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As she drives through not-so-sunny Los Angeles on an unseasonably cool June morning, Allison Mack is all about milestones.
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In 2003, not only was she playing Chloe Sullivan on the WB hit series Smallville, which chronicles Superman's teen years, but the actress—who celebrates her 21st birthday on July 29th—has experienced a very important milestone in her personal life..
"I've gotten engaged!" she announces gleefully and her joy is simply infectious. She and long-term boyfriend Peter, who is in the band "Leisure," announced their engagement earlier this spring. "It's wonderful. It's so fantastic. I'm so excited. We're going to wait to set a date until the show is [winding] down, so it's more mellow and we're not so stressed, trying to plan it. I want to have a good time when I get married. I don't want to be frantic, I don't want to have time restraints. I just want to be able to relax and enjoy it."
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She laughs when it's pointed out that if the show goes for five years, it'll be a very long engagement.
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"I don't know if Peter can hold out that long. He's sort of, like 'I want to go to Vegas and get married tomorrow!' Which is very cute. Our plan right now is to wait. But if it ends up being the sixth year of our engagement and the show is still going, we'll have to make some new arrangements.".
If she seems surprised at Smallville's success—the second season was a runaway hit on the Frog network and the first season is being released on DVD this fall—it may well be the wise and cautious voice of experience talking. Before the age of 20, Mack had co-starred in two television series that never made it to a second season. While the cancellation of ABC comedy Hiller & Diller may have been a mercy killing, Mack still has fans who flocked to Smallville after seeing her as Kate on FOX's short-lived teen series The Opposite Sex. Mack co-starred as one of Gilmore Girl's heartthrob Milo Ventimiglia's two love interests and—for once—the girl who gets the guy. However, FOX pushed the series back to mid-season and then aired only six of the eight episodes produced.
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Prior to her weekly gig as intrepid girl reporter Chloe Sullivan, Allison starred as Nik Faulkner in the directorial debut of actor Eric Stoltz (perhaps best known to audiences as shy artist Keith from the John Hughes classic teen movie Some Kind of Wonderful) My Horrible Year! for the Showtime cable network.
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"I had dinner with Eric Stoltz while he was in Canada [filming the Showtime original series Out of Order in Vancouver]. He's a very, very cool man. My Horrible Year!is haunting me!" she laughs, after she's told that one of her co-stars from that film, J. Adam Brown, had actually signed the guestbook at allison-mack.com with well-wishes for her engagement.
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Unlike her previous series and film experience, My Horrible Year! was Mack's first lead and she has nothing but praise for both the first-time director Stoltz and the experience.
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"It was fun, because we were learning together. In my so many years of acting, I had never been number one on the call sheet," she says and then quickly explains for the benefit of her non-showbiz savvy fans that the lead is always number one on the call sheet. "We were learning it together and had a sort of bonding experience. [Eric] was so funny, because it was his directorial debut—and I think it's part of his personality too—he's very very very organised. So we were in and out in thirteen hours, which isamazing. Especially when have a time restriction on the amount of time you can shoot. It's incredible to be able to get it done in thirteen hours. The first season ofSmallville, when we were working everything out, we would do sixteen and seventeen hour days. So he was an awesome director to work with. I really liked him a lot."
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In addition to Allison's weekly gig as Chloe Sullivan, online fans were treated during the final four episodes of the second season to a series of short "webisodes" featuring Mack as Chloe. The brainchild of Smallville staffer Mark Warshaw, the segments debuted on AOL as exclusive AOL broadband member content Tuesday nights after each of the four final episodes. The segments aired on the internet four days later, courtesy of TheWB.com.
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According to Mack, Warshaw—who is the web producer of the popular official tie-in websites, the Smallville Torch and Smallville Ledger, which are produced by Warner Bros. as newspapers for the fictitious town—is the unsung hero of "The Chloe Chronicles."
