SHoE Exclusive! Interview with Cassidy Freeman
Here is our exclusive interview with Smallville’s own Tess Mercer, Cassidy Freeman. Cassidy talks about her sophomore season on the show, gives some great insight to specific episodes (especially the season finale ‘Salvation’) as well as where she’d like to see the character to go for season ten.
Great, great interview guys. Cassidy sounds like such a fun, laid back person and probably a cool chick to hang out with, have a beer.
The opening bit hilarious and the continuing of the blurring of lines between Cassidy and Tess was very funny as was the part about the man boobs.
I found her comment interesting about the producers being a bit tentative in doing something daring and staying on the safe side with respect to Season 8 since they really thought that was going to be final year. Loved her comments about Tess always being beaten up and the scene from Escape where she went topless in the bath scene and then them not even using the shot.
Thanks for giving us this to tide us over till the 150th Episode.
Great job guys. She is so fun, hope to see her in more things after Smallville wraps.
Great interview guys. I really enjoyed listening to it while working out on the treadmil for almost an hour. Time just flew by. Wish you guys could get both TW and ED for an interview together…That would be the ultimate interview of all time.
I agree with Cassidy’s sentiments I didn’t have a big issue either with Tess being thrown around. Love Cassidy, glad to see her back next season! haha Tom, Erica and Cassidy are awesome; Rabid was definitely a great episode~ Thanks for this.
Glad to hear Cassidy is comfortable with her own body, you shouldn’t be afraid of your sexuality or your body! People in North America tend to go all ape wild over actresses getting naked in movies or TV but it isn’t a big issue over in Europe, its the human body it isn’t a big deal. As Cassidy said everyone’s got boobs haha… and I’m sure every red blooded male or female has seen them in their life… LOL love you Cassidy!!!!
Props to Cassidy! Love her. It was nice to hear that was all her in the bathtub scene, it definitely adds more umph to the scene plus she’s comfortable working with Callum so it wasn’t a big deal nor should it be!
Props to you guys for the great interview!
Cassidy, i jst luv ur life style. Been a no nonsense chic on smallville, dude, i luv dat, go girl. Bt i dnt knw ur outside world artitute.
Just finished listening to the interview on the Microsoft Zune Marketplace website. I have to say Cassidy Freeman lovely woman, very funny, and very frank… about fat people and breasts. Lol. Seriously though I thought this was a very insightful interview and Ms. Freeman rivals B.A.G and Mr. Holbrook for serious laugh out loud moments. I love the whole bit of talking in the third person, I thought that was very humorous.
What I took away from this interview most of all was Cassidy recognizing two things that I had not thought about in the ninth season at all. First Mercy pretty much getting her bum handed to her in almost every ep. in the ninth season or at least being threatened by someone. I didn’t realize that until Cassidy pointed that out.
The other thing Cassidy pointed out (and I’m glad she is very much like SHoEligans who notice these story devices that may or may not be clear) was how there was not a real clear distinction where Mercy’s loyalty was and that really kind of bothered me especially when she had and I will use Cassidy’s terminology “Mad Sex” with Zod in “Escape.” I always assumed Mercy’s loyalty was to herself and herself only and “The Red Queen” pretty much pointed that out in “Hostage.” But I pose a question to my fellow Android, iPod, and Zune SHoEligans Lionel was very much like that in seasons 2-5 and I have stated many times that Mercy really is our new Lionel more than a Lex type character. Her loyalties not being quite clear, do my fellow SHoEligans believe and or agree that just fits the character of Mercy like it did Lionel?
My favorite part of the interview was learning about the “behind the scenes” we know that even Tom Welling is creeped out by zombies, I respect Cassidy for soldiering through an illness during the filming of “Crossfire” because I couldn’t tell she was ill during that ep., and knowing it was actually her standing up in the tub in front of Callum. Now, I’m like Derek. Cassidy Freeman you are a very sexy woman. Heck even she believes it was Granny Goodness and even if she thinks Darkseid’s coming to the series. Great interview Derek and Steve.
