  Canada’s Laura Vandervoort plays alien Lisa on the re-imagining of the ’80s sci-fi show V.
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Laura Vandervoort, do you feel guilty about luring young men into peril with your feminine charms?
“I’m a horrible person,” the 25-year-old Toronto native said with a laugh.
The thing is, Vandervoort’s character in the new science-fiction series V — which debuts tonight on ABC and CTV — may not be evil.
An alien, yes. But not necessarily evil.
“It’s always fun to play bad,” Vandervoort said. “And you never know, Lisa may not turn out to be bad.
“That’s one of the interesting parts about the role. I’m not even sure, and the producers are kind of leaving it to be discovered for the audience and for myself. Lisa could be a good person and she has been lied to by their leader.”
Hey, been there, done that. (Just kidding, boss.)
Anyway, V is a re-imagining of a memorable sci-fi mini-series that aired back in 1983.
“I did know it, I was aware of it, my parents had mentioned it to me,” said Vandervoort, who was born in 1984.
“I purchased it and have watched a few scenes. But I haven’t watched the whole thing, and I’m thinking I’m not going to, just so it doesn’t creep into my mind.”
Following her role in the Canadian TV series Instant Star, Vandervoort became known to a wider audience when she played Kara Kent, the young woman destined to become Supergirl, in the CW series Smallville.
Vandervoort said she isn’t worried about being type-cast by playing back-to-back aliens in Smallville and V — both of which are shot in Vancouver — because the roles are so different.
“I love sci-fi and I’m always drawn to sci-fi because the female roles are a lot stronger,” Vandervoort said.
BLACK BELT
In other words, Vandervoort — who has a black belt in karate — tries to keep those “giggling girlfriend” parts to a minimum.
“I never want to put down a role, every role is an opportunity, but there is type-casting in what we do,” Vandervoort said. “For instance, I won’t say the name of the project, but there’s a big movie that was auditioning and the woman is supposed to be a career woman around my age, but because of my look it just isn’t as believable, because (I’m) blond and what-not.
“There’s always type-casting and that’s tough, and I do go out for a lot of the giggling girlfriends, the cheerleaders, especially when I was 16. Those are great for what they are, it just depends on the project. But I tend to shy away from those.
“I prefer playing the strong, leading woman. I think the taste for that developed during Smallville. And because of my martial-arts background I prefer to be the dominant one.”
Vandervoort’s Lisa isn’t the dominant one in V — that position is taken by the leader of the aliens, Anna, played by Morena Baccarin — but Lisa does have power. In particular, Lisa has power over a starry-eyed young man named Tyler, played by Logan Huffman.
But again, in Lisa’s alien mind, it all could be above-board.
“My direction is to play Lisa human with a secret,” Vandervoort said. “I’m not going to give an evil smile to the camera when someone walks out of the scene. I’m not going to give it away. I’m playing it as a young 17-year-old who is possibly in love.
“I’m just being as innocent and kind as I possibly can, so if it turns out (Lisa) isn’t a good person, then it’s all that much more devastating for the audience.”
