We were fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down with Smallville’s own Tess Mercer, Cassiday Freeman, to discuss the upcoming finale and the daunting job of filling one Mr. Luthor’s loafers.
From TheCw:
Newcomer Cassidy Freeman plays the new CEO of LuthorCorp, Tess Mercer. With Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) missing, Tess is in charge of all things LuthorCorp, which includes the Daily Planet. She quickly develops a rivalry with Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and takes up an interest in Clark (Tom Welling) that could prove to be very dangerous.
Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, Freeman has been performing since the age of 3. A magna cum laude graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, she has loved and acted in various cities including New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Bryan: Tess sort of inherited the weight of Lex Luthor initially as far as being a villainess. Was that a daunting task?
Cassidy: It was a daunting task because he’s such a big character on the show, kind of like Clark Kent and Lex Luthor. The show’s come a long way since then. I think that the first few episodes in kind of the beginning was sort of establishing a sort of respect to him and now I hope that people can see Tess’s character for own.
Tess also has these moments of light, do you prefer playing her as evil or good? Are you just kind of ambiguous and don’t care either way?
I think that playing her light for me is more fun because I would expect her to be dark instead of playing against type. I think that she is kind of is who she is. Not being a real character, kind of being an amalgamation of characters, allows me a little bit of freedom to not have a destiny like everybody else does on the show, so it allows me to be a little bit more playful but which I think it is fun either way. The change is fun, getting to play both is the fun part.
The finale is tonight, is Tess a big part of what is happening on the finale?
She is in there yea; the orb is a big deal. Love the orb! She is the catalyst, the one that is willing to throw herself in the fire just to get it to burn.
How will fans see Tess after the finale? Will there be any difference in their opinion of her or their thoughts of her progression on the show?
I don’t think so; I kind of see injustice in Doomsday as sort of a two piece finale in a way because there is a pretty straight through line between the two. I think you saw the first part and it is going to be pretty much the same, as boring as that may be.
For a while there it seemed like there was no way that there was going to be another season of Smallville and now that there is going to be, are you excited? Was that very happy news to hear that they were going to continue on with another season?
Yes, it’s funny because everyone up in Vancouver is kind of in disbelief as well. They are like, “really?!” It is just a win-win because if it didn’t go then everyone can move on to something else and have a new experience but what is one more year of working with people that are really awesome and telling a story that obviously still has to be heard. I think that is great!
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