KryptonSite
Comic-Con Report: Allison Mack Discusses Season
8!
After
the Smallville panel at the Comic-Con
International in San Diego, the participating
actors and producers spoke with members of
the press about the upcoming season, and we
are now happy to share with you an interview
with fan favorite and recent birthday girl
Allison Mack (Chloe) from her roundtable
discussion.
The
first subject to be tackled in Allison's interview
is the news that Chloe will not only have
her relationships with Jimmy and Clark to
think about -- she will also forge an involvement
with new character Davis Bloome, played by
Sam Witwer.
"I
have such a stable to choose from now,"
Allison grins. "It's really so horrible.
Obviously my relationship with Clark is still
going strong, and we're always trying to figure
out if we're in love, or just friends, or
what's going on, and then she's got Jimmy,
who's just this beautiful, amazing, supportive,
stable, realistic man who I think she really
seeks to find solace in, and kind of uses
as a way to ground herself in some sort of
sense of stability. She goes to him a lot
when things feel kind of crazy, but now she's
got this new hero, the paramedic Davis guy,
who is pursuing her pretty actively, and is
incredibly attractive and very kind, and interesting,
and also a little dark. So she's really got
three to choose from, and then there's the
Green Arrow, and he's just like whatever.
He's just fun to play with," she laughs.
Allison
is excited about the story potential in having
Chloe interacting with the man who could be
Doomsday. "It's awesome. I mean, I'm
learning more and more about the comics as
we go, because I don't know a lot about the
Superman comics. So, just finding out a couple
weeks ago that Doomsday actually kills Clark
- I mean, kills Superman in the comics, and
being a part of a struggle between the dark
and the light side again, I think, is really
exciting, so I'm looking forward to it. And
Sam is a wonderful actor, and so charming,
so I am having a lot of fun playing with him,"
she says.
One
of the men from previous years of Smallville
- Lex Luthor, played by Michael Rosenbaum
- won't be seen regularly in Season 8, and
although some characters will be interacting
with him off-screen, Allison doesn't expect
for Chloe to be one of them. "I don't
foresee my storyline crossing over with him
too much, just because I have a lot going
on with Isis and Davis and Jimmy, and then
my own super powers that are kind of happening.
It would probably be more with Cassidy [Freeman]
and Tom [Welling], but it's possible. I mean,
I've got my nose in everything, so it's possible."
She refuses to count out the possibility of
seeing Michael Rosenbaum on the show again.
"We'll
see that bald head again. He's not gone for
good," she speculates.
"No,
because they're still very much a part of
our lives," Allison says when asked if
she misses having Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk
on the series. "We're like a train. We
just keep going and forging ahead. We miss
them dearly and we love them and we talk about
them and think about them all the time, but
we're making a show, man. We can't slow down,"
she says. She does address the feelings of
doing the new season. "I'm
directing this year, so that's a totally new
beast to tackle, so I'm looking at the show
in a very different way," she says. "Also,
there's something so wonderful about the family
that we've developed, and so coming back it
doesn't just feel like I'm coming back to
work on Smallville; it really feels like I'm
coming home in a lot of ways, so it's really
nice to be able to come back and enjoy that,
and kind of fall into the warm embrace of
the family that's being built there."
A
return to the Daily Planet might not be in
the cards for Chloe as the show goes into
its eighth year. "Well, I visit the Daily
Planet," she teases. "I don't know.
She's really diving head-first into the Isis
[Foundation], and she's really taking on the
job of being a mentor and that kind of place
of solace for the meteor-infected, and so
I think that that's really going to be her
focus, and I think she's pretty angry at Lex
Luthor, so she's going to stay as far away
from him and his cohorts as possible."
She does remind that "anything's possible"
with regards to Chloe's future. "That's
the fun part," she says.
"I
think that the most fun for me has been the
fact that my path as this character has not
been anything secure, so we've really been
able to work in quite an equal partnership
- the writers, myself, and the fans - in shaping
who this character is going to be and shaping
the direction she's going to go. I really
like the fact that everything is new, and
that we're really molding a brand new character
together. As far as my character's evolution,
my favorite part is just how honorable she
is. I think that if I was to choose any female
character on television to play right now,
Chloe would definitely be in my top three,
because I think that she's just a great -
just integrous, and loyal, and strong woman,
and I don't think that we have a lot of those
on TV for young women to look at. So, I'm
very proud," Allison says, revealing
that the other two women would be Allison
Janney's character on The West Wing
and the character played by Mary-Louise Parker
on Weeds. "All three of those
women really exemplify strength and intelligence,
and I like that," she says.
|
For
Season 8, Allison looks forward to exploring
the darker aspects of Chloe and cutting
the apron strings from Clark. "It's
time for him to grow up a little bit
and not rely on Chloe so much, so that
Chloe can go off and forge her own path,"
she says. "She's been his shadow
for a really long time and has been
doing things of great importance, but
I think it's really exciting this year
to see her forge her own way and figure
out what she's passionate about, and
figure out how she wants to do that.
Which you really start to see her do
at the Isis Foundation, and she's really
narrowing down her scope of what she
wants to focus on. She's trying to help
that part of the population in the world,
and I think that's really cool,"
she says.
|
|
The
second episode of Season 8 has Chloe taking
in a young meteor freak who needs her help.
"I think Chloe's really taking on the
whole Mother Teresa kind of thing that's been
looming around since she started with her
healing super power a couple of seasons ago.
She's got such a huge heart, and she's recognizing
that there's more people out there that need
her, other than Clark Kent, which is another
reason why I think she's starting to cut the
apron strings and let Clark venture into his
own sort of thing, because she's really seeing
how many people need her help, and Bette is
just the first of, I think, many," she
shares. Mack credits Chloe's drive as being
instrumental to her character. "I don't
think Chloe would stop until she actually
couldn't go any more, like, physically fell
over. So I think she's just going to take
things on until she can't," she says.
Allison
feels that directing an episode - as she will
be this year - is an important part of her
own personal evolution. "I've been acting
for 22 years, and I love film so much, and
I love the whole process of making films.
It's just sort of the next step of understanding
it on a deeper level. I always liked telling
stories in whatever fashion I can, and directing
is just understanding and learning a different
element to the storytelling process,"
she says. She reveals that her episode will
be either #13 or #15, and that the story is
as yet unwritten, but that there will not
be a lot of Chloe in the episode, by her request.
Finally,
Allison was asked about the possibility of
having her character appear someday in the
pages of DC Comics. "I love it,"
she says. "I think it's so cool. I mean,
what an amazing honor to have a character
written after you. I think it's so cool. So,
I'm thrilled about the opportunity and about
the possibility, and I hope to see it come
to fruition."
Read
our complete coverage of Comic-Con '08!
Sam Witwer
- Justin
Hartley - Kelly
Souders & Brian Peterson - Todd
Slavkin & Darren Swimmer - Allison
Mack - Cassidy
Freeman
Also
be sure to read our coverage on our other
sites!
KITTSite
(Knight Rider) - TerminatorSite
(Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
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