Smallville: 10x10 cast interviews
John Glover and Cassidy Freeman have been making the rounds to promote Luthor, tonight's (is it 8PM yet?!) episode of Smallville, and I've collected all the interviews that have popped up in my Google Alerts over the past couple of days. At least two more should be posted today.
Both John and Cassidy have wonderful insights to share about the episode and their characters. My fondest wish would be to have them record a commentary track for this episode with Tom Welling. And if he won't do it, with writer Bryan Q Miller and director and executive producer Kelly Souders.
1) John Glover talks to Eric Goldman for IGN:
A huge reveal in a recent episode was that Lionel also has a daughter - none other than Tess Mercer. Glover laughed about this, saying, "Who would have known!? I did not know I had an illegitimate daughter. For seven years, I had no idea. So I was mighty surprised. But look at what I made!" Glover revealed that he and Cassidy Freeman have become fast friends, saying, "She's fabulous. She was just over for dinner the other night. We have hit it off, yeah."
Speaking about what Lionel and Tess' relationship is like, Glover hinted at some creepy undertones, at least on Lionel's side, as he remarked, "Well, because she's the kind of woman that she is… Lionel is very attracted to women like that. So there was a little bit of… Because they hadn't spent time together, it wasn't in Lionel's mind that she was a daughter, if you can grasp what I'm trying to tell you in a very slight way. This Lionel is not the best kind of guy. I really, truly believed in the Lionel before, but like I said, this Earth is a much darker kind of place and I think a lot of that has to do with Lionel and Lionel raising Clark to follow in his image."
Glover wouldn't confirm the rumors that he will be appearing in as many as three more episodes in Season 10, but when I mentioned the possibility of seeing Lionel and Martha Kent together again (Annette O'Toole is slated to guest star this season as well), he said, "Annette and I have stayed very close through the years since we both left, so we're chomping at the bit to play together again."
Read the entire article at IGN HERE.
2) Cassidy Freeman talks to Carina MacKenzie for Zap2it:
The CW has released some teaser clips from "Luthor," including scenes that display a whole new dynamic between Clark and Tess. "Our characters become textbook week-to-week, so any chance we have to take them and flip them and play something really different is great," Freeman says. "Especially with an actor you're so comfortable with, the way Tom and I are. We had a really great time exploring the different versions of Clark and Tess and how they'd react to each other."
Of course, the episode presented the opportunity for Freeman to work with actors she may not be as familiar with as well. Since she was added to the cast in 2008, she's had her fingers crossed to work with the actors who made the Luthors so appealingly devious.
"John Glover is awesome," she says enthusiastically of the returning star. "It's been a total dream of mine to work with him from the time I started the show. I've been wondering how they could bring him back in a way that would let me interact with him, and man, they did it so creatively. It was really fun. He's so talented and just brilliant to work with." She pauses. "I do still really want to work with Michael Rosenbaum, though. Just to throw that out there."
Read the full interview at Zap2it HERE.
3) John Glover talks to meg Masters for E!Online's Watch With Kristin:
What was your reaction to finding out they wanted you back on the show?
It was a big surprise. When Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson called me and said, "Would you be interested in coming back?" I said, "How in the world could I do that? I must have been a pile of broken bones and organs all smooshed together-I got pushed out of a 30-story office window." But they found this quite interesting way and the episode is a lot of fun.
Well, welcome back! Tell us a little about your four-episode arc. We hear you have some different family members this time around.
Yes, I threw my seed around a lot. [Laughs.] I've got an illegitimate daughter and I was the one who found Clark out in the cornfield. The Kents were home reading the Sunday paper or something. They were not out by the cornfield that day. So his name is now Clark Luthor.
What about the surprising new father-daughter dynamic between Tess (Cassidy Freeman) and Lionel?
When they told me that I had an illegitimate daughter who's running the Daily Planet, I was shocked. But then I saw her and everything was fine, because Cassidy is swell. We had a great time working together.
Any chance alterna-Lionel is a big ol' softie?