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"Oh, isn't that cool?" she says and, despite being thousands of miles away on the end of a phone, the sheer excitement in her voice makes it easy to picture her megawatt smile. "Mark Warshaw is responsible for developing the Chloe Chronicles. He was saying how AOL was wanting to do something exclusive for the internet, something where they focused on Smallville, branching off from the show. Originally, they wanted to do more of a 'behind-the-scenes' sort of thing with me, as Allison Mack, showing everybody the sets and talking about the show. And then [Mark] had the idea of, why not do it as Chloe? We can do it as sort of an investigative reporter digging deeper into things and really go in-depth into the show and branch off and explain storylines that were sort of unsolved and tie up loose ends. He asked me if I would be willing to do it, even though it was not going to be a whole lot of money but it should be a really cool thing. And I was, like, 'Of course!'
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"We ended up shooting [the Chronicles] in about two days, using a hand-held digital camera. It was totally guerrilla shooting. I would learn my lines while I was changing my clothes for the next scene, go in and do the scene, and then go back and learn my lines for the next scene while I was changing my clothes. It was really fast. In the end, it was really great. They got really great actors to play the other parts and I was very happy with the way it turned out and it's become sort of this big thing. Mark is really the unsung hero of this—he really deserves so much credit for this. He's just an awesome guy. He was telling me that they were doing all this publicity, and Warner Bros. was calling my agent and asking my agent about it, and all sorts of stuff like that. It was such a cool thing, so hopefully there will be more. But it's all very up in the air. It was really fun to shoot. Really fast. And I love having stuff to do with different actors and getting to explore a little bit more."
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During the second season of Smallville, Mack had more downtime than she had in the first season and the webisodes were a welcome chance to return Chloe Sullivan to her investigative reporting roots, as well as a chance to actually get more to do.
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"They took away a lot of my investigative stuff. What was cool about the Chloe Chronicles was that it really brought that back—you really saw that she was still [in second season] doing exactly what she had been doing in the first season. Digging into stuff that didn't belong and being her intelligent, snarky self. It was cool to do that again, because that was sort of lost [in second season.] Chloe was crying all the time. I was just always in tears and that got old. My whole storyline was all about Chloe being pathetic and I was like 'C'mon guys, she's stronger than this.'"
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Whereas the first season, Chloe, Pete and Clark were very much "The Three Musketeers", investigating all of the mutant weirdness in town, the second season saw Chloe on the outside once Pete learned Clark's secret.
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"That was one of the things also last year, that really cut Chloe out of the storylines. Because now, Pete and Clark can investigate together using his powers. Which was faster, and so there was less talking. Less exposition and less unbelievable research, which was my gig in season one. My relationship with Pete was sort of non-existent this year. I didn't really have anything to do with him, whereas the year before, wherever I was, Pete was right next to me."
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Aside from practical reasons for Mack's storyline being reduced, from a story perspective, Chloe was becoming increasingly isolated from her best friends—including Lana, whose "off again/on again" relationship with Clark was a source of tension between the two roommates. Mack remains vaguely mystified by Chloe and Lana's unlikely friendship—as do many of the series viewers.
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"Chloe's relationship with Lana is just bizarre. I don't know what happened with it. We're so catty."
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And yet you're sisters this reporter points out, and is met with a wry chuckle. Both Kreuk and Mack have gone on record in the past about the narrow focus on the Chloe/Clark/Lana romantic triangle, and to the detriment of all three characters, but Mack remains optimistic about the upcoming third season.
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"We'll have our meeting with the writers at the end of June, two weeks before we go back to the set. I'm very excited for that. It's cool, because within the last four episodes of last season? Everything that I had asked the writers to do with Chloe, they had done. My big thing, in my meeting with them last year, was expand my storyline with Lionel Luthor, put me in a room with Lex—they didn't really do that. Put me in a room with Lex for more than five minutes. Put me into more of an adult world. And expand on my family life. Over the course of the season, they really did all of that. I'll have to sit down with my manager this year and think of new things to ask for! What do I want next year? We'll have to come up with some good ideas and hopefully, they'll be as accepting of those as they were in season two.
