Exclusive: Laura Vandervoort Talks ‘V’, ‘Smallville’

ABC has quite a lot going on this season, between the final season of LOST, and the very first season of V, it’s a pretty big time for hour-long science fiction. We recently got the chance to sit down with one of the stars from V, Laura Vandervoort, to talk about her character Lisa. Prior to V, Laura was best known for also playing Kara, a.k.a. Supergirl, on a season of Smallville, which we also discussed.

The Flickcast: What can we expect to see for the rest of this season on V?

Laura Vandervoort: Oh boy! Quite a bit of action and drama because a lot of the main characters that haven’t interacted before are going to, and that’s going to add a lot of plot points and conflict.

There will be explosions, the Fifth Column is going to be creating some havoc, the romance between my character and Tyler (Logan Huffman) thickens, there’s a pregnancy, a death, so much! I think the audience is going to be shocked every time they watch.

TFC: Were you a fan of the original series when you came onto this project? How much did you know about it?

LV: I’m actually embarrassed to say that I didn’t know about V when I was first introduced to the project. I was quickly told, and I looked it up, and found it’s huge cult following from the 80s. So I went out and bought the miniseries, watched it since, and I really enjoyed it.

I can see where they came up with these characters from the original. They kind of combined certain characters to create Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) and different characters to create Chad (Scott Wolf). I’m excited about the show. It’s just so different from the original, with the amount of technological advances in special effects.

TFC: With a show like this, there are plenty of twists and turns in the week-to-week episodes. Are you ever shocked and surprised when you read about them in the script?

LV: Absolutely. We just got the next script and I can’t believe some of the things the writers come up with. I’m involved in the show, I’m playing one of the characters, and I didn’t see any of the things that they came up coming. I honestly didn’t. Some of the stuff shocked me, and the audience isn’t going to believe what they’re going to see.

TFC: With you playing Morena Baccarin’s on-screen daughter, has it been brought up that you may have to cut your hair?

LV: [laughs] it hasn’t been discussed just yet. One of the things that we purposely did is made Anna and Lisa look very different from each other. She’s got the short brown hair and brown eyes, while Lisa has long blonde hair and blue eyes.

But no, they haven’t discussed cutting the hair, but it really doesn’t matter what we look like on the outside. As the old saying goes, it only matters what’s on the inside, which in this case is our lizard skin.

TFC: Before coming onto ABC’s V, you also played a pretty big role on Smallville, as Kara, Clark’s cousin from Krypton. Any plans to return to that character?

LV: Well, I just heard that they got picked up for a 10th season, but I haven’t heard from the people at Smallville about returning at all. I’d love to return to round up where my character went to.

She sort of just disappeared, and wasn’t addressed where she went or why. I’d love to just bring closure to Kara herself, so if they did ask me back, I’d fly over there in a heartbeat.

TFC: Between playing Lisa on V and Supergirl on Smallville, is there one role that you’ve always wanted to tackle that you haven’t gotten the chance to do just yet?

LV: Well, I don’t have a specific role in mind. I love playing to the opposite, considering what people assume I’ll do given how I look. I’d like to go against the grain in any role. I’ve always wanted to do a period piece, in like a period-style costume. That would be wonderful. That or a western are both on my checklist of things to do.

Be sure to catch Laura as “Lisa”, along with the rest of the cast of “V”, every Tuesday night at 10pm EST on ABC.