This was a great interview that was done by you Derek and Steve. There was good information given and humor mixed which blended well with each other. Helps to tied people over until whenever the 150th episode is out.
Awesome Cassidy interview..Love that girl..
Thanks for the interview. Derek and Steve always come through.
Great interview guys!! Cassidy sounds like such a sweetheart! Keep up the good work!
Woot! Told ya it’s worth the wait!
Was it just me or Did Cassidy sound totally different happy then she sounds as Tess Mercer. She was like a whole different person…mole?
Hey SHoEligans, I have a request for any of you going to comic con this year. Tom, Allison, and Justin have all got behind the scenes writing, producing, or directing, could someone ask both Cassidy and Erica if they have any interest writing, directing, ect.?
Mole!
@ Tim, that’s a good question. I’ll try to get my bf to ask it, lol.
@ Sundance…that’s why it’s called acting and she’s obviously very good at it.
I love Cassidy. All her interviews just make her sound like such a fantastic person. I wish this had been longer, but no doubt, she already was gracious enough to give so much time. I just could listen to her talk for hours.
Seriously, my favorite interview you guys have ever done!
favorite quote from the episode:
Cassidy: Like the topless bathtub scene
Derek: That was you?
Cassidy: That was me.
Derek: … Alright
“Cue the music!” That has made added to the Smallville library of terms.
@Tim I didn’t put this on my “Wish-list” for the tenth season but I do hope Kelly and Brian give Allison a better ep. to direct. “Warrior” was a strong ep. but it wasn’t “Apocalypse” which I still think is Welling’s strongest ep. he directed.
I love Allison but I actually don’t really care to see her direct again this year. I know that might be blasphemy to say but it’s how I feel. I feel as though Clark Kent was been pretty out of character in both of the episodes she has directed at this point. She’s also admitted on several occasions that she does not watch the show and in my opinion, it SHOWED that she doesn’t watch the show in both of her episodes. I just think that Tom is a stronger director overall and I find it refreshing that all of the characters seem to be IN CHARACTER and make sense when he is behind the camera. We are in the last season now. With only 22 episodes left we just can’t have any wasted episodes where the characters are “off.” I liked “Warrior.” I was not one of those people who hated it. (Although, I know that a ton of people really really hated that episode.) But I didn’t care for many of Allison’s directing choices with any of the actors. Chloe came off well in that episode but her choices for her fellow actors were in my opinion off.
I think Allison is great and I truly support her desire to be behind the scenes in the future. I just personally don’t want her to direct again on Smallville unless she can prove to me that she #1 watches the show and knows what is going on with ALL of the characters and not just her own and #2 can direct her co-stars in a way that plays on their strengths and keeps them in character.
The interview with Cassidy was awesome. I think she is such an interesting person and I love her on the show. What a cool chick. Thank you so much for providing such a nice treat!
@Tim now that I think about it a lot of what you said is correct. However, don’t you think a lot of the scripts she is given to direct relay more on the fact she understands the female characters and the exec. producers know that so they specifically give her those types of scripts to direct? Because “Power” (worse ep. in the eighth season in my opinion, sorry.) was very much Lana’s journey and story. Same deal with “Warrior” which was very much a Chloe story. Allison knows how to direct a female characters story and I can see why the exec. producers give her those types of stories. But I see your point too Tim.
@MJ Allison isn’t going to be around long enough to direct an episode. She’s only going to be in 4 episodes.
@MJ I apologize I didn’t realize you left that comment and not Tim. @Donny I’m not going to believe any guest cast lists until after the panel at Comic Con.
@Woo lol, I kinda agree with MJ tho, so no biggie.
Hey guys :)
I’m glad you guys understood what I was saying. I flat out think Allison Mack is a cool chick. Hell, I’m hoping to go see her in a play within the next few weeks. I don’t care for Chloe but I do think Allison is a cool girl. I just have not cared for her directing choices on Smallville.