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"It was a really great season for a lot of people. Lana grew a lot, and Pete. The writers wanted to focus on the eight of us, expanding us. Namely Sam Jones III and Kristin Kreuk. They really wanted to expand on them. [The writers] were trying to reformulate the episodes [from season one]. Make it different. Because every episode, each character has their job to do and in the second season, they were trying to 'spread the wealth.' For a lot of people, it was a really fabulous season. But for me, it was just extremely slow. It's very difficult, when you have eight people in the cast to write for a large ensemble. That's why the season finales are so massive—they want to leave a cliff-hanger for as many characters as they can. It's always a huge massive episode that has lots of stuff in it for everyone, but not every episode can be that way. So I had to be humble and take my year off."
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The season finale cliff-hanger in question for Chloe Sullivan has Mack's fans on the edge of their seats, as Chloe appears to have struck a deal with the devil himself: Lionel Luthor. Whether the reporter is attempting to play the billionaire, or has been truly tempted to betray her best friend by investigating Clark, is still up in the air. As for whether or not Chloe knows that it was Lionel who had the Torch offices trashed in "Witness," Mack has her own ideas.
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"I don't know that she doesn't know already. She's smarter than she looks. She's a really smart girl. I don't know, but it's fun to speculate and see where they're going to go with it. And how far they'll let me go. I would like to see her get really deeply involved with Lionel," Mack says of her hopes for the upcoming season. "Regardless of whether it's for herself, or for him, I just think that would be such an interesting storyline. I'd like to see [Chloe] get more involved with Lex."
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One big question mark that fans hope might be explored in the upcoming season is Chloe's mother, who was revealed in "Lineage" to have walked out on Chloe and her father Gabe, when Chloe was just five years old.
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"The whole 'Chloe being abandoned' thing was my idea. She needed a reason why she was so clingy. She needed to have a reason why she was never home at night and why no one ever seemed to care where she was, like, ever. She was always out running around, doing these things that no normal fifteen year old kid would be doing."
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Chloe was established has having a strong relationship with her father, Gabe, played by veteran Canadian actor Robert Wisden. However, Chloe's mother has remained a mystery.
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"She doesn't have a mom, because every time you see her, she's with her dad. They're always talking about her and her dad. Why does she have such abandonment issues? Why is she so afraid that Clark's going to ditch her? Why does she only have two friends? Why is she always so involved with work at school? What makes her such an abnormal teenager? We came to the conclusion that it was more than likely that she was abandoned. That the one person who was supposed to love her the most, didn't. So she always has this fear of rejection, or people leaving her and of not being good enough. Her not being what everyone needs her to be. It shows the way Chloe deals with things. Every emotional scene she has, she's always saying 'Oh, but I'm fine. It's all fine. Don't worry about it. I'll be fine.' Chloe represses everything and then every time she gets hurt, she just falls more and more heavily into her work because that's the one thing where she doesn't have to think about her life. If she's solving crimes, then she's too busy to think about herself.
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"It was a really important thing to portray and it gave my character a lot more depth. More ground. She's the only one who doesn't have a background from the Superman comics. So she was one of the only characters that didn't have a built-in backstory. I think the writers didn't think about that at first. If you don't give a character something to stand on, then they're not going to be as interesting—the audience isn't going to care about them as much. If you give them background, you can give them depth. Then all of a sudden, the character comes to life and they're that much more interesting and that much more accessible to the audience. I was glad that we did that [storyline] and the more we can go into that, I think, the better. I think it explains so much about Chloe and why she's the way she is.
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Asked if she has any dream casting choice, should Chloe's mother surface in season three, Mack is pensive.
