Actresses Laura Vandervoort (right) and Molly Quinn are among the actresses who have brought Supergirl to life, the former playing Kara Zor-El as a recurring character in long-running TV show Smallville and the latter voicing her in the animated film Superman Unbound (left). The mediums may have been different, but both were impacted by the experience.
“Kara was a great character,” enthuses Vandervoort, who is currently starring in the werewolf series Bitten. “I know there’s a comic-book theme behind who she is
and who she’s supposed to be, but I think I kind of made her my own. They had written her as this rebellious teenager and she didn’t care about people, but I think we slowly developed her into a likable, almost-human being who had faults of her own.”
Adds Quinn, who today is working on the series Castle alongside Firefly star Nathan Fillion, “It’s a big honour to play Supergirl for one of the first times in animation, and to me, she really represents all teen girls. The strongest force of change in the world is a girl, so that’s what I just kept saying to myself while recording. She has the ability, and she will impact the world. She knows that she has that confidence and exuberance and that life inside
her that she wants to share and she wants to teach.
“Building her from the bones out was all a joy,” Quinn continues. “There were challenges in her attitude that she’s a mature woman stuck in a teenager’s body, so she’s having to go through all this stuff – puberty, being treated like a kid, not being given the respect of an adult. It’s all very conflicting inside her. She’s special and she knows she’s special, so for her having to kind of blend in is always a struggle. She has these new powers, and she wants to go around and save people – and to make sure that what happened to her and her planet doesn’t happen to them.”
Supergirl will air on CBS in the US. Find out more about the comics that inspired the series with the 100 All-Time Greatest Comics bookazine!
