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When the eighth season of Smallville debuted, Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) was believed dead, killed in the arctic collapse that also left Clark Kent (Tom Welling) missing in action. Almost out of nowhere arrived Tess Mercer, ready to fill Lex's shoes and ensure that every effort was made to find the missing billionaire. Over the course of the season, we learned of her past ties to Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley), aka the Green Arrow, and saw her as not quite the villain we were prepared for her to be.
Cassidy Freeman, the actress who gives Tess Mercer her complicated depth, spared The-Trades a few moments to provide a brief glimpse at her character's motivations as well as clue us in to some other projects she's working on.
You know I'm inevitably going to ask you for secrets on the future of the show, followed by you telling me you can't give anything away.
Most likely, yeah. But ask away. (Laughs) Maybe I can answer one of them.
How much do they emphasize secrecy regarding upcoming plots?
We tend to not give anything away that hasn't already been given away online or by the producers. They pretty much get the first go round.
How far in advance are you given SMALLVILLE scripts, so you have adequate time to learn your lines and such?
We get them pretty much three days before we start shooting. So you hope that your scenes are at the end of the week so that you've got more time to learn your lines.
Are you contracted through the end of the ninth season, and do you know if there's a tenth season planned, or is it still undecided?
Yes I am. [A tenth season] is still undecided. It's possible -- it's very possible. I'm actually contracted through season ten if they want me. So they've got me through that, but... I don't know. They usually don't tell us until early next year.
Braaains! In Blackest Night and in Smallville, zombies are every-
where. Tess Mercer (Freeman) gets zombified by a kryptonian virus.
Image copyright (c) 2009 CW Television.
You were recently "zombie-fied" due to your character's exposure to a virus released by Major Zod. Was this your first time being made up so heavily with special effects?
Yeah, it was. And it was actually really, really fun. I enjoyed playing something different.
Tess Mercer knows the truth about Clark, and (I think) should know about Ollie's secret as well. How does that affect playing Tess as the not-quite-villain but definitely a master manipulator? Why not just expose everything and be done?
I don't know that Tess knows that Oliver is the Green Arrow. I don't even know that Tess knows what the Green Arrow is. But she definitely knows a lot about Clark, and I think that the reason she doesn't out him is that it's a power play for her. She knows something that other people don't know, and I think that Tess enjoys that -- I think she enjoys having that kind of power.
Is Tess really a villain, or is she sort of skirting the line?
I think instead of being a villain or a hero, she's a human. I think that she wants certain things, I think that her morals are pretty iffy and questionable, and that she might do a bad thing to get something good done. But I don't think that she's too easily categorized.
You have a brother named Clark. Have you ever had a weird moment on the set where you're trading lines with Tom Welling and get the two Clarks mentally crossed?
(Laughs) It's funny, actually. By this time I've actually been able to separate saying "Clark" and thinking of my brother, because I usually call him nicknames. But it's funny sometimes if my brother and I are in the same place and we're watching an episode together, every time that I say "Clark" on screen, he goes, "What?" He's a funny guy.
You've got an upcoming project with him called "Yellow Brick Road." Can you talk about that a little?
Yeah, sure! "Yellow Brick Road" is like a horror/thriller -- it's sort of a slow burn horror movie. It's kind of artsy, and we shot it in New Hampshire last June. We had a really great time doing it, and we get to play brother and sister in the movie, which is really fun. We just got a pretty good rough cut of it, and we're sending it out to festivals, so hopefully someone will like it.
You're also involved with a number of charities, including "Heal the Bay" and the "Virginia Avenue Project."
"Heal the Bay" is a not-for-profit in southern California that works toward cleaning up the water. There are so many things that we could put our time and our money to, and that's just one of them that I think is really important. There's a lot of ocean life in southern California that's hurting -- I mean, there's a lot of ocean around the world that's hurting; there's a lot of environmental stuff around the world that's hurting. I tend not to get too upset about it, but I really do care about them, I think it's a really pressing issue. So that's just one of the companies that I work with in Los Angeles.
The Virginia Avenue Project was actually a job that I held before I started working a lot. I'd tutor kids, and I'd teach them Creative Dramatics. I just think it's really important for kids that maybe can't afford after-school programming or don't really know what they're going to do to have an opportunity for them to get together and act like idiots with me. (Laughs)
Tess Mercer entered the world of Smallville because she didn't believe Lex Luthor was dead. Now she's seen him die a second time. So... Lex Luthor: Dead or Alive?
Is Lex dead? For all Tess Mercer knows, he is. For all Cassidy Freeman knows... I have no idea. (Laughs)
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