VOICES FROM KRYPTON: Obviously apart from appearing on Smallville, you’re starring in “V”….
LAURA VANDERVOORT: I’m glad I’m in both of them. “V” I was able to be in from the ground up and on Smallville I jumped in and had to swim. But “V” is great and similar to Smallville in that I was cast as a guest star, and I was only supposed to do three episodes, but it worked out in my favor that they kept me around as Lisa. In “V” my storyline just progressed and got better, and suddenly I’m the queen’s daughter, and now I love where Lisa is at and the kind of the stuff she has to deal with. Is she going to join the fifth column, is she going to continue to be a “V”, is she going to take out her mother? I don’t know! Well, of course I know – I know more than I can tell [laughs].
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: How would you describe Lisa’s evolution over the course of the series so far?
LAURA VANDERVOORT: In the beginning I really knew nothing about her, and that’s what they wanted. Lisa was a soldier, she did what she was told and she followed orders. Lisa didn’t know why her task was to get Tyler, and neither did I and that worked well, too. Suddenly, this season, Lisa has more power within herself – she still has to hide things from her mother, but she realizes that she has emotion and empathy, and the Vs aren’t supposed to have emotion or empathy, or a soul, and I think Lisa is kind of not only struggling with the fact that she’s next in line for queen, but she’s starting to second guess her mother and her mother’s motives. Even though she doesn’t know her mother’s overall motives, she’s slowly learning what her mother wants from Tyler, and because she’s fallen for Tyler, she wants to protect him from her mother, but she has to hide this from her her. Meanwhile she’s starting to think the Fifth Column is looking good, but that means taking out her own race. She’s already helped Elizabeth Mitchell kill her mother’s soldier eggs, which are her brothers and sisters, so Lisa’s gone from innocent and naïve, to taking control of her own destiny and having to make major decisions about the future of her race. So it’s a completely different character and I’m happy for that.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: Were you shocked when you read the script in season one and Anna casually tells her soldier to break your legs?
LAURA VANDERVOORT: Oh yeah, but that’s the juicy stuff, because not only does it shock the audience, but it allows Lisa to have more of a motive to hate her mother, and for her to experience more emotions, because I didn’t have the chance to play Lisa very emotional, in any way, through the first season. Now that so many things are happening to her and she has so many emotions, I get to act, to play more with her emotions and to show more to the audience, and her mother saying “break her legs” only fueled the fire to question her mother and her race, and what they stand for. And it also plays the sympathy with Lisa for the audience; for the first time they have the chance to get to know her and to feel for her as a human, and not just as this emotionless, blonde solder. She actually has a heart, and it gave the audience the chance to root for her and to want her to do the right thing.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: Will the relationship with Tyler deepen?
LAURA VANDERVOORT: When two people fall in love, you hope that it only gets better, but the only thing is, they’re both on two different sides. Lisa is questioning her people and moving toward The Fifth Column, and Tyler is obsessed with the Vs and thinks what the Fifth Column is doing is horrible, so that might tear them apart. It was a Romeo and Juliet situation, and now –
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: It's the reverse, right?
LAURA VANDERVOORT: Exactly, and that’s interesting. It allows for a lot of storyline, and the next episode that I got, some of the stuff that Lisa has to deal with is really emotionally draining for her, so she really has to make some decisions and it's a cool place to be.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: The character has really evolved in a way I don't think anyone would have suspected in the beginning.
LAURA VANDERVOORT: No, especially myself, coming in and thinking this is blonde alien girl who shows up for three episodes in a low-cut shirt. But then it became so much more, and so much deeper, just like the show – it's so well-written, and there are so many storylines going on, and Lisa became even more than I expected, and I think it's great when you can be surprised by where your character goes.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: It also interesting that she is going to have to start hiding her activities from Tyler for fear that he will expose her.
LAURA VANDERVOORT: Well, yeah, and that's one of the other great thing – and you're right – because I always have to be on my toes and remember who I'm acting with, because if I'm with Morena, who plays my mother, I have to remember she doesn't know anything about emotion, so I can't have emotions, but I have to show a little emotion for the audience. Where with Tyler I can show full emotions, because not only was it my task, and I was showing love for him the whole time, but now it's real, and I can just really open the flood gates with him. And with Erica [Evans, played by Elizabeth Mitchell] it's the same thing: she knows I have full emotions, but when I'm around Marcus or the Vs I have the be careful, and Joshua who knows my emotions, he's a V – so I always have to be aware, and then this season things flip-flop with characters and what side they're on. Certain characters might change sides in the middle of an episode, and you have to be very aware of that. It's fun to play.