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Mover & Shaker
Smallville's Allison Mack is just about everywhere this fall—and her fans wouldn't have it any other way.
by Tara O'Shea
Allison Mack is on the move—literally. The 21-year-old actress currently starring in the WB's Smallville is getting ready to pack up her house in Vancouver and move back to Los Angeles, where her fiancé, Peter, is based with his band, Leisure.
"My mother is coming up to help me pack," she reports via telephone on a brisk fall evening. "I have all my picture frames and tchotchkes [to pack]. I've been in this house for almost a year now, so I was quite settled up here. But it'll be better for me to be down in LA. Peter's there, and I need to be near him. I'm anxious to settle in somewhere. I was hoping to settle into this house here, but every time I'm not working, I fly back down. Most of my stuff is filmed all at once, so I'm usually done in three or four days. And because each episode takes about 14 days, it ended up that I was flying back home and spending more time in LA than I was up here, and I have to get a dog sitter for my dog, and have someone watch my cat. So I have this beautiful place up here, but I'm never here. So that was why I made the decision to move back down. I'm a little stressed out about it. Any time you make a big decision, you get nervous."
Mack has been on the move constantly this year, and all over the radar. The actress was recently featured in a photo shoot for Seventeen magazine, a two-page spread in French magazine Sèries, and at Hillary Duff's Celebrity Charity Challenge in Toronto, part of a weekend long charity event which launched the Canadian chapter of Kids With a Cause. The charity, which was founded in September 1999, affords young people in the entertainment industry opportunity to the use their celebrity to help disadvantaged kids. Mack served as the Spokesperson for the year 2001 and has been an active member of the organization since its inception, and the actress jumped at the chance to take part.
"Kids With a Cause is a really great charity. I'm kinda bummed out, because I'm getting a little old for it, because it's all about kids helping kids. I can't be as involved as I used to be. I love it because it's so hands on. I actually get to go hang out with the kids and spend time with them. It's very, very rewarding, and it's so important. So much of what we do in this industry is surface and so unimportant. When you can do something that has a little bit of depth, it's very fulfilling. I think it's totally worthwhile. And I just love being around kids."
November will also be a busy month for the young actress, who has signed on to attend her second Wizard World convention being held in Texas. Relishing a chance to meet with her fans, she will also appear at a comic book store opening in Philadelphia, in-between shooting episodes of Smallville. Constantly on the go, the actress has documented many of her recent activities on her blog, utilizing one-time use digital cameras sent to her by Kodak as part of an endorsement contract. The blog premiered in early August on TheWB.com and is a huge hit with her legion of fans around the globe. However, Mack admits that her co-workers and friends are getting a little tired of the shutterbug constantly snapping photos.
"It's funny, because Kristin's like 'The camera? Again?' It's getting to the point where I think everybody is like 'Enough. Enough of it already.' Peter's not a big picture person at all. He loves to take pictures—absolutely loves it. But he hates to have a picture taken."
Fiancé Peter left Leisure for a time, but Mack reports he's returned to the band. "It's like a little Behind the Music story. They quit and then they come back together because," she said, putting on her VH1 announcer voice, "'they can't! do! Without him!' They have a huge show coming up in October. So that will be really fun, and then they'll go back out on the road."
While on-line journaling has been around for several years, the Kodak and The WB partnership was Mack's first exposure to blogging, and she has been learning about it as she goes.
"I like it. I think it's fun. I keep calling [Kodak] and saying 'I'm running out of things to take pictures of.' I don't do something different every day or every weekend. It was actually good—when I started the blog I had a whole lot going on. I was travelling a lot, I had photo shoots, I was going to concerts. So there was a lot of stuff at first, but now it's like 'Here is my chair. Woo!' They're gonna have tons of pictures of all the different dogs I hang out with.
"I didn't realize how personal it was going to be until I started doing it, and I was like 'Wow. All right, I'm bringing these people into my world. Here you go. This is my house, and this is my dog...' And I don't wear make-up when I'm not working, so it's me not looking glamorous. It's been hard for me, because I have to be careful. I can't take pictures of the front of my house. I never think about stuff like that, but I have to be a little more cautious. And I never think about that stuff, I'm just like 'Whatever!' and then they'll call me from Kodak, and say 'Um... did you really want the picture with the close-up of your address?'"