See, I believed in [the original Lionel]. I saw the love and the heart and the soul of that Lionel. He did such beautiful things for Lex; what other father, in a way to strengthen his son, would give his son shock treatment-twice! That's because he loved him so much. It was only to make him strong, you see? [Laughs.]
Read more at E!Online HERE.
4) John Glover talks to Natalie Abrams for TVGuide.com:
Lionel Luthor returns to Smallville in an alternate universe where his reign has left Metropolis and Smallville in poverty, and his shady dealings are enforced by his son, Clark Luthor.
"Lionel raised Clark as his own son with Lex as his brother," John Glover, who plays the elder Luthor, tells TVGuide.com. "Clark is the son that Lionel always wanted... No one trusts Clark. People are realizing that he's has been doing a lot of Lionel's dirty work for him. He's getting cocky about it."
While the original Lionel Luthor wasn't a saint, "Lionel on alternate Earth is a bit of a ruthless, out-for-himself guy," Glover says. "He's a maniac."
Glover suspects that's because in the alternate reality, Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole) isn't around. "Martha taught him a lot about life."
Read more at TVGuide.com HERE.
5) KryptonSite has a great interview with Cassidy Freeman HERE.
6) Smallville mention in today's EW Inside TV: Spoiler Chat column:
What can we expect in the next two episodes of Smallville?
This week, look for Cassidy Freeman as you’ve never seen before when we go to an alternate universe where Tess has grown up knowing she’s a Luthor. “It’s going to be Tess but Tess with a lot more knowledge of her past and therefore a different outlook on her life.… It’s an interesting way for us to play a ‘what if’ game,” Freeman told me. As you know, the episode is also the long-awaited return of John Glover as Lionel, and the situation comes to blows as he and Tess clash for the first time in the other world. What you may not know? It was totally real. “He really wanted me to hit him, so I did,” Freeman said, laughing. “I kept faking it, and I said, ‘Are you going to react to that?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, when you hit me.’ So I was like, ‘Yeah!’”
7) Did you guys see The Top 10 Lies TV Showrunners Tell You? I'll bet we could compile our own list just from Smallville. One of my faves? Brian Peterson at SDCC 2009: "The challenge isn't in stalling cause we try to never stall."
Both John and Cassidy have wonderful insights to share about the episode and their characters. My fondest wish would be to have them record a commentary track for this episode with Tom Welling. And if he won't do it, with writer Bryan Q Miller and director and executive producer Kelly Souders.
1) John Glover talks to Eric Goldman for IGN:
A huge reveal in a recent episode was that Lionel also has a daughter - none other than Tess Mercer. Glover laughed about this, saying, "Who would have known!? I did not know I had an illegitimate daughter. For seven years, I had no idea. So I was mighty surprised. But look at what I made!" Glover revealed that he and Cassidy Freeman have become fast friends, saying, "She's fabulous. She was just over for dinner the other night. We have hit it off, yeah."
Speaking about what Lionel and Tess' relationship is like, Glover hinted at some creepy undertones, at least on Lionel's side, as he remarked, "Well, because she's the kind of woman that she is… Lionel is very attracted to women like that. So there was a little bit of… Because they hadn't spent time together, it wasn't in Lionel's mind that she was a daughter, if you can grasp what I'm trying to tell you in a very slight way. This Lionel is not the best kind of guy. I really, truly believed in the Lionel before, but like I said, this Earth is a much darker kind of place and I think a lot of that has to do with Lionel and Lionel raising Clark to follow in his image."
Glover wouldn't confirm the rumors that he will be appearing in as many as three more episodes in Season 10, but when I mentioned the possibility of seeing Lionel and Martha Kent together again (Annette O'Toole is slated to guest star this season as well), he said, "Annette and I have stayed very close through the years since we both left, so we're chomping at the bit to play together again."
Read the entire article at IGN HERE.
2) Cassidy Freeman talks to Carina MacKenzie for Zap2it:
The CW has released some teaser clips from "Luthor," including scenes that display a whole new dynamic between Clark and Tess. "Our characters become textbook week-to-week, so any chance we have to take them and flip them and play something really different is great," Freeman says. "Especially with an actor you're so comfortable with, the way Tom and I are. We had a really great time exploring the different versions of Clark and Tess and how they'd react to each other."