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"I love Mary Stuart Masterson," she says, naming the former star of Kate Brasher, a series on which Mack had a guest-starring role on as a pregnant teen in 2001 opposite current Everwood cutie Gregory Smith. "She's playing the mother of an eighteen-year-old right now in a movie, so it could work. I'd love to see her come in and play Chloe's mom. There's so many great actresses out there, and it would be a really interesting episode, I think. I don't know if third season will be the same as the first two years, but a lot of times the network doesn't like to have episodes that focus on people other than Clark, because it's supposed to be seen through his eyes. So I think it would be difficult, with my relationship with Clark right now, to introduce Chloe's mom."
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When it's pointed out that it would be a very Lionel thing to do—a very seduction of the innocent "Here, let me show you what I can do for you" thing, Mack ponders this for a moment.
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"That's a really good point. It would be a power thing."
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When asked which was harder for her as an actress, Chloe's emotional monologue at a sick Clark's bedside in "Fever" or the infamous "pimpmobile" scene in "Rush", Mack doesn't hesitate.
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"Pimpmobile. Totally. I've been doing stuff like the monologue in 'Fever' since I was eight years old. Crying and being vulnerable in that way is sort of my forte. My fiancé was so not impressed. 'I've seen you do that a million times. You're good at that. Why would I be impressed? You have to challenge yourself.'
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"The scene in 'Rush'—the entire episode, actually—was a huge challenge for me. Something that I am so not used to playing and it makes me uncomfortable and nervous, to do stuff like that. It was an interesting episode for me. It was fun, it gave us the opportunity to stretch our wings and really do something different. Kristin's amazing at playing sexy. She's totally comfortable doing it and she's great at it. I think it's because she's so used to people staring at her. For me, I grew up knowing that I could be funny, or I could be quirky. Fun to be around. But as an actor, I was never known for being 'the pretty girl.' People never used to stare at me unless I'm doing something weird. So, to play sexy, you have to have this confidence. You have to be totally okay with people staring at you. Devouring you with their eyes. And that was a really, really hard thing for me to do. I have a hard time standing still when people are looking at me. That's why photo shoots never work out very well. I don't like them unless I'm with a really great photographer who can make me feel really comfortable."
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It was interesting to see, both in "Rush" and "Visitor", that Chloe's reaction to aliens is "Oh, cool!" rather than "I'm freaking out." And it was also very interesting that the episodes made a distinct point that while Chloe would be cool with it, Lana would not.
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"I think that, between Lana and Chloe, together we make Lois. You think of Lois Lane and you think of this really smart, feisty, outgoing, beautiful woman. You have the smart, you have the outgoing, you have the feisty in Chloe and then you have the sweet, sensitive, gentle and beautiful qualities represented by Lana. Anything that Lana doesn't have, Chloe does—and vice-versa."
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Mack is amused that there remain a small group of core fans who continue to believe that Chloe will simply grow up, dye her hair, and change her name—to Lois Lane.
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"People come up to me and say 'I think you're really Lois and you're going to grow up and fall in love with Superman.'"
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Mack had her first opportunity to meet hundreds of fans this summer, as she attended two conventions. Crashdown was a Smallville and Roswell convention held in London in May, and she then made an appearance in Philadelphia at WizardWorld East, one of three large industry trade shows-cum-fan conventions.
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"They were four days from each other. It was really insane. I decided to pack all my work into one week and a half, so the rest of my summer, I could just play. They were wild! The one in London was really cool, because it was so small that we really got to talk to the people that were there and get to know them. And that was really cool. Peter came with me and there was an hour question-and-answer session each day, and it was a really neat personal experience. The one in Philadelphia was also really cool, but it was a completely different experience. I had three hours to sign autographs and people were waiting in line."
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Mack has nothing but praise for her fanbase, and one fan in particular.
