KryptonSite Comic-Con Report: Allison Mack Discusses Season 8!
After the Smallville panel at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, the participating actors and producers spoke with members of the press about the upcoming season, and we are now happy to share with you an interview with fan favorite and recent birthday girl Allison Mack (Chloe) from her roundtable discussion.

The first subject to be tackled in Allison's interview is the news that Chloe will not only have her relationships with Jimmy and Clark to think about -- she will also forge an involvement with new character Davis Bloome, played by Sam Witwer.

"I have such a stable to choose from now," Allison grins. "It's really so horrible. Obviously my relationship with Clark is still going strong, and we're always trying to figure out if we're in love, or just friends, or what's going on, and then she's got Jimmy, who's just this beautiful, amazing, supportive, stable, realistic man who I think she really seeks to find solace in, and kind of uses as a way to ground herself in some sort of sense of stability. She goes to him a lot when things feel kind of crazy, but now she's got this new hero, the paramedic Davis guy, who is pursuing her pretty actively, and is incredibly attractive and very kind, and interesting, and also a little dark. So she's really got three to choose from, and then there's the Green Arrow, and he's just like whatever. He's just fun to play with," she laughs.

Allison is excited about the story potential in having Chloe interacting with the man who could be Doomsday. "It's awesome. I mean, I'm learning more and more about the comics as we go, because I don't know a lot about the Superman comics. So, just finding out a couple weeks ago that Doomsday actually kills Clark - I mean, kills Superman in the comics, and being a part of a struggle between the dark and the light side again, I think, is really exciting, so I'm looking forward to it. And Sam is a wonderful actor, and so charming, so I am having a lot of fun playing with him," she says.

One of the men from previous years of Smallville - Lex Luthor, played by Michael Rosenbaum - won't be seen regularly in Season 8, and although some characters will be interacting with him off-screen, Allison doesn't expect for Chloe to be one of them. "I don't foresee my storyline crossing over with him too much, just because I have a lot going on with Isis and Davis and Jimmy, and then my own super powers that are kind of happening. It would probably be more with Cassidy [Freeman] and Tom [Welling], but it's possible. I mean, I've got my nose in everything, so it's possible." She refuses to count out the possibility of seeing Michael Rosenbaum on the show again. "We'll see that bald head again. He's not gone for good," she speculates.

"No, because they're still very much a part of our lives," Allison says when asked if she misses having Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk on the series. "We're like a train. We just keep going and forging ahead. We miss them dearly and we love them and we talk about them and think about them all the time, but we're making a show, man. We can't slow down," she says. She does address the feelings of doing the new season. "I'm directing this year, so that's a totally new beast to tackle, so I'm looking at the show in a very different way," she says. "Also, there's something so wonderful about the family that we've developed, and so coming back it doesn't just feel like I'm coming back to work on Smallville; it really feels like I'm coming home in a lot of ways, so it's really nice to be able to come back and enjoy that, and kind of fall into the warm embrace of the family that's being built there."

A return to the Daily Planet might not be in the cards for Chloe as the show goes into its eighth year. "Well, I visit the Daily Planet," she teases. "I don't know. She's really diving head-first into the Isis [Foundation], and she's really taking on the job of being a mentor and that kind of place of solace for the meteor-infected, and so I think that that's really going to be her focus, and I think she's pretty angry at Lex Luthor, so she's going to stay as far away from him and his cohorts as possible." She does remind that "anything's possible" with regards to Chloe's future. "That's the fun part," she says.

"I think that the most fun for me has been the fact that my path as this character has not been anything secure, so we've really been able to work in quite an equal partnership - the writers, myself, and the fans - in shaping who this character is going to be and shaping the direction she's going to go. I really like the fact that everything is new, and that we're really molding a brand new character together. As far as my character's evolution, my favorite part is just how honorable she is. I think that if I was to choose any female character on television to play right now, Chloe would definitely be in my top three, because I think that she's just a great - just integrous, and loyal, and strong woman, and I don't think that we have a lot of those on TV for young women to look at. So, I'm very proud," Allison says, revealing that the other two women would be Allison Janney's character on The West Wing and the character played by Mary-Louise Parker on Weeds. "All three of those women really exemplify strength and intelligence, and I like that," she says.

For Season 8, Allison looks forward to exploring the darker aspects of Chloe and cutting the apron strings from Clark. "It's time for him to grow up a little bit and not rely on Chloe so much, so that Chloe can go off and forge her own path," she says. "She's been his shadow for a really long time and has been doing things of great importance, but I think it's really exciting this year to see her forge her own way and figure out what she's passionate about, and figure out how she wants to do that. Which you really start to see her do at the Isis Foundation, and she's really narrowing down her scope of what she wants to focus on. She's trying to help that part of the population in the world, and I think that's really cool," she says.

The second episode of Season 8 has Chloe taking in a young meteor freak who needs her help. "I think Chloe's really taking on the whole Mother Teresa kind of thing that's been looming around since she started with her healing super power a couple of seasons ago. She's got such a huge heart, and she's recognizing that there's more people out there that need her, other than Clark Kent, which is another reason why I think she's starting to cut the apron strings and let Clark venture into his own sort of thing, because she's really seeing how many people need her help, and Bette is just the first of, I think, many," she shares. Mack credits Chloe's drive as being instrumental to her character. "I don't think Chloe would stop until she actually couldn't go any more, like, physically fell over. So I think she's just going to take things on until she can't," she says.

Allison feels that directing an episode - as she will be this year - is an important part of her own personal evolution. "I've been acting for 22 years, and I love film so much, and I love the whole process of making films. It's just sort of the next step of understanding it on a deeper level. I always liked telling stories in whatever fashion I can, and directing is just understanding and learning a different element to the storytelling process," she says. She reveals that her episode will be either #13 or #15, and that the story is as yet unwritten, but that there will not be a lot of Chloe in the episode, by her request.

Finally, Allison was asked about the possibility of having her character appear someday in the pages of DC Comics. "I love it," she says. "I think it's so cool. I mean, what an amazing honor to have a character written after you. I think it's so cool. So, I'm thrilled about the opportunity and about the possibility, and I hope to see it come to fruition."

Read our complete coverage of Comic-Con '08! Sam Witwer - Justin Hartley - Kelly Souders & Brian Peterson - Todd Slavkin & Darren Swimmer - Allison Mack - Cassidy Freeman

Also be sure to read our coverage on our other sites! KITTSite (Knight Rider) - TerminatorSite (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)

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