Talking "Roulette" With Steph Song
Interview By Craig Byrne - KryptonSite Webmaster

DC villainess Roulette makes her Smallville debut in the Friday, October 23 episode appropriately titled "Roulette." Playing the role is Steph Song, a Malaysian-born actress who grew up in Canada and Australia. KryptonSite is happy to share an interview with Ms. Song which was conducted this week to promote this week's episode.

Questions are in bold and answers are not. Please do not reproduce this interview onto other forums without a link to KryptonSite.com, and please only use snippets with a link rather than re-posting the whole thing. Thanks!

Soon after your casting was announced, it seemed you had a lot of additions from Smallville fans on Twitter. Can you talk about that?

I left a clue and said I'm guest starring on a fairly well known series. The clue was, "it's a bird, it's a plane," and one little voice from someone I didn't know went "Smallville?" And then I said I'm in this episode. I think it was then at the time slated to be the sixth episode, and I guess everyone pieced it together and figured out who I was playing. Overnight I had over 300 new Twitter followers. It was quite a surprise. They're very loyal fans.

What is the deal behind Victoria/Roulette, and what are her motivations?

I played her like she had her own motivations. Someone actually sent me a two-page e-mail about who she was, and who her granddad was, and what she's been doing; the whole history of Roulette which I didn't know existed, which is really cool. But I played her like she's got her own agenda, and she always has her own agenda. She's always at least five steps ahead of everyone else.

Do we get to see Roulette's tattoo, and how long did it take to apply it?

Yes. You will get to see Roulette's tattoo, I'm happy to say. There was quite a lot of testing that happened with wardrobe and makeup and everything, to create the look of the character. I was in doing testing for about three days, which is the most extensive I've done for any project, and that was a little clue into how seriously this is being taken. The tattoo initially was drawn onto my body, and then there were quite a few pictures taken, and then after that there was a transfer made of it. It stayed on for a long time. It wanted to stay on me; it was really difficult to take off. I think I managed to scrub off the remnants of it only about a week ago. It stayed on for a really long time!

Can you talk about your character's fight scene with Lois, and how much of it was the two of you and how much of it was doubles?

A lot of it was me and Erica. Every time you see my face, obviously it's me. [Laughs] Every time you see her face, obviously it's her. But there were stunt doubles for both of us. There was one person hurt, and that was Susan Mai... I'm so uncoordinated, and I bloodied Erica's stunt double's nose. I accidentally back-fisted her. Which couldn't have felt very good, Her nose gushed, and I almost burst into tears. It's not a good feeling.

What was it like to work with Erica in that scene?

Erica's great. She is fantastic. She might as well have not used a stunt double. She's so proficient at it.

Your other scenes were mostly with Justin Hartley, is that correct?

Most of them were with Justin, yes.

What was it like to work with Justin?

Ah. Justin. Justin, Justin. He is fantastic. He's a very gifted actor, on top of being an incredibly good-looking man, and he has a great sense of humor. He makes everyone laugh. At one point, he had the whole room in stitches. The make-up artists, the hairstylists, the extras, whoever was around, they were just laughing so loud at the joke he was telling. The first day he came back and yelled at us, and told us that it sounded like we were having a rave party. [Laugh]

How was Smallville different from other projects that you have worked on, such as jPod?

jPod was a very dark comedy written by Douglas Copeland. I don't know if you're familiar with his work, but he wrote "Generation X: Tales of a Celebrated Culture." He's actually the man who coined the term "Generation X," which seems to come out in every conversation. I've been a long fan of his novels, so getting to meet the guy was a real moment for me, and then working on jPod was fantastic. When I met him, it was actually on his feature film, "Everything's Gone Green," which was shot before jPod. It's great. It was such a fantastic departure from what I normally do, which is drama and very, very dark comedy. There's so much care that's put into the production. We were shooting, on average, about one scene a day, which I think is pretty unheard of in every other production that I've done. They really take their time, and they did a lot of coverage, and they all have a very clear idea of what they want from the character. Walking onto a project where the character's already really well defined for me was a real treat.

Did you look into Roulette's comic book history when preparing for the erole?

I did look into her comic book history. From what I can gather, she's the "super-villianess of the underworld." She doesn't really have any super-powers, but she is quite proficient in martial arts. I think her strength is her intelligence. She's uber-smart. She's very sneaky. She's incredibly manipulative. She's a master actor. She makes you believe everything she wants you to believe, and then pulls the rug out from under you. She was a great character, and a really wonderful exercise in acting for me.

Would you like to return to Smallville?

Oh, yeah. Are you kidding me? Yes. I would very much like to come back. It was a blast playing her. And everyone [I worked with] ,was so kind.

What projects do you have coming up next?

There's an indie film that I did called "Dim Sum Funeral," that is doing the festival circuit, and then I've got a science fiction feature that's coming out called "Paradox." It's about a parallel Earth, and I'm from that parallel Earth where everything runs with magic. I find the portal to come into our Earth, where everything seems to run on science, and it's all a big mystery. My co-star in that is Kevin Sorbo.

Why is "Roulette" a "must watch" for those who may have tuned out from the show?

I wouldn't say that just "Roulette" is a must-watch. I've actually been glued since the beginning of the season. There are so many wonderful new characters that are being introduced, on top of the very firm, solid, and great foundation of the existing characters, with Tom, Erica, and Allison Mack and Justin, and so many others, but there's fantastic new characters that are coming on the show, which keeps it really lively and really spicy. There are some pretty kick-ass fight scenes for Roulette. I don't know; I like a good cat fight. Everything seems to stop when there's a cat-fight on TV. I put everything down and I have to tune into the cat fight. So, Roulette shows her claws. The cat is definitely clawing.

Catch Steph Song as "Roulette" Friday, October 23 on The CW's Smallville! Below are some features tying in with the episode that you may enjoy. Thanks again to Steph Song for the interview!

Forum - Countdown/LIVE Discussion Thread - Preview Clip Caps - Preview Images - Official CW Description - Spoilers

Return to the KryptonSite home page