Interview with Actress Allison Mack

What do you do after the highly-successful, 10 season television series you grew up on ends? For actress Allison Mack, the answer is turn inward and set your sights on the stage. As fan-favorite Chloe Sullivan on the WB/CW series Smallville, Allison Mack appeared in over 200 episodes––from the pilot to the finale––as an original character not from the DC comic book universe. Through her universal popularity with fans, however, Chloe Sullivan was eventually added into the DC canon.

Thanks to Smallville, Allison Mack has been in the public eye since she was 18, so it's no wonder that after the series' conclusion in 2011, Mack's attention turned towards the more intimate stage. Currently, she is slated to appear in Red Velvet, the latest production by the acclaimed Old Globe Theatre. The show centers on a production of Othello in the early 1800s in London. In Red Velvet, Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, can’t go on as Othello, leaving his company in disarray. A young American actor named Ira Aldridge arrives to step into the role—but no black man has ever played Othello on the English stage.

In the production, Allison Mack plays Ellen Tree, a supporter of the young Aldridge. Two weeks away from opening night (March 30th), Red Velvet is scheduled to run until April 30th, with previews for the production beginning on March 25th. FINE Magazine spoke with Allison Mack about moving on from Smallville, her relationship with the Globe, and Red Velvet's impact on audiences.

You’re best known for your role as Chloe Sullivan on Smallville. What was it like to have so much success at a young age?

It was intense. It was overwhelming and intimidating. While I was doing Smallville, I didn't really notice [the success] so much because it was just the life that I was living. We didn't experience that much of a difference in Vancouver [where Smallville was filmed] because we were in the middle of work all the time, but the real moments of distinction and the ways it impacted me came afterwards, when I realized that I kind of grew up on a TV show and didn't really know where to go afterwards. I was 28 and I felt not quite sure where I was going or who I was. I think that was probably the most bumpy transition.

How did you start navigating that change?

I have a wonderful teacher and mentor named Keith Rainiere, who really gave me some incredible guidance. I think everyone needs a mentor. I don't think any of us really know the answers without a little bit of wisdom. If you aren't willing to be humble enough to seek wisdom from other people, I think you're missing a lot of really incredible opportunities to build a certain amount of depth and value in your life that you wouldn't have if you didn't have somebody to help guide you.

I chose to have this mentor in my life, and I was talking to him about my struggle, confusion, and not knowing what to do. He said, "Why don't you take some time and think about? Give yourself some space to figure out who you are now." So that's what I did. He recommended that I study classical theatre, so I did a program that was a summer-intensive Shakespeare program that Barry Edelstein actually headed at the time. It was awesome and really whet my appetite for theatre. It helped my recognize that I really wanted to be a serious actor who wanted to do more than TV.

What’s the difference between acting for TV and acting on stage?

They are very distinct because you don't have time in TV to do anything with your castmates or your director outside of just showing up, block it, and go. The type of preparation that's necessary for television is very different from the type of preparation that's necessary for theatre. You don't have the preparation to build the same amount of depth on the job with the work you do in filming for TV because you're doing it so quickly. 

TV is also smaller, so your opportunity to express yourself to your fullest is limited because you're playing to a very small frame, especially on shows like Smallville that used a lot of extreme close-ups. I think those are probably the two biggest distinction: the preparation process and the size of the performance.

Do you have a preference?

Right now, I much prefer theatre. I love the communal aspects of it. I love the artistic aspect of it. I love the aliveness and the fact that there's real people listening that I can see and feel. I love the stories that are told in plays––the fact that you tell a story from beginning to end and you feel that congruency. You have to know what you're doing to produce a good play––there's no editor or opportunity to do it again, and no massaging will make you look good if you don't know what you're doing––and I love that.

What’s it like working with the Old Globe?

It's fantastic. They're a delightful company. Working with Barry [Edelstein] again is great. He's such an incredible wealth of information, and he's the encyclopedia of all things Shakespeare. It's really a privilege to have the opportunity to meet with him again. And just the company of people who work on this show, from the costume designers to the people who are taking care of us. Everyone is just warm and accommodating and kind. I feel very spoiled, actually.

San Diego's beautiful, which is a given. It's so lovely to be able to walk through [Balboa Park] every day to get to work... It's weird, because [in San Diego] I'm like, "Is everybody in a good mood? What's going on?" Coming from New York, this is not normal.

Tell me about Red Velvet. What do you hope audiences take away from this play?

It's an incredible play and everyone needs to come see it––and not just because I'm in it. [Laughs] It's a play about hope and transformation and cultural evolution. Ira Aldridge is the center of the play, and he was the first black actor to ever play a Shakespeare [character] on the London stage, and he was not followed up by anyone for another hundred years. He was a pioneer of the theatrical world for black people, and Red Velvet tells his story.

It's a deeply moving and very emotional and painful and challenging piece––both for the audience and for us as actors––because it shows and reveals a certain type of immaturity in our cultural thinking, and it explains it in a very human way. And the play is very current. It takes place in the early 1800s, but it's so relevant given the nature of our social climate these days and the things that we're trying to overcome as a community.

It's a funny, sad, thoughtful, and tragic play that I think people will get a lot out of.

What can you tell me about Ellen?

I get to play this incredibly cool woman, Ellen Tree, who was based on a real person. She was the Meryl Streep of her time––she was a significant, strong pillar of the theatre world. She was theatrical royalty, married to Charles Kean (who is also a character in the play), who was the son of one of the most famous actors in the 1800s. Ellen Tree is the Desdemona in the production of Othello [depicted in Red Velvet]. She represents the one that supports Ira Aldridge, the one that wants him to succeed. She has a platonic love affair with him throughout the 48 hours that she knows him because she is captivated by his capacity and passion. Her relationship with Ira is beautiful because it transforms her in a way she didn't expect.

Finally, give us a pop culture plug. What are you watching, reading, or listening to now?

Oh my god, okay. I'm a total fiend for podcasts. I'd addicted to What It Takes, On Being, and Invisiblia. Those are the three podcasts I'm constantly listening to. 

There's also something else I want to plug––there's a website called Brain Pickings by a woman named Maria Popova, and it's awesome. Maria has curated the most beautiful articles and poems and pieces of artwork that reflect the human struggle and human spirit. 

Tickets for Red Velvet are available at the Old Globe's website.

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