There was a slight panic when the blog disappeared for two weeks earlier this fall—a panic Kodak and Mack shared. "The cameras got caught up in [Canadian] customs, so that's why it's going I think until either the end of October, or November. It was extended a few weeks so that they could make up for the two weeks that they lost. But it's cool. It's nice to see that people are liking it."
Small Town Girl
The burning question of course on the minds of all of Mack's fans current is: Is Smallville's Season Three shaping up to be Chloe's year?
"It's starting to," she promises. "Surprisingly. The first two episodes, I don't have much, but as we're progressing, I'm getting more and more, and I'm kinda going 'Wow. I'm working quite a bit now. It's kinda cool!' My storylines—I don't necessarily have tons and tons to do, but the stuff that I do have to do is really interesting. So it's good, it's actually nice. I'd rather have little interesting things to do, than a whole lot to do in a really 'fluffy' storyline. There's a lot of Chloe and Lionel," Mack hints as to what fans can expect this season, "which is really wonderful because John Glover is really amazing. I learn so much just from being on set with him and it's been really great working with him. John Glover gave me my Mighty Mouse t-shirt! He said he saw it and thought of me, and I thought that was really sweet."
Yet more proof that John Glover the best Evil TV Dad Ever, as if there was ever any doubt. But of course, what many fans are dying to know is... How about Lex?
"You actually start to see Chloe and Lex [in scenes together]. It's fun. I'm having a good time, because I never get to work with Michael either, so now I'm finally getting to do some interesting things with him. I'm spending a lot of time at the mansion. We're having a really good time. We're in episode eight now, I think, and the next one that we're doing is my favorite script so far. It's interesting, though, because by the third season, you're playing the same character now for three years, so it's a different kind of challenge to keep it fresh and find new things about your character that are different, that you haven't seen before, to keep it vibrant and alive. It's definitely been interesting."
Do the producers have any specific plan for Chloe this season?
"They didn't tell me anything when I had my meeting this summer. They just said 'You're going to have some really great storylines.' That was all I heard. So everytime I get a script, I page through to see what's going to come up. But it's literally week by week. I never know in advance what I'm going to be doing. I don't know if they know where they're going, or if they just don't tell [the actors] because they know we all have big mouths and would tell everyone," she laughs.
Smallville often comes under fire from fans regarding general poor quality of the women's roles on the series—which are often reduced to merely "the crush," "the girlfriend," and "the wife." Promising storylines last year with Martha Kent working with Lionel Luthor, and Chloe and Clark's friendship, were mysteriously dropped. Many fans griped in particular about Martha being reduced to "a womb on legs" and Chloe losing her investigative edge. However, since former Firefly and Buffy scribe Drew Greenberg (coming from a background of series with very strong, well-rounded female characters) and X-Files and Voyager writer/producer Kenneth Biller (who penned last year's stand-out Lineage, and co-wrote Insurgence with comics scribe Jeph Loeb) are contributing scripts, fans hope that Season Three might be the one, so far as the gals of Smallville are concerned.
"Lana has some interesting stuff to do as well, and I know Annette O'Toole is really hoping for some interesting stuff as well. It's been hard, because it is such a sci-fi show. 'Buffy' really did a good job capturing the female aspect of something and also having it be driven enough to be an interesting [genre] show and not be too emotional, and not get caught up in melodrama. I think on our show, we're just having a hard time finding the female voices. We've got the sci-fi part down. But we'll find it."
One thing Smallville has given Mack is the opportunity to make close friends, both on and off the set. In addition to hanging with Kristin Kreuk, Mack is close to former co-star Eric Johnson, whose character Whitney Fordman was killed off last spring, despite a fan write-in campaign to keep the former jock-turned-Marine MIA.
"Eric is so amazing—he's such an amazing person. He and Peter get along really well, it's so much fun. We actually all went to London together this summer. He's awesome, and I hope he does really incredible well. He's fantastic. I miss him. Both Kristin and I really miss having him on set because he just brought such great energy. And then when he got blown up, he was like 'Well, at least I go out in style.'"
Kick-Ass Chick
In-between saving the day, Mack and co-stars Tom Welling and Kristin Kreuk are taking kickboxing and martial arts together.
