TV.com Q&A: Smallville's Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack

By Tim Surette - TV.com

Lana Lang and Chloe Sullivan from the CW hit Smallville speak to TV.com about the show, their upcoming business venture, and college life.

As stars of one of The CW's long-running bona fide hits, Kristin Kreuk and Allison Mack--who play Lana Lang and Chloe Sullivan on Smallville, respectively--don't exactly have a lot of spare time on their hands. But that's not keeping them from starting new ventures.

When the two best friends aren't at early-morning shoots or script reads, they are hard at work starting up a new Web-based project geared for college students. They're looking to do some thorough research before anything goes live, and are asking their fans to help them out by filling out a quick online survey.

Smallville is in its seventh season on the air, and has built an incredibly dedicated fan base over that time. Both Kreuk's and Mack's characters have been on the show since the beginning, which makes them the elder stateswomen of Smallville University.

TV.com spoke with the two about Smallville and its growing cast, their new business, and what it's like on set.

TV.com: What can you tell us about the rest of season seven? Don't give away any spoilers, but I hear there's going to be a few big things coming up for both your characters.

Allison Mack: There are some big things coming up for both of us. There's a lot of girl power happening within the next couple of episodes.

Kristin Kreuk: Yeah, it's true, Allison and I are working a lot together.

Allison Mack: Kristin and I are working together more than we've ever worked together before, and we're spending some time working with Laura, who plays Supergirl. So, you're going to see three chicks running around taking care of business, which is a first for Smallville.

TV.com: Well, talk is swirling that if season eight happens, it will be Smallville's last. I know all good things must come to an end, but are you guys kind of sad to see it go, or are you ready to move on?

Allison Mack: I feel like I have mixed emotions about it. I think that it's strange, because it feels like it's where I've grown up. But on the other hand, it's like playing the same character for eight years, [so] I'm ready to do something new. A part of me is really excited about the possibilities of my next step in my life, and then another part of me is really sad to see it go, because it does feel like family now, for sure, and I will miss everyone greatly.

Kristin Kreuk: Yeah, I definitely feel like we've been on the show for a long time, and I'm ready to move on, but I love the people that we work with, we've got such a great crew and people on cast and crew, and they're amazing, so I'll miss them a lot.

TV.com: You guys talked about Laura earlier, and there was a lot of hype when people found out Supergirl was joining the show. What was it like on the set and were there any catfights?

Kristin Kreuk: Sadly, we have no gossip for you. We're actually an incredibly wholesome set. There aren't a whole lot of catfights that happen. In fact, I don't think there's ever been a cat fight that has happened on our show.

Laura Vandervoot is awesome. She's a sweet girl. She's one of probably the sweetest girls I have ever met. She's lovely and she adds a lot to the show. She's got, like, an innocence about her, but it's really, really cute.

Yeah, she's folded into our cast very nicely, and I think every time a new character is added to the show it changes the energy on set, and that's really fun. It livens everything up and keeps it fresh. So I think we were all really excited to invite her in.

TV.com: When most shows add characters, the shows get cluttered. But with Smallville, cast additions just seems to make things better. Do you guys feel the same way?

Allison Mack: I do, and I think probably that is a tribute to the writers and their ability to really juggle all of our story lines. And then another part of that, I think, is also the fact that it feels like--and I can't speak for everybody on the cast, but I know for me--it's very much a team and I've made a very conscious decision to keep participating in that way. And so, when we add another character to the show, I don't feel like I'm having to out-act them. I'm kind of thinking, "Oh, he's another teammate." So, I think that because of that, it really allows for a very collaborative and conducive working space, that maybe transfers on camera, I don't know.

Kristin Kreuk: Yeah, I don't think there's a big ego kind of competition thing that goes on on our set at all. So it's really lovely when new people come on.

TV.com: Correct me if I'm wrong, but both of your characters at some point have seemingly been blown up. What's your reaction to reading that part of the script?

