Ian Somerhalder Says Wife Nikki Reed’s Film ‘Thirteen’ Makes Him ‘Throw Up in My Mouth a Little Bit’

Nikki Reed got her big break in cult classic Thirteen 22 years ago, though her husband, Ian Somerhalder, still can’t take it seriously.

“As a dad now, I watch it and I … throw up in my mouth a little bit,” Somerhalder, 46, joked during a Thursday, April 24, interview on SiriusXM’s The Julia Cunningham Show. “But, it’s incredible [that was Nikki’s start] at 13.”

Reed, now 36, cowrote 2003’s Thirteen with Catherine Hardwicke, loosely based on her own life as a teenager. She also starred in the film alongside starred Evan Rachel Wood (playing the character based on Reed’s experience), Holly Hunter, Vanessa Hudgens, Brady Corbet and Jeremy Sisto, which chronicled the ups and downs of a mother-daughter relationship when Wood’s Tracy discovers drugs, sex and petty crime alongside her best friend Evie (Reed).

“One thing I’ve always had is a point of view,” Reed quipped on Thursday, noting she and Somerhalder don’t rewatch Thirteen both with and without their two young children. “I really embraced the fact that I grew [and] I lived on fast food and diet sodas, and I smoked cigarettes and I have the most wonderful mom who raised two kids in Los Angeles, making $16,000 a year on her own.”

She added, “I really embrace the arc of this journey, you know, where I am now versus what I had [and] the tools I had growing up. I think it speaks volumes. … All of these were passion areas of mine that I pursued on my own, which for anyone listening, curiosity is the best thing you can have. You keep that as a secret weapon in your pocket because as long as you remain curious and courageous, the transformation’s incredible.”

Reed and Somerhalder have been married since 2015, eventually moving their brood to a farm away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

“I start my days at 5 [a.m.] and I usually finish them around midnight,” the Twilight actress exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2024. “It is really full on and full time. … I’m definitely in the sleep-deprived-and-juggling-and-wearing-many-hats stage of motherhood. I think last night I slept maybe two and a half hours. I don’t have a way to track that, but the amount of times I looked at the clock, I think that would probably be it. So that’s my phase right now.”

While Reed and The Vampire Diaries alum, who share 7-year-old daughter Bodhi and a 22-month-old son, enjoy their life outside of the limelight, she has not formally retired from acting.

“Ian, at one point, made a very definitive statement. And I just want to say right here that I don’t want to be lumped in with his definitive statements,” Reed told Us in October 2024. “I feel like there are no doors that are ever closed. But it’s just not on the forefront of my mind right now. I’m running two companies.”

The couple co-owns The Absorption Company and BaYou with Love, while Somerhalder and his former TVD costar Paul Wesley also run a bourbon label.

“I’m working over 90 hours a week right now. When you realize that you can wake up and feel passion and purpose for your job — and that is the way that we feel about our companies — it’s really hard to have your attention pulled anywhere else,” Reed stressed at the time. “I wake up every day so excited at the shift and change that I hope is being created by building these businesses that are actually here to make the world a better place. It’s just really hard.”