"We have the most incredible trainer up here. His name is Kirk Jakes. He has a gym called The Action Room, and it's where all of the stunt people in Vancouver train to do wirework and flips and martial arts and all that sort of stuff. So we get to walk in there after the stunt people are done and train with the same trainer that they train with. We're learning really awesome stuff, like fighting for the camera, and they have a boxing ring. We're working on flexibility, and power in your legs. It's a really great workout for your hips and stuff, too. It's awesome. I really like it. When I don't go, I can feel a really big difference in my body. But when I'm there, I don't feel like I'm working out because it's so much fun. Kristin kicks really hard, though. We just place the kicks—we don't have kicking pads. You're just supposed to tap the person you're kicking with, and she really kicked me one day. I was like 'You know what? That was too much.'"
Maybe we'll get to see Chloe get to kick some ass this year?
"Maybe! [Chloe] talks a lot, but she doesn't really have anything to back it up with. In Kinetic I only broke my arm. How lucky was that? That's the thing that makes me laugh. Sam went through the front window of a car, and I get thrown out a third story window, and we all walk out with, like, a broken leg. We're very resilient on Smallville."
It's a special universe in which high school juniors can run a successful business in addition having a full-time job as a student
Mack laughs. "Kristin and I were talking about that the other day. You know what? If Smallville was a real town, it would be so different! It's in the middle of nowhere. I don't understand how we're so cultured here."
Speaking of culture, Mack does itch at times to stretch her wings and explore different characters in theatre or film.
"It's hard playing the same character all the time. No matter how great Chloe is, and how much I like playing her, it's hard not branching out and trying other things. I'm definitely itching to do something good and do something interesting. Every time I see a good movie, I'm like 'Aaaaah! I want to do that!' But I'm enjoying what I'm doing and I'm thankful for where I am. So I just keep reminding myself of that. But I am moving back home [to Los Angeles] and I'm just going to fly up to work. I need to do more theatre, and I need to go back to my acting classes and I need to get back involved in my artist growth program that I was in back before I got the show. Because I'm starting to stagnate. I want to keep growing and stay interesting.
"Smallville has been a great opportunity for me, and I've gotten such good experience. But I am definitely aching to do something new. Try on a different hat. If I haven't worked in a while, if I haven't done any sort of acting for a while, find I have all this pent-up energy that comes shooting out in other ways. It's never a good thing," she laughs. "I'm excited to get into some little black box theatres and do some sort of weird, avant-garde performance in LA somewhere. I'll be excited to do that."
| Mack macking on today's hottest stars... |
Everwood cutie Gregory Smith |
Gilmore Girls bad boy Milo Ventimiglia |
The O.C. hottie Adam Brody |
Smallville hunk Tom Welling |
Forget those guys! Mack goes home to her fiancé, Peter!" |
Which is not to say that life on Smallville is without its share of drama.
"There was this whole big hair drama," Mack admits. "I cut my hair, and everyone said 'Allison, you didn't get permission to cut your hair. We want it back the way it was.' So in the first episode, my hair looks one way and every episode after that, it looks exactly the same as it did last season and nobody ever addresses it or acknowledges it. It's kinda funny. It wasn't like a super big deal, but you'll notice it. My hair guy was doing this whole asymmetrical bleached thing, and they were like 'We want it to be the same on both sides.' So we only had to put extensions on one side, and only for a little bit because my hair grows really fast."
The WB has proven somewhat obsessive in regards to appearance clauses over the past few years. After Keri Russell chopped her curls and the ratings dropped on Felicity, the network insisted on adding appearance clauses to their stars contracts that would give them control over their stars appearances.
"They're crazy about it over there. I understand, because it's a very image-driven network. All about the image of the kids on the shows. But I've never been so locked into a look. After the third year of looking one specific way, you're kinda of, like, 'Okay, time for a change.' And they don't agree. It's a little strange. But it's worth it."
Kiss and Tell
We now, of course, reach the most important question of the evening, namely, who is a better kisser: Gregory Smith, Milo Ventimiglia, Tom Welling, or Adam Brody?
Mack laughs at the roster of some of the hottest guys, all of whom she has kissed on-screen,
currently being pinned up in teenage girl's lockers. Without hesitation, she names her Opposite Sex co-star. "Milo. Totally Milo. He's so sweet and he's such a good guy, I'm really crazy about him. He's getting to direct now. He's getting to fulfil some dreams that he's had for a very long time, so [Ventimiglia's Gilmore Girls spin-off being dropped] is really a blessing in disguise."
"That's really funny, wow. I only kissed Gregory once," Mack muses, referring to the short-lived CBS series Kate Brasher, where she played a doomed teenage runaway. "I kissed Greg, and I committed suicide. I jumped off a cliff."
But hey—she went out in style.
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