Vampire Diaries Joseph's evil laugh (From The Northern Echo)

Vampire Diaries Joseph's evil laugh

12:25pm Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Entertainment News © Press Association 2011

The Vampire Diaries star Joseph Morgan has confessed he loves playing the villain who can "sit back evil laughing in my tower".

The British actor made a guest appearance alongside Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley in the last series as evil vampire Klaus, and has now joined the hit show as a regular character.

Joseph said: "I love being the bad guy. If you're a hero on the show then you're just cleaning up the villains' messes along the way.

"I think there's a certain amount of fun that can be had from causing all these things and then sitting back and evil laughing in my tower at all the trouble that I've caused. I love the manipulation side.

"I'd like to think that I'm quite nice in real life so there's something quite liberating about being allowed to be that horrible on screen."

The Immortals star revealed when he first joined the show he had always wanted to become a regular character.

"When I got the audition I knew it was four or five episodes as a guest with the potential to become a regular next season," he said.

"So I took that as if I don't mess it all up, I'm going to be a regular. If I went in and they were like, 'This guy is horrible, we've made a terrible mistake', then they can just kill me at the end and that would have been it.

"I watched the show and I realised I'd really like to be a part of this. And now we're getting to the end of the season I'm thinking I want to stay."

:: Season Three of The Vampire Diaries returns to ITV2 this month and is already available to download from iTunes.