Of course, the episode presented the opportunity for Freeman to work with actors she may not be as familiar with as well. Since she was added to the cast in 2008, she's had her fingers crossed to work with the actors who made the Luthors so appealingly devious.
"John Glover is awesome," she says enthusiastically of the returning star. "It's been a total dream of mine to work with him from the time I started the show. I've been wondering how they could bring him back in a way that would let me interact with him, and man, they did it so creatively. It was really fun. He's so talented and just brilliant to work with." She pauses. "I do still really want to work with Michael Rosenbaum, though. Just to throw that out there."
Read the full interview at Zap2it HERE.
3) John Glover talks to meg Masters for E!Online's Watch With Kristin:
What was your reaction to finding out they wanted you back on the show?
It was a big surprise. When Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson called me and said, "Would you be interested in coming back?" I said, "How in the world could I do that? I must have been a pile of broken bones and organs all smooshed together-I got pushed out of a 30-story office window." But they found this quite interesting way and the episode is a lot of fun.
Well, welcome back! Tell us a little about your four-episode arc. We hear you have some different family members this time around.
Yes, I threw my seed around a lot. [Laughs.] I've got an illegitimate daughter and I was the one who found Clark out in the cornfield. The Kents were home reading the Sunday paper or something. They were not out by the cornfield that day. So his name is now Clark Luthor.
What about the surprising new father-daughter dynamic between Tess (Cassidy Freeman) and Lionel?
When they told me that I had an illegitimate daughter who's running the Daily Planet, I was shocked. But then I saw her and everything was fine, because Cassidy is swell. We had a great time working together.
Any chance alterna-Lionel is a big ol' softie?
See, I believed in [the original Lionel]. I saw the love and the heart and the soul of that Lionel. He did such beautiful things for Lex; what other father, in a way to strengthen his son, would give his son shock treatment-twice! That's because he loved him so much. It was only to make him strong, you see? [Laughs.]
Read more at E!Online HERE.
4) John Glover talks to Natalie Abrams for TVGuide.com:
Lionel Luthor returns to Smallville in an alternate universe where his reign has left Metropolis and Smallville in poverty, and his shady dealings are enforced by his son, Clark Luthor.
"Lionel raised Clark as his own son with Lex as his brother," John Glover, who plays the elder Luthor, tells TVGuide.com. "Clark is the son that Lionel always wanted... No one trusts Clark. People are realizing that he's has been doing a lot of Lionel's dirty work for him. He's getting cocky about it."
While the original Lionel Luthor wasn't a saint, "Lionel on alternate Earth is a bit of a ruthless, out-for-himself guy," Glover says. "He's a maniac."
Glover suspects that's because in the alternate reality, Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole) isn't around. "Martha taught him a lot about life."
Read more at TVGuide.com HERE.
5) KryptonSite has a great interview with Cassidy Freeman HERE.
6) Smallville mention in today's EW Inside TV: Spoiler Chat column:
What can we expect in the next two episodes of Smallville?
This week, look for Cassidy Freeman as you’ve never seen before when we go to an alternate universe where Tess has grown up knowing she’s a Luthor. “It’s going to be Tess but Tess with a lot more knowledge of her past and therefore a different outlook on her life.… It’s an interesting way for us to play a ‘what if’ game,” Freeman told me. As you know, the episode is also the long-awaited return of John Glover as Lionel, and the situation comes to blows as he and Tess clash for the first time in the other world. What you may not know? It was totally real. “He really wanted me to hit him, so I did,” Freeman said, laughing. “I kept faking it, and I said, ‘Are you going to react to that?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, when you hit me.’ So I was like, ‘Yeah!’”
7) Did you guys see The Top 10 Lies TV Showrunners Tell You? I'll bet we could compile our own list just from Smallville. One of my faves? Brian Peterson at SDCC 2009: "The challenge isn't in stalling cause we try to never stall."