Cult Times: Lauren Lee Smith, on Enchanting Emma

Simply De-Lovely

We've heard the story before. An actress currently riding the sweet success of a show almost didn't land the role. Mutant X's Lauren Lee Smith can sympathize. After auditioning for a casting director in her native Vancouver, the higher-powers-that-be sat on the fence, requesting Smith fly herself out to Toronto for a second tryout. Of course, she turned them down.

"I was like, 'Ah, no'," recalls Smith. "They couldn't have been that interested because usually if they want to test you, they fly you down." But there must have been some sparks because the casting director recommended resubmitting an audition tape to showcase her talent. After a bit of retooling, Smith resent one and shortly after slipped into the part of superhero Emma deLauro. Thinking back, Smith remembers, "The hardest part was figuring out our powers before we had seen what they were going to look like," says Smith. "I think it was pretty hard for everyone to get that idea. It either felt or looked silly. I guess for me it's the physical part [too] because that is new to me."

For Smith, Mutant X has offered a change of pace and a chance to stretch some acting muscles. "Originally, what attracted me to Mutant X was I just finished doing this mini-series called Christy which was a perioud piece," explains the 22-year-old knockout. "Everything I've done has been sort of sweet girl-next-door, so when I read this, it's like she's a superhero chick, she gets to kick ass, and she's a little bit tougher and darker than anything I ever playesd. And it just sounded like fun. Who doesn't want to be part of something called Mutant X?"

As a telempath, Emma can receive or transmit feelings and emotions. "It's a pretty cool power," admits Smith. In the episode Interface, she even projected illusions to confuse the enemy and enable an escape. However, the Canadian actress notes that ability was probably a one time deal. "God, if she could do all that stuff, Emma could save the world," she quips.

Omnipotence may not be on the cards but the character has taken leaps and bounds in accepting who she is. The premiere episode, The Shock of the New, had Emma turning her back on Mutant X after being thrust into their world. Insecure about her powers, she just wanted to blend into normalcy and ignore her gifts. Since then, Emma has become a team player and proven herself time and time again. Yet while her powers are more of a cerebral trick, her fellow mutants are dishing out some hard-hitting physical blows. Last year on the set, while her French bulldog Scott munched on my shoelaces, Smith admitted she wished Emma would get to beat the bad guys senseless once in a while. In fact, her stand-out moment at the time involved doing just that. "I can't remember what episode it was, but the first one where I kick someone and I knock her out was exciting," exclaims Smith. "I don't have any background in martial arts, so seeing myself kicking butt is funny. I want to do more of that."

Six months later, that tune has changed. "At first, I really, really did," she admits about getting more action. "I was looking around at Vicki Pratt, Victor Webster and Forbes March and going, 'Man, that looks co cool! I wish I could do that. I hope Emma gets to do that eventually!' At the same time, I think it is really neat she's the one that doesn't do that so much. She's the one who plays with minds. And not only that, sometimes it is late at night and poor Vicki is up on those wires for God knows how long and it looks painful. So part of me is like, 'Maybe it's not so bad'."

That doesn't mean she doesn't suffer some of the same hardships as her co-star, the feral Pratt. Both tend to dress in leather or other sexy items, and while Wonder Woman and the female X-Men may make tackling evil in tight outfits look easy, Smith knows better.

"I can't even tell you how many pants Vicki and I have gone through," she chuckles. "I don't even do that much, but just from running and kicking, our heels break loose because we're in these platforms during these fights. I've been on wires once but I don't miss it. Maybe I'm just a little bit lazy."

Given the hours put in, Smith is selling herself short. Every week brings more insight to Mutant X as they square off against a new enemy. What is also evident is the close-knit connection these strangers have quickly formed. "It's very much like a family," describes Smith. "All of us have come from weird backgrounds and coming from where we feel like the outcast so I think they all bonde immediately. It's brother/sister. In the original script, they planned on having some relationships in the group too. I know Brennan [Webster] and I were supposed to have a thing, but they decided to keep us more of a family and bring others in."

With Mutant X consisting of five members, Smith says each actor gets their turn in the spotlight so it's no surprise her favorite episodes focus heavily on Emma.

"I really liked Double Vision a lot, because I got to play good and bad. And it's so much fun playing the bad girl and being bitchy and snotty to everyone. That was also the first episode I got to do some action. I also liked Interface, where my old school friend came back. There was a neat scene with Vicki and me in the shopping mall. We were throwing around these shopping bags and kicking these guys' asses with our purses. And the vampire one, Lazarus Syndrome, was great too."

But Mutant X might have finally met their match in Season One's finale, where they battle Gabriel Ashlocke (Michael Easton), a man with multiple abilities who shares a dark piece of history with them. "I can tell you the season finale, A Breed Apart, is going to open up quite a lot of doors for Season Two and there are going to be quite a few changes," reveals Smith. "The major conflict will be with Michael's character because he is patient zero. He was the very first mutant."

