Erica Durance chats with Screen Rant About her journey as Lois Lane in the Smallville series, and celebrated the beloved DC TV drama through Creation Entertainment’s Salute To Smallville convention. Before the Arrowverse came to life on the CW, Tom Welling’s Smallville was the network’s flagship superhero show after the merger between the WB and UPN in 2006. Set before he became the Man of Steel, Smallville served as the ultimate Clark Kent origin story, showing him coming to terms with his powers and Kryptonian heritage.
While the comic book TV genre has come a long way since 2011, Smallville is still the longest-running superhero series of all time after being on the air for a full decade. After 23 years Smallville Debuting in 2001, the iconic DC property is still honored and celebrated to this day, with new fans constantly finding the show via streaming or Blu-ray/DVD. In the current age of convention circuits, the Smallville Cast has been meeting fans from all over the world and looking back on their time with the series.
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This weekend, Welling, Durance, Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor), Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang), Aaron Ashmore (Jimmy Olsen), Laura Vandervoort (Kara Zor-El/Supergirl), and John Glover (John Glover) will be in attendance. In the first-ever-exclusive Smallville– themed convention, welcome to Smallville, from Creation Entertainment. Screen Rant Had the honor of interviewing Durance ahead of the event as she shares her love for the Smallville fandom, the bonds she still has with the character, and the impact her version of Lois has on people. Durance also opens up more about her return to the Superman mythology with Arrowverse Crisis on Infinite EarthsHer hopes for the Smallville Animated TV sequel and more.
Erica Durance reflects on her time as Lois Lane on Smallville
Screen Rant: First of all, I’ve always wanted to say that for the last 20 years, you’re the Lois Lane that made me want to be a reporter to begin with. So thank you for everything you’ve done with Lois.
Erica Durance: Oh my goodness, that’s so sweet! I was so lucky to be a part of it and I’m glad there are really wonderful and intelligent people who get the story, so good for you!
What do you think still stands out about this particular version of Superman and all the characters you’ve explored? Why do you think? Smallville Does it still stand today?
Erica Durance: I think, ultimately, people want to see themselves represented there and for a lot of people who came to talk to us, what they loved about Clark and Lois and the different characters on the show is that they’re flawed, That there is something that they were struggling with. This is an origin story of superman, everybody loves superman because it’s the good guy wins, he’s honorable and wonderful and protective of his wife. She is strong and independent. People love the scenes, and it’s healthy and beautiful. But I think with Smallville, [what] Was great that it was the origin story. It was about all of these people finding themselves and being flawed or being drained or having that lack of perfection, and yet they still do what they believe is the right thing. They still fought for things, and they have a great amount of courage, so I think that people really found that heartwarming, and it gives them a place where they feel they belong.
Erica Durance on connecting with the Smallville cast and audience 13 years after the series finale
“Everyone wants to have a sense of purpose.”
Something that has also been so great to see over the last few years is how close you guys in the cast still are. I love it when you show up Inside you Or want to talk. What’s so fun about it now, even though the show is over, does it help me live in this more social media world, in terms of honoring the show, that you can add now that you might not have when you were shooting the show ? Because, I’m guessing, shooting 18 hours a day for nine months a year probably limits it a bit?
Erica Durance: I think what I like now that we have is a little bit more accessibility. I love going to the cons. I love meeting people, chatting with them, chatting about their experiences. Of course, seeing my friends and I love to be able to do this, but we can not always do it. The way things are set up now, we can actually have other ways of interacting. There is also the streaming release, where they can watch you live signing, and you can talk to them and you just feel like you can reach out and meet more people and share the love for the show.
For fans, like me, do you have fans who come up to you and say you influenced them in pursuing a career in journalism, and if so, what does that mean to you?
Erica Durance: It means a lot and it still happens again, which I find pleasantly surprising! It’s been a really long time since the show was on. I knew when I was on it, I joined a couple of years in, so I already knew that it was something that was quite incredible and really, really special that I was getting to be a part of. I thought something would happen from the experience, that it would have a long life.
But I had no idea [it would] Have that kind of longevity. For me, when people come up and say, ‘Hey, that thing you did, your interpretation of that character, I watched it. I watched it with my father, my grandfather, my child.’ I’ve had people say, ‘It helped me through moments that were very, very difficult, and it gave me a comfort and a respite from the experience. It motivated me to be a journalist. It’s helped me be who I am, and for me, I think I’ll speak for a lot of other actors, we often feel like what we’re doing is in this weird vacuum, and maybe not really. Have that much impact, right? Only later does someone come up and talk and say, ‘Hey, I’ve been watching this thing.’
Because none of us take ourselves so seriously to the point that we’re going to assume it’s going to be a real reality, you know what I mean? So when you actually get feedback from people, you go, ‘Oh, okay, maybe the stuff I did is affordable! Of course, everybody wants to have a sense of purpose, but they did something that had a positive impact, so yeah, it’s pretty amazing.
Creation Entertainment’s welcome to Smallville is a unique experience
This weekend, you’re heading to New Jersey for the first time ever Smallville– themed convention, I wish I could have been there, but hopefully, maybe next year. You’ve been doing the convention circuit for a long time now, how exciting is it to be able to go to an event where you’re the core reason why people go there?
Erica Durance: It’s weird – I don’t like too much attention, so I’m going to digress and also honestly say it has a lot to do with welling, like it’s just about the guys [laughs] It’s quite special and we enjoy being able to get out, like I said, and meet people and sit back and reminisce about the old days. But to have an event that is basically there for Smallville is quite something.
