Allison Mack Talks Chloe and SMALLVILLE

The cute blonde TV veteran gets another shot at the director's chair this season, and she looks forward to new adventures for Chloe Sullivan.
Barring any industry work stoppages this year, Smallville's Allison Mack at last will get behind the camera for an episode of Season Eight.

"It's either thirteen or fifteen, I’m not sure," she told CBR News's REMY MINNICK at last month's San Diego Comic-Con. "I don't have the script and I have no idea what it's going to look like other than it's not going to have a lot of Chloe in it."

That would be Chloe Sullivan, the character Mack has played on the popular young Superman series for nearly a decade--a good chunk of her career.

"I've been acting for twenty-two years," she said. "And I love film so much and I love the whole process of making film, this is just sort of the next step of understanding it on a deeper level. I always want to be telling stories in whatever fashion I can and directing is really just understanding learning a different element of that storytelling process."

Since she was originally scheduled to direct an episode last season, she'd already spent some time on set shadowing directors, watching the process, asking questions and taking notes. She's doing that again now, apprenticing herself to directors, ADs, and the directory of photography.

"I'm trying to learn as much as I can, it's amazing," she said. "Making a TV show is incredible, the things that go into it and the amount of work oh my god it's amazing."

On the acting side, Mack is looking forward to explore some other aspects of Chloe this season. Viewers probably won't see much of their favorite blonde at the Daily Planet, since she'll be focusing more on the Isis Foundation, which she "inherited" from the departed Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk). There she'll mentor and comfort others who are, like she is, meteor-infected. This includes Bette, aka Plastique, a DC Universe character making her debut this season.

"I think Chloe is really taking on the whole Mother Teresa kind of thing that's been looming around since she started her superpower of healing a couple of seasons ago," Mack said. "She's got such a huge heart and she is recognizing that there are more people that need her other than Clark Kent. Which is another reason I think she's sort of starting to cut the apron strings and let Clark venture into his own sort of thing 'cause she is really seeing how many people need her help and Bette is just the first of I think many."

Between her complex relationship with Clark (Tom Welling), Jimmy Olsen's marriage proposal (Aaron Ashmore took a knee in the Season 7 finale), and the introduction of Davis "Doomsday" Bloome (Sam Witwer), Chloe has her hands full when it comes to men in her life.

Plus, Mack reminded, there's always the Green Arrow (Justin Hartley) "and he's just fun to play with."

Obviously, the producers and writers are piling on the guest stars and new regulars in an attempt to fill the huge void left by original Smallville cast members Kreuk (left, with Mack) and Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor).

But, while she feels her friends' absence, Mack won't let that stop her. "We're like a train, we just keep going, forging ahead and we miss them dearly and we love them and we talk about them and think about them all the time, but you know we are making a show so we can't slow down."

The new season of Smallville begins in September on the CW.
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8/21/2008
CBR News