@Woo…here is my answer to your question. I hope this makes sense! You know….Michael Shanks said something back in his interviews for Absolute Justice about Tom Welling that really stuck with me. He said that many times when an actor directs themselves or directs an episode of a TV show in which they star it can become a self-indulgent process. They are too focused on their character or how they came off or THEIR vision and lose sight of the overall theme of the show or neglect the other actors. Michael Shanks gave Tom a huge compliment and said that he was really impressed at the way Tom really seemed devoted to EVERYONE looking great and that he always kept in mind the overall objective of the show etc. He said he was shocked because Tom was just so NOT self-indulgent in his directing and he wasn’t vain at all.
This is hard for me to say because I like Allison very much. But I find her direction to be self-indulgent and this opinion has been backed up by some of her interviews where I’ve frankly thought to myself, “Does she watch this show?” As much as I like Allison I have disagreed with many of her choices. Her most egregious choice, in my opinion, was the ending shot of “Power.” It was Allison’s choice to have that kiss between Clark and LAna take place at the top of the Daily Planet. That was not in the script. Allison admitted that she just didn’t think it was epic enough and so she moved it to the DP so she could do that big sweeping shot at the end. To me, this showed her thinking about HER vision but in the process making a choice that didn’t make sense for the characters (since when is LAna connected to the DP?) and flat out spit on 70 years of the Superman mythos. SHe put her desire for a sweeping shot above logic and above a true vision for CLARK KENT and his future on the show. I have friends who aren’t shippers and don’t care about shipping but who were FURIOUS after that scene aired because some things are just sacred. The Daily Planet roof is Clark and Lois’s place. It’s sacred in the Superman mythos. Her choice upset a lot of people—people who aren’t even shippers but just respect the SUperman legend.
I also think she was influenced deeply by her friendship with Kristen Kruek and that it was part of the reason why Lana was glorified so much during the episode and why that whole “girl power” thing was so important to her. Now, do’nt get me wrong. I think it’s AWESOME that they are close friends. I’m all for celebrating friendship. But when you are hired to do a job you need to keep a bigger picture about the story that needs to be told. And as a woman, I didn’t find the episode “POwer” inspiring at all. Instead, I found it almost sending a dangerous message: that if you really love someone you should change yourself completely for them because you can’t be enough on your own. It wasn’t heroic…it was sad. I think her vision for that whole “girl power” arc was really really off. If you are directing Smallville, you are essentially telling CLARK’s story and you need to keep his development at the forefront of your mind. I had a similar problem with “Warrior.” Chloe came off great. But poor Clark was mopey and OOC. The scene that saved that episode for me was Clark in the barn with the little boy. But I would have loved to have seen that script in the hands of a better director who could get the appropriate acting reactions out of EVERYONE and keep in my mind that Clark was the hero of the story. I think Allison is a creative and interesting young woman. But I think that sometimes she’s so caught up in her own ideas for the world that she loses sight of what Smallville is actually about…whose story is being told (Clark’s first and foremost) and how these characters should interact together to support his journey.
Anyway, this is off-topic. We got to talk about this because someone asked if anyone else on the show wanted to be behind the scenes.
I’m still laughing at Derek’s reaction to Cassidy’s nude scene on Smallville. Oh Cassidy….
At the risk of staying off topic…
@ MJ, I think this was one of the reasons that Sacrifice was a successful episode in Justin’s hands as a co-writer. He remembered that Oliver Queen/Green Arrow is there as not only a hero himself, but as support for CLARK. This was most apparent in the first Clark and Oliver scene where Clark reminded Oliver of his past sins and Oliver was honestly contrite and remembered his loyalty to Clark. I truly think this was something Justin made sure was in the script because you can tell in interviews that he knows who this show is about and what his character’s role with respect to Clark is supposed to be. And after the Doomsday debacle (which I will fanwank that, besides “killing” Lex, was the other sin Clark was reminding Oliver of), Justin wanted to make sure that Oliver’s loyalties and actions couldn’t be called into quesiton.
@ MJ What play is Allison in? I had the chance to meet her,when she was in NYC, almost a month ago and she mentioned that she was doing the audition rounds for various plays in NY. I’m curious as to what play she is doing.
