back home?

Paul: I think he's not going to have an objective because he's so kind of

screwed up in the head. I think the first thing he's going to want to do is

to feed. Because he's starving. So, that's going to be exciting to see

that.

And I think the other thing he's been grappling with, whether he's still

sort of the moral Stefan or if he's a new guy. I think he's sort of finding

out that he's not the same person that he was.

Interviewer: Okay. Do we see any flashbacks in these first episodes?

Paul: You see flashbacks to things, but they're not necessarily time

flashbacks. And they may or may not be hallucinations. But we are going to

a flashback in this season, we always do. I love those.

Interviewer: Either as the doppelganger or as Stefan... Catherine is very

changed now since she's human. I'm guessing you have some interactions with

her in one character or the other?

Paul: Right. Yeah, I do with one character or another.

Interviewer: How different is Catherine now? Can we expect a different

Catherine now that she's human?

Paul: She just has no, she doesn't have the same pizzazz. She's a mere

mortal. Like us.

Interviewer: What's been the biggest challenge so far this season in

playing either sides? Whether it's Silas or Stefan?

Paul: What was the most challenging thing?

Interviewer: Yeah. Has there been something more challenging than the

other?

Paul: I think the most challenging thing was like, there's a temptation to

sort of make Silas wildly different. And I think that I sort of didn't want

to make him all of a sudden, have some weird accent. Or start walking just

for the sake of differentiating the two of them. I kind of had to grapple

with people being like "Oh, they're very similar."

I had to sort of, like, be very aware of their similarities, but also,

their differences and really distinguish them. And not have to make a show

out of it.

Interviewer: All right. Thanks so much, Paul.

Paul: All right, man. Thanks.

Interviewer: Thank you. All right.