“I’ll see you in Mystic Falls”: intimacy, feelings, and public issues in Ian Somerhalder’s celebrity activism

ABSTRACT

Critics of celebrity activism often assume that fans blindly follow celebrities who invite them to support celebrity activism and charity. These fans are often imagined as participating in celebrity activism only because their beloved celebrity asked them to — not out of any kind of rational understanding of a political issue, awareness of a public problem, or commitment to a public issue. We contest this view of celebrity activism. Drawing on scholars like Bennett, Ellcessor, and Chouliaraki, we argue that the case of Ian Somerhalder demonstrates that a commitment to a celebrity may actually be connected to a commitment to a public issue. We trace the ways in which Somerhalder plays with the slippage between television celebrity and his character, arguing that such slippage merges the intimacy fans feel for Damon with the intimacy fans feel for Somerhalder and imbues Somerhalder’s environmental appeals with the values his on-screen character comes to represent in The Vampire Diaries. We argue that Somerhalder deploys themes and ideals from The Vampire Diaries in his communication with fans and in his activist appeals. Ultimately, Somerhalder’s celebrity activism demonstrates how intimacy with celebrities might function to connect fans to public issues in powerful ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Television
• celebrity activism
• social media
• affect
• The Vampire Diaries

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2014 American Studies Association Conference in Los Angeles, CA. The authors thank Liz Ellcessor and the members of the Queen City Writing Group for their feedback on earlier drafts.

Notes on contriburtors

Kyra Hunting is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts at the University of Kentucky where she currently studies genre, fandom, and children’s media. Her work has appeared in Transformative Works & Cultures, Spectator, Communication Review, and the Quarterly Review of Film and Video.

Ashley Hinck is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Arts Department at Xavier University. Her research examines digital media, fandom, and civic discourse, focusing on fan-based citizenship. Her work has appeared in Transformative Works & Cultures, Argumentation & Advocacy, Communication Theory, and the Cinema Journal Teaching Dossier.

Notes

1 xo is commonly used as an informal abbreviation for hugs and kisses.