So what else is cooking for the hip generation X? Good question, and it appears fans aren't the only ones left in the dark. The actors are curious too. Recently, Smith was in LA visiting co-stars Webster and Pratt, so speculations were running rampant. What Smith did hint was that the gang would all get a power boost as their abilities evolve. Viewers can also expect Gabriel to plague Mutant X again, while Genomex head honcho Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus) phases out due to the actor's other commitments.

But you can tell by the enthusiasm and laughter in her voice that Smith has no pulls to pull a disappearing act. Involved in theatre ever since she was two, Smith says she just eased into film and television before moving back to Vancouver from LA. Once settled in, she hired an agent and started taking acting classes. The young Canadian has since appeared in such series as the boyband comedy 2Gether, James Cameron's Sci-Fi adventure Dark Angel, the period piece mini-series Christy, and the Sylvester Stallone feature film Get Carter.

"Get Carter was my first job," says Smith. "It was... interesting. I didn't know what I was going to be doing, it was sort of this little improv job. I played this girl that was given a date rape drug and I got there, and before I knew it I was done. But everyone always says, 'Hey! You were in Get Carter!'"

Oddly enough, if you've caught any of her past work, you'll notice a major difference between her past work and her present Mutant X days: Smith isn't really a brunette. Her hairdresser dyes her naturally blonde locks once a month. "Vicki had already been cast and so had Victor and Forbes," says Smith. "I was the last in, so they decided didn't want two blondes. And I'm not sure blondes have more fun." She laughs. "I've probably had every single color of hair possible. It's actually red right now. As soon as we finished the show, I was like, 'I need a change'. I'm kind of hoping they'll keep it for next season."

If they warm up to the idea, Smith will be one step closer to her alter ego. When asked who resembles their character the most on the show, her answer is a certain laidback ex-thief.

"Victor is pretty similar to Brennan," she giggles. "Will he be mad at me for that? As for me, Emma is a little mischievous and likes to play around. I would say I'm pretty similar. However, when she gets into her serious mode and really gets upset, I'd like to think I'm not like that. But Emma is very emotional. She's always bombarded with these feelings so that makes her a little scatter-brained sometimes. I like to think I'm not quite that scatter-brained." She bursts out laughing again.

Bryan Cairns

© Cult Times

Lauren Lee Smith: Visimag's Xpose 2/02

Em Appeal!
Mutant X's new recruit Lauren Lee Smith tells Steven Eramo why she's glad to be playing a girl next door with something x-tra...

Also interviewed in this issue: Lauren Lee's Mutant X co-star Forbes March (Jesse Kilmartin)

At a passing glance, Mutant X's Emma deLauro could be your daughter, girlfriend... the archetypal all-American girl next door. However, as the old saying goes, looks can be deceiving. Behind those big blue eyes is the mind of a telepath and an empath. Emma can sense the feelings of others and plant suggestions in peoples' minds that can influence their behavior. Playing such a character has proven to be quite a departure from the roles which Lauren Lee Smith had played in the past.

"What first attracted me to the part was the fact that it was completely unlike anything I'd done before," enthuses the actress. "I'm relatively new to the film and TV business. I've only been at it a little over two years. Everything I've done so far has been very much the girl-next-door type or the sweet girlfriend. I mean, in my last job I played a schoolteacher from 1912. So when I read the audition sides for Emma, I thought, ‘Cool! She's a sexy girl and an action chick that gets to kick some butt. I like that!' When I met with the writers to talk about what they had planned for Emma, that got me all the more excited. With every episode I'm learning more and more about the character, and that's been great for me."

Emma is a child of Genomex, a biotech firm that has been conducting secret experiments on behalf of the US government. Their work has produced genetic mutations in a few hundred men and women, which has given them superhuman and, in some cases, dangerous powers. Ttheir offspring, like Emma, are taken by surprise as their inherited abilities begin to surface, and find themselves caught between the heavies of the Genetic Security Agency and a more benign band of mutants.

"At the start, Emma is very scared and shocked by everything," notes Smith. "She doesn't know what to make of the GSA or Adam and the Mutant X team. In the first two episodes she's more or less this young party girl. Little by little, though, Emma gradually matures into a well-rounded individual. She's becoming far more comfortable using her powers and working with Adam as well as the others.

"The pilot was a lot of fun to shoot," she continues. "The entire cast was flown up to Vancouver a month early in order to train with our fight coordinator, Paul Rapovski. This helped us become familiar with each other, so once we stepped onto the set it wasn't like, ‘Well, who's this person? What's he/she like?'

"One of my favorite scenes was where Emma and Brennan are being chased by Frank Thorne and his men. That took almost the entire day to film. Believe me, it wasn't easy running in those high heels Emma had on. There were times when Victor was holding my hand and literally pulling me along," laughs Smith. "If we had to stop suddenly, which we did, I'd go flying forward. Thankfully, Victor would always catch me before I went too far."

by Steven Eramo

Get the full seven-page double feature, with Forbes March and Lauren Lee Smith interviewed, plus more pictures from Mutant X... when you buy Xposé #64

© Visimag