Sunday, September 19, 2004
The 21-year-old Kristen Kreuk doesn't go in for Hollywood parties.
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
"Smallville" actress Kristin Kreuk can feel herself growing up.
"Every year, when you're in this age range, you begin to discover different parts of yourself," says the 21-year-old star. "... "I'm feeling myself being OK with who I am."
Looking at Kreuk and her accomplishments, you'd think she would have no trouble being comfortable with herself. Since the premiere of "Smallville" in 2001, she's been a leading cover girl for the WB network.
She's made almost every "Sexiest" list that magazines can contrive. And in recent months, she's followed the footsteps of Mandy Moore and Jennifer Love Hewitt to promote Neutrogena.
Next up is "EarthSea," an epic Sci-Fi Channel miniseries also starring Isabella Rossellini and Danny Glover. She plays Tenar, a tougher-than-she-looks heroine.
With all this, television's Lana Lang admits she's uncomfortable with celebrity and shuns its key benefits. She doesn't have an assistant or a driver. She recently bought a home and has a roommate because she hates living alone.
Fun with friends
"I don't attend premieres. I don't attend Hollywood events," she says. "I don't go outside and party very much. I don't enjoy it. It takes a lot of energy to go out and do all that.
"But if I have a lot of friends over or I go out with a lot of friends, then I enjoy it. You can actually talk to someone, and it means something. If going to Hollywood events makes or breaks my career, I don't really care."
She sees her peers falling into the trappings of Hollywood. She wants to avoid it.
"A lot of young celebrities base their worth on where they are," Kreuk says. "They are at an age where everyone is telling them: 'You're great! You're wonderful! You're perfect' and they start to believe it.
"When someone tells them they are [inadequate] then they begin to question their own worth. It's bad because, in all honesty, most people don't care about you as a person at all."
Lives in Vancouver
Kreuk is Canadian, and still lives in Vancouver, where she was born and reared and where, by coincidence, "Smallville" is shot. She landed her first professional role in high school on the Canadian series "Edgemont."
She answered a casting call when the show was looking for a heroine with "exotic" beauty. Kreuk's father is Dutch; her mother is Chinese. Both are landscape architects.
For all her talk, Kreuk admits she has to work to stay grounded.
"Living in Vancouver helps," she says. "My friends are in school and have regular jobs. One of my friends goes to Harvard. Another one volunteers all over the world.
"To me, that's real life."
Those qualities tie her to Lana, the kindhearted but perpetual damsel-in-distress who has yet to figure out that her sometimes-boyfriend Clark Kent (Tom Welling) has superhuman abilities. Lana's a homebody who, at the end of last season, decided to chuck it all and move to France to find herself.
Changing character
As "Smallville" enters its fourth season (8 p.m. Wednesday, the WB), Lana is coming into her own. She'll have a new love interest and possibly get involved with Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum).
She'll find a clearer career direction and be more at ease with herself.
It's a turn none too soon for Kreuk, who admits she's tiring of Lana's trademark of staying blissfully ignorant.
Lana reluctantly returns to Smallville after spending time in Paris. She's more confident, more focused and has finally gotten over Clark for good.
"She'll be a very different character once she gets back from Paris," Kreuk says. "She's finally growing up, and I'm happy about that."