Give Us A Chloe
April 1, 2002
Smallville star Allison Mack spends all day drooling over Tom Welling: yes, "Chloe's totally in love with Clark... She's always staring at him", admits the young star. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it…
At the time of this cell phone interview, actress Allison Mack is back home in LA, giving directions in a car while answering questions. Basically, even on a short break from filming the WB hit Smallville in Vancouver, the busy 19-year-old is still giving the Duracell Rabbit a run for his money. No surprise there. Ever since she was four, the talented rising star has appeared in a whirlwind of commercials, movies, and television projects... However, Mack has probably garnered the most recognition as a regular on the super-powered drama Smallville, a show which has struck a chord with both critics and viewers (including healthy ratings on Channel 4 in the UK). With a one-two punch of new twists on a familiar icon combined with the tragedy of a real-life event, Mack says it's not hard to see why it's become so popular.
"I think it's part of a famous story that has never been explored," she offers. "The idea of seeing Lex before he was evil and Superman before he was good is very interesting. It's a unique way to look at it. It's also timing. We came out when the world really needed a hero after September 11. We needed something good and wholesome that focused on a heroic person."
As Chloe Sullivan, Mack is part of Clark Kent's (Tom Welling) close-knit circle of friends. A natural opposite to Lana Lang's (Kristen Kreuk) sweet girl-next-door, Chloe is the slightly cynical city girl from Metropolis with aspirations of returning there as a reporter for the Daily Planet. Not much has been revealed about her family's background. One thing is evident though: she's got the hots for a certain Teen of Steel.
"She's totally in love with Clark, but she is his best friend so it's that awkward line of unrequited love," Mack explains. "She could never have him but she also doesn't want to have him because that would ruin their friendship. But she's always staring at him and wanting him and it's easy because Tom Welling is such a great guy. Also, it's a situation every girl can relate to. I think every girl has a best friend they are secretly in love with. That's a universal thing that people go through."
Looking back, Mack almost didn't get the chance to drool over her hunky co-star. The young actress had auditioned for the part of Chloe but discovered the writers had originally scripted the character as an African-American girl. Even back then, Mack saw a lot of Chloe in her. "I'm very similar to my character," she says. "Of course, she's a character and she's a bit younger than I am, so she has immaturity in her. However, we're both very excitable, we both have a ton of energy, we're both enthusiastic, and we're both nosey..."
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Small Town Boy
December 1, 2001
He may not be wearing the red, yellow and blue yet, but Tom Welling is certainly
filling the shoes. The actor talks big about Smallville
I really didn't know anything about the Superman mythos," admits Tom
Welling, who stars as Clark Kent on Smallville, the freshman WB series
that's taken off like a speeding bullet since its début in October,
quickly won a full-season pick-up, and reaches the UK on New Year's Eve.
"In my mind, that helped. I approached the material only through what was
presented to me in the script. And that was it. The WB gave me a book
[summarizing the long history of Clark Kent/Superman and the various comic
book, TV and film incarnations], but I've not opened it. I know the scripts are
not following exactly what's in the comic, just from what everyone has told me,
but I made the decision not to research Superman."
Truth be told, Smallville less resembles Lois & Clark: The New
Adventures of Superman than it does, say, Dawson's Creek. At heart,
it's a teen drama with a Fantasy underpinning – not too unlike the early
days of another, now-transplanted, WB series, namely Roswell.
"Smallville is about the relationships," Welling says, putting
it simply. "It's a matter of geometry, basically. The relationship with
Lex, I think, is the most intriguing because it's just a matter of time before
the two of them will turn against each other. Right now they're friends and
they're just starting their friendship. We all know how these people will end
up in a few years, so it's just a matter of how they get there."
How they get there, of course, is the stuff of which Smallville's plots are
made. Each week, Clark deals with his burgeoning powers. In
X-Ray, for example, Clark begins to discover he
can see through just about anything. Each week, he realizes that he could be
the coolest guy in Smallville and that he could, if he wanted to, wow Lana Lang
[Kristin Kreuk].
So, was Welling psyched or disappointed that producer-writers Alfred Gough
and Miles Millar employed a `no tights, no flights' edict? "I didn't even
have time to feel either way," replies the actor, a 24-year-old whose only
significant previous credit was six episodes as Amy Brenneman's younger love
interest on the drama Judging Amy. "When I walked into the audition
for the first time, they said, `No matter what you're thinking, you're never
going to wear tights and you're not going to have to have a cape.
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