The Weekly News

For Kristin Kreuk,
‘Smallville’ is big time

By IAN SPELLING

The WB’s "Smallville" took off like a speeding bullet in 2001, and it’s been leaping tall buildings ever since. But 21-year-old Kristin Kreuk, who plays Lana Lang to Tom Welling’s Superman-to-be, admits that the show’s sky-high popularity caught her completely by surprise.

Flying high: "Smallville" actress Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang to Tom Welling’s Superman-to-be) has seen her popularity soar.

"I don’t even know if I had a gut instinct about ‘Smallville,’ " Kreuk says. "I was just like, ‘Do-do, dah-do.’ I knew it would do all right, I knew that it was a good show. But I had no expectations, and I had no idea that it would become the show it became.

"The biggest surprise for me has been its popularity internationally," she adds. "The show is huge in France and big in Germany and Scandinavia. It’s hard for me to comprehend that the show could be so big. I was actually in Portugal – and the show doesn’t air in Portugal – and some British guy came up to me and said, ‘Hey, you’re on Smallville!’

"Every time I travel," she says, "I think, ‘Oh, I’ll go to Costa Rica. No one will recognize me in Costa Rica.’ And they do."

Kreuk, dressed all in black for a conversation in the restaurant at New York’s Peninsula Hotel, laughs and shrugs. She does both again when she hears that there’s a "Smallville" groupie – a guy in a "Smallville" T-shirt and a Superman baseball cap, carrying a marker and several photos of Kreuk – waiting outside the hotel’s lobby.
"How did he know I was here?" Kreuk wonders aloud.

The Canadian-born Kreuk is in town to promote "Smallville’s" third season. The first few shows have brought the return home of both Clark and Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) – Clark after a stint as a red-kryptonite-fueled bad guy and Lex following the downing of his private jet.

And now it’s November sweeps time. The Nov. 5 episode, "Relic," centered on Lex, but the next show, "Magnetic," found Lana under the spell of Seth Nelson (Seth Zegers), a fellow student who is a meteor freak and has Magneto-like powers.

"After waiting for Clark the first few episodes," Kreuk says, "She gets into a relationship with this magnet guy and falls in love with him for a while. She realizes that she wants to be in love with someone again, and wants someone to be in love with her."

Lana’s wish will come true, but not until January. After the Nov. 19 episode, "Shattered" – in which Lana is trampled by a horse and breaks a leg – "Smallville" will go into a month of repeats, and only after the new year will "Asylum" kick off a spate of original episodes.

"Lana gets a love interest in ‘Asylum,’ " Kreuk says, referring to a mystery guy to be played by Ian Somerhalder. "She meets him after Lex goes to an insane asylum. Lionel Luthor (John Glover) starts to make Lex think he’s insane, and Lana meets this guy. He’s going to be around for a few episodes, I think."

If "Smallville" continues on its current trajectory, the show and Kreuk could be around for a few more years. Considering that prospect, Kreuk purses her lips thoughtfully.

"It’s comforting and daunting," she says. "I feel so lucky to be working on this show. It’s become this place where I go to and it’s like, ‘Hi, how are you today?’

"It’s easy for me because I’m not there every day," she adds. "It’s a lot harder for Tom, because he’s really there every day. He’s such a good sport about it.

"But I like everybody I work with," the actress says, "and I know that’s so rare. I don’t know if I’ll ever have that again. And it’s a steady job, and it’s paid my mortgage.

"Plus I get to work on something that’s really good – there’s not that much out there that’s good."
On top of it all, Kreuk gets one extra super-perk denied to her fellow cast members: "Smallville" shoots in
Vancouver, British Columbia, where Kreuk was born, was raised and still lives.

"It’s really good that we’re in Vancouver," she says. "It cuts down on the amount of publicity we have to do. It cuts down on the amount of movie premieres we should go to. It minimizes our appearances, so that we can live our lives. It’s quieter up in Vancouver. I get recognized, but it’s not that bad.

"I know all the places in Vancouver," Kreuk concludes. "My friends are all there. I love it. I’m sure everybody else would prefer to be in L.A., because they’ve got their friends and family there, but I’m happy.