@MJ I have to agree with everything you said. Derek has said in past podcasts that the weakest eps. of Smallville are ones where Kal-El is not featured in the “A” story. Reason being it is his series. I also think Welling is going the correct route with not focusing on acting so much as exec. producing and directing. I know he is producing that new TV series for The CW entitled “Hellcats.” It’s a smart move going that way, because quite honestly the live action actors that preceded Welling (George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, and Dean Cain) (excluding Brandon Routh) in playing “The Man of Steel”/Clark Kent didn’t have much in the way of work. I am NOT playing into “The curse” and I’m NOT disrespecting the actors and their abilities. However, I site Kelsey Grammar doing similar when “Frasier” ended, he heavily went into producing. Quite honestly I can only imagine how it would be difficult to play one character for a decade or more and try to get work. So, it is smart to work behind the scenes. Plus, a better chance for a longer career.
@Natasha Totally agree with you as well about Hartley, I hope he writes in the tenth season as well.
Superman News: I just watched “Toy Story 3″ today at a local theater in my city. Ned Beatty (aka “Otis” from Superman: The Movie) voiced a character named “Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear” a purple teddybear who smelled of Strawberries and hailed from “Otisberg” (kidding.)
All this Hartley talk reminds me of another question I would like a SHoEligan to ask. Spinoff. Are they going to do it when Smallville ends? They have Ollie, Dinah, and Mia, and they can bring in JLA, but on the other hand I am not sure if that’s what I want to happen. However, once the Nolan Batman films end, if Bruce Wayne appeared on the Green Arrow show, and Tom made a guest appearance, we may get a smallville-verse world’s finest. Thoughts SHoEligans?
@Woo, Otisburg. Oh man, what a great blast from the past. That made me laugh. God, I love Otis. “Mr LuthOOOR.”
@Natasha, I totally agree. I really loved the way Justin contributed to “Sacrifice.” He wrote a very strong, independent Clark Kent. I also agree that he always knows who the star of the show is in his interviews. Erica Durance does as well. I love that whenever people talk to her she flat out says that Lois Lane is always there for Clark. Yes, she’s an individual in her own right but it’s his story.
@Donny, I’m probably not going to get to see her. The theater group she is involved in has a base in Philadelphia and they are putting up a new project there this month. I’m active in the theater scene here so I had heard about it. But I don’t think Allison is going to make it this year. Bummer. But I brought it up because I think I’m a good example of a fan who is able to seperate character from reality. I really have had moments where I don’t care for Chloe but that would never stop me from thinking that Allison was cool. You know?
I would have LOVED to have seen Cassidy’s show but alas I don’t live in California. But I think she is a really really cool person.
Justin and Erica are both married with children so it doesn’t shock me that they don’t travel as much for other projects during the hiatus. Allison and Cassidy are awesome but they both have a little more freedom than Justin and Erica do. It’s just different when you have a family that is missing you and depending you on you at home. I imagine that Justin and Erica are already away from their spouses and children enough during the year that they don’t want to travel during the short hiatus.
Tom Welling is obviously super busy now with his new show that is in production. And again, he’s married. He’s not going to take off for long periods of time to go to other cities without his wife.
I think people forget to take these things into account when they talk about people’s off-season choices. Personal lifestyles and marital status are things that influence the kinds of choices that actors make.
Cassidy seemed to really enjoy that show that she did with Matthew Lilliard as the director. Glad to hear it. I was laughing when Steve didn’t know who he was. I wanted to shout that he was Shaggy from Scooby Doo. hahaha. He was also in every Freddie Prinze Jr. movie from the 90’s.
@MJ Allison isn’t involved with the project in Philly. I was hoping she had gotten a part in NY. From my talk with her she is really excited to have a chance at acting in a play. Hopefully she’ll have the chance. I think theatre is where her passion is.
@Donny, yes I knew that. I had hoped when I heard they were coming here that she would be involved. I don’t follow her blog or anything on a regular basis. But once the group got here a few weeks ago I learned she wouldn’t be involved.