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"There was a girl named Mojo and she put together the greatest scrapbook. I read it on the plane home. It was so cool. That was coolest thing ever. I gave it to my agent, to use for publicity. It was so well put together and had all these pictures she put together, of me and Lex, and everything. The letters were so inspirational. It was really neat to know that you're affecting people. You get so wrapped up in getting things done, that you sometimes forget that it's really about people—about the fans that are watching it. It is such a great reminder and that was just such a really cool thing. WizardWorld East was such a great experience because it felt like I had real Chloe fans there. Crashdown was more Smallville fans, whereas Philadelphia, I felt like they were all there to see me and that was really, really cool. I got awesome portraits drawn of me, thoughtful gifts, tons of congratulations on my engagement, and that awesome scrapbook. I came back from that convention feeling very supported. It was a good feeling."
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Mack has been an actor her entire life, but when asked if she could see herself in any other profession, she has an immediate answer.
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"As odd as it sound, I can see myself as a midwife. Childbirth, and the fact that the female body does that, is just incredible to me. One of the most intriguing things in the world, and the more I read about what goes into being a midwife, the importance of it, and how it affects a child's life is just amazing to me. I would definitely look into that. Or teaching high school or college because I like that age group. I think you learn a lot about yourself, when you teach. So I probably would have gone into that. Those are my two options."
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The daughter of opera singer Jonathan Mack, the entire clan is made up of very talented and creative people, all of whom have their own pie-in-the-sky dreams..
"My sister [Robyn] is eleven and she's interested in directing. If anyone could do it, she could. She's an extremely intelligent little kid. Very perceptive and just a really cool, creative kid. She's very into theatre, right now. Performing, singing, dancing and all that sort of stuff. We'll see where she ends up. My brother wants to conduct film scores. He's a conductor and he's a composer as well. So when the orchestra goes in to lay down the tracks for film scores, he wants to be the one conducting. He writes really amazing choral music. He'd like to develop his own choir and tour the world. Everybody has their own pie-in-the-sky dreams. Everybody in my family is very creative. It's a matter of just doing it..
"I was at my sister's school the other day and I was talking to this lady that I know. Her daughter is a few years younger than I am. So I asked her, 'What sort of stuff is she interested in doing?' And she said 'Well, she's really interested in cooking.' And I said 'Oh! She's going to be a chef?" and she said "Well, we're trying to discourage her from that, because it's such an unsteady job. We're thinking Research & Development.'
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"That reminded me of how lucky I am, having my family behind me. And yeah, you may not ever be very wealthy, but if you love it, do it. That's the only way you're going to be happy. So that was huge, I think. My dad always said, 'Never give up. Always believe in yourself.' My dad's an artist, an opera singer. People are so afraid to go for what they want to do because it's uncertain, or it's unsteady. You know, 'Nobody ever succeeds in that.' And the fact that my dad is an opera singer, which is probably one of the more difficult careers—I mean, any career in the universe is going to be a difficult one to choose. But he went for it and supported his family on it. And he's always supported his family's dreams. He never said 'Well, maybe you should think about doing something a little bit more stable, or a little bit more realistic.' He was always extremely encouraging. That's the biggest lesson he ever taught us. That you can do anything, if you really want it bad enough."
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When she's not in Vancouver, working, Mack's priorities are the two men in her life—her fiancé Peter and their dog Phantom, a German Shepherd/Malamute.
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"They're my two saving graces. When I have time off, I'll take my dog and go hiking. I love spending time outside with him. He's such a cool dog. And focusing on my relationship. Between both our careers, we're hardly ever in the same country at the same time for more than two weeks. So they're my priorities. My priority men. They keep me sane."
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Any special plans for her 21st birthday?
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"If I can get the week-end off, I'm hopefully going to come down to Los Angeles. I have just a fantastic group of friends here and I'm the last one in the group to turn 21. So hopefully I'll come down here and just be crazy together. I've never been one for big parties, or whatever. I'd rather just have my group of friends together and we can all just go out and have a good time. And finally I can go with!"
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