Chicago native Cassidy Freeman owes her brothers big time. The actress, who as Tess Mercer on “Smallville” has given evil a new name, acquired her knowledge of Superman’s world through her brothers Clark (no joke) and Crispin. Her older siblings were big comic-book readers.
“I think they were more excited than I was when I got the role,” says Freeman on a rare day off from shooting the series, which airs at 7 p.m. Thursdays on KWGN-Channel 2.
Freeman’s character joined the cast at the beginning of the season.
She had big, bad shoes to fill when Michael Rosenbaum elected not to return this year as the show’s chief villain, Lex Luthor. Mercer is running the Luther empire, and she is a hands- on boss.
Freeman plays the latest strong female character to populate the worlds of Smallville and Metropolis. She was ready. It is hard for the younger sister of two brothers not to grow up as a bit of a tomboy.
That has come in handy, as her role often requires her to go from boardroom to breaking boards over people’s heads.
“People who are fans of this genre keep asking me whether she is good or bad. I am not sure if she even knows. The reason she has this anger and venom in her is not something that was in her destiny. It is all circumstantial. She is reacting to situations in her own life,” Freeman says.
“It is often seen as cutthroat and evil because they are done out of anger and hurt and insecurity. I think this makes her, in this Kryptonite world, so human. I feel lucky to have gotten such a complex character.”
Freeman joined a cast that had been working together for seven years. What helped in fitting in was having co-starred with Justin Hartley, who plays Green Arrow on “Smallville,” in a proposed television show called “Austin Golden Hour,” which never aired.
“Smallville” is not the only thing that’s keeping Freeman busy these days. She sings and plays keyboards in the band The Real D’Coy with her brother, Clark. And she will spend the summer making the horror movie “Yellow Brick Road.”
With “Smallville,” she’s getting a taste of the kind of attention that comes with being on a popular fantasy/science fiction series. Fans know the details and are loyal.
Although she knew the Superman mythology, Freeman wasn’t that familiar with the series. “Smallville” launched when Freeman was in college. At that time, she was a big fan of “Dawson’s Creek” and “Felicity.”
“I am not an obsessive person. I do not get star-struck. But one day, I saw Keri Russell and all the air left my body. So I have compassion for fans. I think it is really, really beautiful,” Freeman says of the reaction she has been getting from the “Smallville” faithful.
