Articles

"The Real Girl"
Fri, Dec 6, 2002 01:48 PM PDT
by Kate O'Hare
Zap2it

Allison Mack, who plays high-school investigative journalist Chloe Sullivan on The WB's Tuesday hit "Smallville," doesn't get recognized much out on the street -- except when she's with co-star Kristen Kreuk, who plays Lana, the unreachable secret love of teen Superman Clark Kent (Tom Welling).

As rain patters on the roof of her trailer near the show's sets in Vancouver, Mack takes a break from filming and curls up on a leather couch. "They usually don't want to talk to me," Mack says. "They want to talk to [Kristin]. Honestly, I'd rather have it that way."

"I don't dress like Chloe. I'm more of a wearing-black girl, much more Club Monaco-esque. I don't wear makeup. I don't do my hair like this. I don't get it that bad, unless I'm with her. They'll recognize her, and then they'll figure out who I am."

"She can't get rid of her features. It's what makes her so beautiful, makes her stand out."

One fan comment, though, stands out in Mack's mind. "One of the girls that set up my Web site, who's really cool, she didn't ask me questions about the show; she just kept saying, 'You're such a cool character, such a great character. She speaks for such a great female generation.'"

"That's one of the best compliments I could have gotten, because I don't think there are many young role models for women out there. I'm not saying I'm a role model or putting myself on that pedestal, but [Chloe] is a very intelligent young woman, and that's a cool thing."

While Mack would like to see Chloe have a new hairdo -- including strawberry blonde streaks, although she's not holding her breath on this one -- she is happy about one thing that neither The WB nor the show's producers have asked her to change.

"One thing that I really like about Chloe," she says, "and it's a major issue for me that I want to become more involved with, is that she's not a stick. I'm not. I'm in good shape because I work hard, but I'm not a twig like the rest of the girls on television, and that's very cool."

"They're playing her as an attractive, sexy young woman that has a body that's normal and attainable. No one's talking about it [at the network or the studio]. I've only gotten compliments, and that makes me happy, because there are too many eating disorders out there."

While Mack acknowledges that a lot of pressure comes from TV producers and executives, she also thinks much of it is self-imposed. "Actresses do it to themselves. They think they need to be thin, and they're never thin enough, because when you're on camera, you look bigger than you actually are. Part of it is the actresses."

"Eventually, it will come around. We've got Drew Barrymore and Kate Winslet and women like that, who are extremely sexy and are not twigs. I had a lot of problems with image and eating; most actresses go through that. But you just have to find yourself and find when you feel the best."

"A huge part of it is having someone in your life who looks at you as if you're the most beautiful thing in the world, no matter if you're a size zero or 12 or 16 ... and encourages you to be as fit and healthy as possible and enjoy the pleasures of life, which are chocolate and Belgian waffles and hamburgers -- to enjoy that, but to a healthy extent."

Although she's strong and independent, Chloe still does carry a torch for dreamy Clark, but she just can't make the love connection.

"I don't think Chloe will ever move on from Clark," Mack says. "She's trying her damnedest. She really likes Lana, and she will always love Clark. She's trying to be Lana's friend and not do the jealousy thing, which is hard, and trying to be Clark's friend and not kiss him every time she sees him. Every episode, she has her heart broken at least once."

"My makeup artist would come up to me and say, 'Are you crying today?' Because there were a lot of tears happening with Chloe for a while, a little angst-ing. I don't think it's something Chloe will ever get over. That's why she becomes so successful, because she puts all of her emotions into her job."

While Chloe has ferreted out most of Smallville's bizarre secrets, she has yet to realize Clark Kent has superpowers. "Chloe doesn't pick up on that," Mack says. "It's all right. They're making her really smart, except for that. But Lex is supposed to be the smartest man in the world, and he never figures it out either."

Having just turned 20 this year, Mack spent the summer making the very grown-up move of buying a condo in Santa Monica, Calif. "I was dealing with closing escrow, going through buyer's remorse, all that stuff."

Buyer's remorse? "You never heard about that? Supposedl,y everybody who buys property goes through buyer's remorse, where they go, 'Oh, my God, have I made the right decision?' Then after you pay your first couple of mortgages, it's all OK."

After the buying, of course, comes the decorating. "Yeah, decorating the condo," sighs Mack. "I try to do artsy-craftsy things. I'm taking a pottery class with Kristen. I keep myself busy, I watch a lot of TLC."

Mack reveals she is a fan of TLC's home decorating show "Trading Spaces," in which two sets of neighbors have two days and $1,000 to decorate rooms in each other's homes, with the help of a decorator and a carpenter.

"I love watching that show," Mack says. "You get some cool ideas. I don't know if I'd ever participate."

But maybe she would, if lanky carpenter Ty Pennington showed up. Mack smiles. "I like Ty."


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