MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2007
SMALLVILLE'S ERICA DURANCE
The Continuum today continues its series of reports from a visit to the set of The CW's Smallville. Watch for additional reports soon.
BURNABY, British Columbia -- What's wrong with this picture?
Lois Lane, in an all-black leather outfit and short skirt, with bright red lip stick and a stragetically placed tattoo proclaiming her absolution devotion to Clark Kent, crashes Lex Luthor's party with Clark, looking to stir things up with her man.
If you've watched The CW's Smallville the past three years, you know that Lois clearly isn't herself. Yup, it's another one of Smallville's personality-change episodes, and for Erica Durance, who has played the wife-to-be of the Superman-to-be as someone with no current romantic interest in Clark, it's another chance to stretch her acting legs -- literally and figuratively.
It's a pretty intense scene as Clark, hyped up on Red Kryptonite, walks around the long table of guests, taking nasty verbal shots at Chloe, Lana, Lex and even his mother.
For the moment, Lois is spared the fireworks, but you can be sure it won't be long until she feels Clark's wraith, too.
As the crew turns around the camera for a different shot, Durance took a few minutes away from the set to talk with The Continuum.
Following is an edited transcription.
The Continuum: What do you think of this season, with your character hooking up with Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow and everything?
Durance: Well, I think each season everything builds and the relationships change a bit. I like this year because it's getting edgier, the stories are getting a little bit edgier. All the character arcs, having graduated from high school and all of those things, they're allowing them to experience different things.
And in particular for Lois, she has this romance with Green Arrow, which is nice for showing a side of her that is a bit more vulnerable. And then she gets to pursue more of the journalism, and I think she's on a journey to find herself a little bit more this year. And she's discovering, "Hey, I really like this," and maybe it is something that she's good at. So I've been able to play, definitely, with some different things this year.
The Continuum: She seems to be a different person with Oliver than she has been around Clark.
Durance: She's allowing herself to be vulnerable. She's actually allowing this person in. That's what's interesting. Everybody has certain defense mechanisms -- and Lois has a lot! But when she lets them down you see she is actually quite opposite to some of the stuff she puts out there, that sarcasm, that sassiness. That's part of her character, but a lot that is defense mechanism. She really is with somebody she trusts, she lets a lot of that down and doesn't mind having somebody else have a little bit more of that power.
The Continuum: Talk about working with Justin Hartley and him coming into the series.
Durance: Justin's really nice. He's a lot of fun and has got lots and lots of energy. Good jokes and that sort of thing.
Luckily with this show, everybody is just open. He just fit his own niche here, too. There are no airs on this set. So it was really nice for me to join and I think for him as well, although I don't want to speak for him. It seemed to be a really easy transition for him.
The Continuum: Has this been your favorite season?
Durance: I like this year even better than last year that I'm allowed to play a lot more things. I liked the "Arrow" episode a lot because I was able to deal with all sorts of things. That was the one where I got kicked and drowned and stuff.
It was all over the place. I got to do some wirework and I got rescued. And I had to go in and there and fight it up. And, of course, they had the drowning, which is a personal problem of mine.
The Continuum: You don't like the water, do you?
Durance: No, I don't like water (laughs) But each time I'm becoming more and more comfortable, so that's good. I mean, it's like facing a fear.
The Continuum: Judging by your appearance and attitude toward Clark for this scene, I gather Lois is "off."
Durance: No, I'm not playing the normal Lois. She is affected by, I call it, a love potion. The first person she sees, she believes herself in love with. So that's been fun to play, that total, youthful, innocent, jump-in-two-feet-first, I'm-in-love person. And, of course, that's just so not Lois, right? All the facades are down and she believes she's in love with him and it was meant to happen. So it's been fun to experiment with that.
The Continuum: What do you like most about Lois?
Durance: Her versatility. And her intelligence. She's not a victim. And when there are things that go on, even if it makes it worse, she will also look to herself to get out of something. Sometimes it makes it worse, but she doesn't go, "Will somebody help me? Somebody save me, somebody get me out of this." And I like that independence that she has. She won't feel sorry for herself very long. She might have a moment, but then she's like, "That's not productive."
The Continuum: Usually when Lois pops up, there's something going on.
Durance: Yeah! As an actress, I like the character of Lois Lane because she's versatile One time, she'll be getting in a fight. The next time, she'll find herself in love with someone. I like the fact that she walks in and saying something that is so opposite to what everyone else is feeling. Everybody is very dramatic and serious and there all these fantastic characters going on, and she comes in and says something stupid. I like that because that's the humor in it.
There's something that I look to in Lois: she says what everybody really wants to say about a situation, but most people won't say it. And she says it! That goes quite against my personal character, I find it fun to be able to go in and do that. "You're stupid" and "You drive me crazy." It's fun to play that, to find the humor.
The Continuum: What was it like meeting Margot Kidder at the convention in Toronto?
Durance: That was really cool. I remember I was standing there doing some autographs and then somebody grabbed me from behind and they put their hands over my eyes. And I was like, "OK, who is this?" because my husband wasn't there. And I turned around and it was Margot Kidder and I went, "Oh, my God!" She gave me this great hug and she was so fun. And then we got to do the Q&A together. It was awesome.
The Continuum: Has being part of the Superman mythos really sunk in?
Durance: Yeah, it does. When I originally got the part, I never had time to think about it in that specific kind of way because I just had to start working. I had to try to make it with respect to everybody else who has played it. And obviously, the Lois Lane guidelines. I had to try to find it. I had to look at her as a character that maybe hadn't been played before, just as this girl and this is where she comes from and these are her hang-ups. And then just, like Lois does, bulldoze my way through it. Throw a bunch of stuff on that wall and whatever sticks is what happens.
Occasionally, it will hit me that it's part of this really cool family. I can go, "No matter what happens in the rest of my career, I've done that. And that's kind of neat." I feel really lucky to be part of that.
The Continuum: You're doing a movie now, too?
Durance: It's too soon to say specifically when I'm working on it. They were going to fly me out to Scotland to do rehearsals for it. I was prepping for it and they were going to fly me to it for the weekend. And then as things go, the weekend comes by and then they give me a call... So it's still on the burner.
The Continuum: Are you set in the number of Smallville episodes you do in a season?
Durance: They still say 13, but there's always the possibility to do more. It comes down from above. I just always plan on 13.
The Continuum: Is it hard to know when you might or might not work?
Durance: I think, given the respect of how busy a TV schedule is, they've done a really good job of accommodating my schedule. Or if I have to go somewhere or do something. They've been really quite good about it and try to give me an overview of where things are going. Like last year, they helped me so I could do a couple of films. And this year, trying to balance out this one I'm trying to do in Scotland, they've been really patient with me.
I feel like I have the best of both worlds. I get to work on Smallville, which is a great show, and 13 episodes. And I still get to be free and I can go and do a film.
Copyright © 2007, The Comics Continuum