By Gavin Boyle
Ian Somerhalder explained how growing up poor helped him see past the glamour of Hollywood and focus on the important things in life.
“My dad taught me about the wetlands in Louisiana. When you take more than you give, there’s an imbalance. And guess who loses? We do. Nature will always find a way to regenerate. It’s us who loses because, look man, we were super poor, but we were so rich,” Somerhalder told Fox News. “We had, I’m talking freezers full. We had a shed of boxes of Louisiana blue crab, Gulf shrimp, red fish, speckled trout, Amberjack.”
“I’m talking fresh tuna. I’m talking all the good stuff. And it wasn’t until I was 16 as a model — I was the face of Versace at 16 — and you walk into a restaurant, even in 1994, and you order a dozen Louisiana blue crabs or oysters, and it was $100,” he continued. “And I thought…I have a thousand of these things in freezers. I was like, ‘Oh.’ So while we didn’t have a lot of money, we were rich in culture and the things that we needed.”
Though he has become a recognizable actor through his roles on LOST and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, Somerhalder never bought into the Hollywood lifestyle. In 2019, he and his wife moved to a farm to focus on living a simpler life.
“[It’s been] magic. It’s really the way it’s always supposed to have been,” Somerhalder told PEOPLE in 2022. “I think now you’re seeing a lot of people who were working in corporate offices, and you can see it now from a societal standpoint. People are having a really hard time getting back into work.”
“When you see the way that nature operates, you find compassion,” added his wife, Nikki Reed. “It’s a beautiful thing to see what’s happening with children, to watch them participate in the growing of their food and the understanding of what food is and where it comes from.”
While not everyone may understand the magic of living on a farm, Somerhalder believes that everyone benefits from those who do. It is local farmers who produce fresh food for places like farmers markets, rather than the major corporations selling in grocery stores.
“While the very populated urban areas may not get it, they still benefit from it because they benefit from the quality products and produce that these people produce,” he previously told Fox News. “So there’s this amazing sort of flow of commerce and business and sort of like mutual respect that I love.”
Somerhalder is now using his platform to help a wide audience understand just how important supporting family farmers is through his documentary COMMON GROUND. Throughout the piece he argues that the only way for Americans to get healthy again is if we refocus ourselves on proper farming, rather than pumping ourselves full of chemicals.
Related: Why VAMPIRE DIARIES Star Ian Somerhalder Left Hollywood for Family, Farm
As Ian Somerhalder uses his platform for good, it is encouraging to see an actor stand for what he believes in and remain steadfast in his roots, rather than allowing himself to be consumed by the luster of Hollywood.
Read Next: Why Actor Ian Somerhalder Traded Hollywood for Farm Life
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