BuddyTV interviews Cassidy Freeman, who plays Tess Mercer on Smallville.
There’s a new bad-ass on Smallville, and her name is Tess Mercer. Cassidy Freeman’s entrance as the new CEO of LuthorCorp has been difficult, since Michael Rosenbaum left big shoes to fill. But with her strict, yet sexy attitude and her past with Oliver Queen, Tess has made her presence known.
BuddyTV spoke to Cassidy Freeman about how she’s settling into Smallville and Tess’ relationships with Chloe, Lois and Oliver. Continue reading to listen to our exclusive interview and to read the full transcript.
How have you adapted, how have you meshed in with the cast so far?
I have to say I have never worked with a group of people that I like this much. Everyone is so awesome. It’s a true testament to someone’s personality when you like to spend 12 plus hours with them on set and then you like to go hang out with them afterwards as well. But they’ve made it such a welcoming environment that it’s been a pretty great transition.
Who do you get along with best?
Are you asking me to pick favorites here?
Yeah, pick a favorite. Who is your favorite fellow Smallville star?
I can’t do that! Allison Mack and I have become good friends. We’re very close in age and we tend to have a lot of the same time off. We also both have dogs, so we have some dog activities we like to partake in like hiking and walking. [laughs] But yeah, Allison I hang out with a bunch.
So far there have been five episodes and you’ve been in all of them. Are you going to be in every episode, or are you going to get some time off like the rest of the cast?
Darn it, no I won’t, I won’t be in every episode. I was in the first five and I’m kind of in it every other since then.
Is she going to go full-on Lex Luthor bad?
Well, you know, I think it takes a bit of time to get there. I think she came into the show trying to be very confident and sure of herself, and her villain-ness I think is something that sort of creeps up on her the same way it does with Doomsday. But yes, you will definitely see Tess go from the questionable villain to villain.
How about the Oliver Queen and Tess relationship? Is he still going to be pursuing Tess, is that not over?
I don’t think it’s really ever going to be over, to be honest with you. I think that a lot of who Tess is now has to do with their relationship and the time in her life when they met, and how it all played out. In terms of us, I don’t know, I hope we have a lot more of those fight scenes, those are always fun to do. But Tess and Oliver are definitely not over.
What’s the most fun that you’ve had on the set?
You know it’s funny, I think that staff fighting scene went from the most fun to the most painful in a matter of the seven or eight hours it took to film. [laughs] So that’s a strange dichotomy for that scene. But I love fighting, I love being physical during a scene because it allows you to not really think about what you’re saying too much. It’s easy when you’re just standing there in a business suit to think too much, so when you’re being physical it’s really fun. I love to get in there and do it.
I do have a stunt double. It’s mainly for the stuff where I get thrown or where my body may actually get hurt, because they can’t really afford to have Tess in a cast, it’s a difficult to write into the script. Maybe one line about how I broke my arm or something. But all the fighting stuff I do, Justin and I both did completely ourselves, which is fun. It takes a lot of work, it takes rehearsal. We had to work together a long time off screen to be able to have that fluidity with each other in the fight.
There was definitely a little rivalry between Tess and Lois. Is there going to be more of a rivalry between those two?
Yeah, I love the connection between Tess and Lois because both are such strong women and they both are very strong in their convictions. They also are kind of the light in the dark in a way. I think Lois is very good, there’s a lot of good in her, and you don’t really know if there’s a lot of good in Tess yet. But we definitely come to a head because of that. I think also, without the audience knowing, I think a lot of it had to do with Oliver as well. They both have had relationships with Oliver, and as much as those strong women don’t want to admit that the man has anything to do with it, I think it does.
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-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