Allison Mack: I've died I think about seven [times] and now with my new power I continue to die on a regular basis. So, it's kind of fun. At first I was really stoked to get to play a death scene because I thought that that would be really cool. And now I find it's just like, "Oh, I died again." And it's like an extra 25 minutes in makeup! We kind of know ahead of time what the death is about. So, like if they're going to blow us up, we know why they're blowing us up, and we may not know what's going to happen, or how they're going to clear up the story line, but we know that it's not actually our death. And if it is, we know that, too.

TV.com: Let's talk about your new project, your Web site. Why don't you tell us in your own words what it's all about?

Allison Mack: Yeah, Kristin and myself, and an actress named Nicki Clyne from Battlestar Galactica and another actress named Sarah Edmonson; the four of us are designing something geared specifically towards college students. So we've created a survey that we are hoping to get as many college students as possible to participate in, and it's just there for us to gather information about each of the different students across the United States so that we can really figure out a way to gear the Web site we're designing towards the college students in the most effective way.

Kristin Kreuk: And really provide them with something that they're looking for and something that they want.

Allison Mack: Yeah, so the survey that we designed is really fun and quirky, and we're trying to get as many people to take it as possible so that we can get as much information as possible, so that we can be thorough when we're building and designing our company.

Kristin Kreuk: And then if they fill it out they can ask one of us a question and we'll select a bunch of questions for us to answer, Allison and I, and Nikki and Sarah, so they can just submit that as well.

TV.com: What do you guys want to know most about the fans and the college students around this country?

Allison Mack: What are your interests, where do your values lie, what kinds of things do you spend your money on, what kinds of things do you spend your time doing, what do you want to see in the world, and how would you like to see that happen. [We're] really just trying to get to know where college students are and where their brains are, and what it is that's important to them right now. Because I think it's really important to recognize how valuable and how effective college students are in the world. We're really building communication in the community so that we can all work together to make the next generation the most exciting and productive and uplifting generation as possible.

TV.com: So is that pretty much what the final Web site is going to be about? Sort of a resource for how college students can help out the world?

Kristin Kreuk: I think we're sort of fleshing all of that out. And part of the survey is about gathering information so that we can figure that out in a more concrete way. But yeah, that is the basis of what the Web site is and what the Web site will have a lot to do with.

TV.com: With both of your busy schedules, were you guys able to have any sort of normal college experience?

Allison Mack: No. Another reason why we're needing this survey, in a way, because all of the experience that we have in college is on Smallville.

Kristin Kreuk: Yeah, we kind of have PhDs in Smallville, Allison and I both.

TV.com: So, no keggers and college basketball games.

Allison Mack: Yeah, not so much.

Kristin Kreuk: Not as much. I can hypothesize what that would feel like, but I've never actually done it myself. So, I'm definitely interested in gathering more information about that from the real life people.

TV.com: Is this the first project you two have worked on together outside of Smallville?

Kristin Kreuk: It is.

TV.com: Are you guys going to get sick of each other? You two see each other all the time and are practically best friends.

Allison Mack: We are. Kristin is probably more family than a friend. No, we're very, very, very close and we've been through a lot together. And so I think it's just this business venture is the next evolution of our friendship. I'm excited about it.

Kristin Kreuk: Me too.

TV.com: Is there anything else you guys want to tell us about the site, or anything you want to put out there?

Allison Mack: No, just check out my blog, because that would be another [inaudible] and there's also--you can check out my short film, and if you want to donate money to help to support raising money to finish it! Because it cost a lot of money to finish a short film.

Kristin Kreuk: Yeah, and really, like, everyone fill out the survey. It'll be a lot of fun and we can get as much information as we can and get something out there that everybody's really excited about. I think that'd be really awesome.

TV.com: Thank you both for speaking with us.

Allison Mack: Thank you!

Kristin Kreuk: Thank you!