Allison is very lucky to have had her time on Smallville. I imagine she’s been able to save a lot of money which puts her in a position where she CAN pursue theater. Just speaking from the perspective of someone who went to school for theater and worked in professional theater for a while….it’s so wonderful…but very difficult. Even when you are working steadily and even when you are successful there is much uncertainty and it can be very hard to make ends meet. I know alot of extremely talented and passionate people who LOVE theater with all their hearts who will always consider it their first passion but who eventually had to get a more reliable job to support their families.
I truly wish her the best and I’m happy that Smallville has brought her to a place where she can pursue her passion in theater without having to worry about the stress of how she’s going to support a family or how she’s going to make ends meet. I applaud those who are able to make it work and I truly hope she finds much success in the theater world.
Cassidy said in her interview with Derek and Steve that she’d like to stay in the world of TV. Right? She said she would be looking during Pilot season next year I think.
@Tim This is what my thinking has been since “Crossfire” when they established Mia. Why not? Hartley is everything a network would want in a lead guy for a TV Series. I’d just like to see another DC live action series because I’l be honest when Smallville ends this season. To that point I wouldn’t mind seeing Welling be an Exec. producer. Now the SHoE braintrust has said to me on the “Live Show for Pandora” that they will not do a podcast for a Green Arrow series or a JLA series. I hope they have changed their minds. Fellow Zune, iPod, and SHoEligans that are going to Comic Con, if you ask a question…Please ask about a spin-off. They will probably mention something about it.
@Woo On one hand, I would like to watch a Green Arrow series for the geek factor, but then you know they will try to bring in Clark and Lois, Chloe, Tess, ect. and I would like to see all the heroes’ journey’s wrap up by the finale. But just think of it on the other hand, the Nolan Batman films are supposed to end by summer 2012. Say the Green Arrow/JLA series starts around the fall of that year, and lasts for 5+ seasons, some characters will have their embargos lifted, and since the Smallville finale should focus on Clark, the Green Arrow series can focus on the JLA. Also, by this time all the characters would be around the age of their comic book counterparts, and if Tom would come back bring in Bart, AC, John, Victor, Zatanna, Dinah, and any other heroes into a really EPIC battle. Hmm, I just don’t know, they would really need to convince me…
@Tim Also, another thing we have omitted is who would create said Green Arrow TV Series? If it would be Kelly and Brian I would be behind the series completely and maybe bring in Kevin Smith to write a few eps. or Loeb? What do my fellow Zune, iPod, and SHoEligans think if Kelly and Brian were to create a Green Arrow and or JLA spin off would you be on board?
New topic: Is Smallville still going to air on Fridays at 8PM/7 C on the CW or are they changing days again this season?
@ Woo it’s staying! Whoo! Stability! lol. I wouldn’t mind kevin smith and Loeb writing/producing episodes, but I would want Kelly and Brian as showrunners as well. I honestly would need to be convinced off the bat though.
@Tim I would have liked it moved back to Thursday or maybe even a Wednesday because I have a lot more things that I want to do on Fridays. Oh, well. There are so many places to watch Smallville other than watching it live. I shouldn’t complain. Truth be told I agree with you, on being convinced. However it would be easier for them to do a Green Arrow and or JLA series especially since one has an established audience already. Although like DeKnight said on the Smallville Big Fans featurette on the Sixth Season Home Video Set for Smallville. (First time I ever heard of something called “Starkville House of El” and that featurette prompted me to download my first podcast on my old 80 GB Microsoft Zune back in the day.)
“Smallville fans are a mixture of hardcore comic book fans that know the Superman legend inside out. Then they are fans who nothing about the mythology and are just hooked into the series.” (Paraphrased by Steven S DeKnight.) Point is, it’s difficult to say either of those audiences after Smallville ends would follow a JLA and or Green Arrow series when Smallville ends. Would my fellow Zune, Android, and iPod SHoEligans agree?
Golpes y caidas graciosas en toboganes
Here’s something I didn’t even realize until yesterday. Callum and Allison didn’t have one scene together the entire ninth season. Lol. I find that kind of funny that these two actors went the entire season and didn’t even interact.
You forgot to ask her about the slide in the DP office.
Es bueno encontrar un sitio como el de ustedes. Muchas gracias.
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