Back in 2007, when Canadian actress Laura Vandervoort was just beginning to play Supergirl on Smallville, she had no idea that nearly 10 years later, she’d be guest-starring on a Supergirl series, this time playing a villain.
It’s an interesting switch for Vandervoort, whose four-year stint as the pure-of-heart caped crusader is nothing like her current role. Her character on Supergirl, Indigo, resembles a long-lost cousin of X-Men‘s Mystique, replete with blue bodysuit. Indigo has the unique power of being able to travel through the internet, and her ultimate goal is to take out Kara (Supergirl, played by Melissa Benoist) and the entire human race.
Global News spoke with Vandervoort in anticipation of the Season 1 finale (airing on Global TV Monday, April 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT), and she chatted about returning to the Superman universe, the events of the finale, and how long it takes to get that costume on.
Laura Vandervoort: [Laughs] Well, technically it’s a wetsuit. No one wants to be fully painted blue every day. [Laughs] It holds in the heat when we’re doing stunts. That’s always fun. When I take it off, it’s just water… sweat pouring down.
It was empowering once I had it on, with all the hair and makeup. It all came together, and I suddenly found the way Indigo would stand. It’s very snake-like.
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Yeah. There’s a prosthetic on my forehead, and then a bald cap and a wig. My forehead lights up. So basically, everything from my eyebrows up aren’t real. It’s like a really bad Botox job, I can’t move my forehead at all. [Laughs] It takes about three to four hours to put it all on, and then over time you forget it’s there until you see yourself in the mirror. It’s not too restrictive, and obviously the wetsuit allows me to manoeuvre and do stunts.
How much of the stunts on this show do you do yourself?
I always try to do the majority of them myself. You always have a double for the very dangerous stuff, and I had two different doubles on this show, and they were more acrobatic than me. I’m trained in martial arts; I started when I was seven and I got my second-degree black belt when I was 19, so that definitely helps.
I always seem to go after the strong female roles, where they fight back. Indigo doesn’t have as many intense fight sequences as I’ve had in the past, and she’s more calculating. She doesn’t throw as many punches.
[Laughs] She’s too busy browsing on Google.
Is it fun for you to play this villainous character?
Oh yeah. I’ve played somewhat bad before. On Smallville, I was infected with red kryptonite, I was Braniac. On V, I played the evil twin and ate my boyfriend, and then on Bitten, she has her moments. This is the first character that’s bad to the bone.
I’ve wanted to go back into the Superman universe, and having played Supergirl before, it’s cool to return as something completely different. I love what the show’s done, I think Melissa is fantastic, and I love the show’s look. When they asked me to be a part of it, I said I’d want to look different and be a different character. Indigo came up when Bitten Season 3 wrapped, so it was serendipitous and it worked out well.
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Is it trippy to be back in that universe, almost 10 years later?
It is a little trippy, but not too much, because my Kara was quite different from this Kara. Melissa has the full-on costume, which I never had. My Kara was more of a teeny-bopper discovering her place on Earth, she had an attitude, thought she was always right and was very strong-headed. This Kara is sincere, sweet and strong, but she’s still figuring out how to be a superhero, whereas my Kara thought she knew everything.
Yes. [Laughs] She returns in the finale, which is called Better Angels. Indigo and Non are teaming up to stop Supergirl, and they’re trying to destroy the planet with Myriad. She’s quite the foe for Supergirl, because she teleports and transforms through technology, so she’s hard to fight.
You can’t tell us if you’ll be back next season (since that might reveal what happens in the Season 1 finale), but if you get the opportunity to return, would you?
I would love to, if it makes sense for the storyline and if Indigo survives.
Here’s the thing with Indigo: she lives on the internet, so couldn’t she always be rebooted?
That’s true. You just need a bunch of ones and zeroes and she can come back. Everything in binary.
Catch the Season 1 finale of ‘Supergirl’ on Global TV, Monday, April 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
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