Erica Durance on bonding more with the women of Smallville
“I’ve created much deeper relationships with the girls, and we’re very close.”
I’ve always loved the fact that, even though we didn’t get to see a lot of it on the show, I love that now that all the actresses can now engage more with each other that we didn’t get to see on the show as much . Was it rewarding to connect more with your female co-star? Because although the show is primarily through Clark’s point of view, we have all these amazing women with their stories through 10 years.
Erica Durance: We laugh about it, we think it’s quite funny. We always said that if we meet too many times, doing the same scene, their universe would explode so they don’t know what to do with it, unless we are fighting. They didn’t know how to write it, unless we had some kind of level of conflict and I don’t say that disparagingly, but that was part of the process, right? It was all these different people who like Clark and then there’s only so many times you can do that scene, so they were quite limited.
But I know since the show, I’ve created much deeper relationships with the girls, and we’re very close, and we see each other as often as we can. I just finished doing an episode on one of Christine [Kreuk’s] Shows, which was amazing. I felt like I was 20 again [laughs] And it’s really special to see how you end up continuing to connect in your relationship.
What could be the role of Lois Lane in Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum’s Smallville animated sequel show?
Something I know that Michael and Tom have talked a lot about is this little animated sequel that they are trying to make happen, which I know me and many Smallville Fans are hoping very much happens. I know you talked about it, if it happens, you would intervene. What are the things you would want to explore with Lois after all these years if the show were to come back?
Erica Durance: I would like to explore where she would go next in her career. Whether it was for her to be a mother, how she balanced it all. I would like to develop a little more into her past, her experiences with her father, and how her upbringing shaped her a little more and just see her grow into a different person, a mature version of herself. But I would like to keep you complicated and full of trouble and not always doing the right thing and not always saying the right thing, because there are more people like that out there, I think, in the world, than those who seem to be super slippery
Erica Durance returning as Smallville’s Lois Lane in Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths
“She would be quite a force to be reckoned with as a mom.”
When you came back forward for Crisis, and we found out that Lois and Clark are parents – in your opinion, how do you think Lois is as a mom? How do you think she juggles all this?
Erica Durance: Yeah, I think she’s very deep. I think she is probably a little impatient. I think she is fierce and protective of her kids, but demands a lot from them and wants to teach them how to be resilient and strong. I like to think she would have a bit of a sense of humor, and probably they would always turn on Clark! [laughs] I think that would be fun, but yeah, I like to think that she would be quite a force to be reckoned with as a mom, for sure.
Erica Durance on James Gunn’s DC Universe Franchise
You’re no stranger to taking on multiple DC roles. I love to see you on super girl, Which was so fun because you have to have powers, a suit and all that stuff. Outside of Smallville, is that a genre you’d like to continue to explore? If, for example, you were offered something in James Gunn’s new DC Universe, would you love to take part in it in some way?
Erica Durance: Of course I would! It’s a fun, fun world to be in this superhero/fantasy/sci-fi mishmash. I would want something that has aspects of all different kinds of things. But I, personally as a viewer, enjoy these shows so to be able to be a part of something like this again would be a really great experience.
Smallville’s impact on the DCTV genre is no small thing
When you were doing crisis, where you were not just there for super girl, But also playing Lois again: What is it like to see where the era of DC superheroes is? Because in many ways, Smallville Has paved the way for all these shows to become a reality because of your success.
Erica Durance: I look back on it with a lot of gratitude to be able to be a part of it. Al [Gough] and miles [Millar] came up with such a wonderful concept of let’s see the origin story of the superhero and I think it was brilliant, and I feel honored to be a part of something that helped launch all these other really, really cool shows and different ways. of stories.
Durance continued to follow Superman in other movies and TV shows after Smallville
Outside of SmallvilleHave you been keeping up with how Superman and that world are depicted in other iterations in recent movies? How do you feel, for you see as just like a fan, although you were part of the world?
Erica Durance: It’s interesting. I don’t really think of myself when I’m watching it, I’m just kind of watching it. I like when the stories get a little grittier [that] I like to see. It was one show [where] Batman and Superman are fighting and they’re mad at each other, or Batman is really mad at Superman, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a neat story to tell,’ and my kids love to watch it. Everything gets better, in the sense of the CGI, the story is a little more complex and so I enjoyed that quite a bit.
What’s next for Smallville’s Erica Durance?
Outside of getting ready to salute Smallville, what are you working on next? Where can people see you or hear you next?
Erica Durance: I always put out a couple of Hallmarks a year, so I also did a couple for this year that will be out at Christmas. They’re a bit of a departure for me because I get to play more of the character side of it, which is quite different so I got to do something where I was playing a housewife in the 1960s and I’m now playing, The queen mother of a fantasy world and country, so I get to explore a whole other world for myself in acting. I have an accent, I have a lot of other technical things that I have to do, so I stepped away and out of my comfort zone a little bit this year, so I’m looking forward to that. Then I did Christine’s show [Murder in a Small Town] This year, too, a character that was a little out of the ballpark for me and required a little more emotion for me, so yeah, it was a good year all in all.
More about Smallville (2001)
After a meteor shower burst from the skies, raining destruction on the unsuspecting citizens of Smallville, years pass, and the healing process leaves the town’s inhabitants with scars and secrets. From the ashes of tragedy, a popular yet awkward teen tries to decipher the meaning of his life and his cloudy past. As he struggles with the transition from boyhood to adulthood, Clark finds that his strength and strange abilities set him uncomfortably apart from his peers.
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