writingmorgan:

Chris Petry Talks “Smallville”, Chloe Sullivan and Lemurs

Recently Legendary Women was lucky enough to speak with “Smallville” producer and director Christopher Petry by phone. Petry has worked on the CW’s superhero drama since its beginning, starting as a production assistant parking cars. By the end of the series ten years later, Petry was a producer and director with independent film work under his belt.

While cooking up a delicious dinner for himself, Petry shared some inside dish about working on “Smallville” since the beginning and how the show created their own super heroine legacy in the form of one Chloe Sullivan.

—EXCERPT

So clearly we are highlighting Chloe for the month of February at Legendary Women. What did you think of Chloe’s journey throughout the course of the show?

What did I think of it? Oh I think it was an awesome character. I mean it’s a character that, we’re taking all these DC characters that are established by other writers and are established within this world. And here we have a character that as a collective group, you know our show runners right from the beginning, our writers and then to Allison Mack, to take a character that has never existed before and now exists in our world and make her like a superhero. In fact she is a superhero, she was Watchtower right? So to create that seed and for Allison to grow it into this character, that’s probably my favorite thing. You have all the geeky comic guys creating superheroes and then we got to create one of our own out of thin air.

Do you know if the original conception for Chloe changed over the years?

I cannot say for certain but I’m sure it did. Every year we would do an overhaul of the characters and where their arcs were going and what not. And then also the cast brings certain things to the show, like Allison would. If she had chemistry with someone than you’d start developing it. As a part of a series you have to imagine, and I’m speaking for our writers which I wasn’t one, they did a great job of seeing what Allison would bring to the table and writing to that. They would blueprint and the cast would put forth great performances and story arcs. Allison Mack is just a phenomenal actress though.

What was your favorite moment for Chloe’s character on the show?

My favorite Chloe moment? Gee, there were a lot of moments. I didn’t like when she was always pining over Clark. I would have to say I think I’d go with the very end when you see where her character got to, at the very end of the show when she was telling the whole story through a comic book to her child. That’s pretty awesome. Again that’s a testament to Allison’s commitment to the show and the show runners. Keeping her on contract for that period of time and getting her to have a great character wrap-up and a whole arc to the series. Not all the characters got to do that.

What would you say your favorite moment working with Allison was?

My favorite moment working with Allison? I would have two different answers. For Allison the actress, just being with her and Justin Hartley when she’s trying to leave and they have a big romantic moment where he won’t let her go and they kiss. That was my favorite moment directing Allison; it was just awesome working with her and seeing her craft getting her there. As for Allison the person, working hand-in-hand with her when she directed her episode was very memorable. I enjoyed that. Watching her grow and learn and seeing what a director she became, those are my favorite moments working with Allison.

—Read the MUCH longer full interview about Smallville, Chloe and Lemurs at LegendaryWomen.org HERE!!