The actress talks about her role in the film, dive training, a Smallville return and more

Laura Vandervoort is certainly a rising star these days. After a string of guest-starring TV spots and small film roles, the actress started to make a name for herself in roles like the TV series Rising Stars and then a role in the film The Lookout which lead to her role as Kara a.k.a. SuperGirl in Smallville. The actress' latest role is in the straight-to-DVD sequel Into the Blue 2: The Reef, which hits the shelves on DVD on April 21. I had the chance to speak with the lovely actress over the phone about her new film, and here's what she had to say.

Can you tell me how you first came on board to this project?

Laura Vandervoort: I was actually in Vancouver, shooting Smallville. I got sent the audition for me to send on tape back to Los Angeles. I shot it in my little apartment and sent it on to them and, I guess within the next few days I got a call and they said they wanted to meet with me. I met with them all in Vancouver and found out I got the role. I just auditioned like everyone else.

I saw on the special features that you guys had to go through a lot of training for the diving segments, so could you talk about that whole process and how that training went?

Laura Vandervoort: Sure. I actually haven't seen the special features yet, so I'm curious to see what they used. Actually, I'm kind of worried to see what they used (Laughs). But none of us had scuba-dived so they had us go and get certified. Marsha Thomason and I, who became friends during and after the movie, we trained together. They gave us an instructor in Los Angeles, and we trained in the producer's pool, which was very claustrophobic, and we had a few panic attacks. Then they had us go to Catalina Island, which was freezing. I'm from L.A. and I expected it to be warm. It turned out that I had the wetsuit that had a hole in it, which is also fun, but it was cool. It was a good experience, and bonding for the cast as well. Then we got to Hawaii and it was very different. We had Brian Keaulana, who's very popular in Hawaii. He's very famous. He does all the water movies, he did Blue Crush. His father is Buffalo Keaulana, who's a famous surfer in Hawaii. You go anywhere in Hawaii, people know him. We had those guys training us in the water, teaching us about the water. It was kind of an honor, because if you know Brian Keaulana in Hawaii, then you're kind of popular. So yeah, it was a lot of training. We had to do volleyball training as well, for the volleyball scenes, though that was strange because it was just one scene. I think they used the same shot over and over again when I actually hit the ball, because it only kind of happened once. It was a lot of training, but it was fun and now we're all certified so we can do it on vacations.

Yeah, it seemed like everyone kind of caught the diving bug after the training, so was that the same case for you? Is that something you'll still pursue?

Laura Vandervoort: Well, I haven't yet. I thought it was fun, it was a really cool thing to do during filming, because it really broke up the scenes on land, but I think if I went on vacation again, I wouldn't feel prepared because we were so surrounded by people who knew what they were doing, that if anything went wrong, we were safe. If you're on vacation, you're on your own, so I think I'd want to take more lessons first. But yeah, I loved it and I will do it again.

You had a pretty cool cast with Chris Carmack, David Anders, Marsha Thomason, so how did you get along on the set and how did you like working with them?

Laura Vandervoort: Yeah, well you know Chris Carmack is The O.C., David Anders is from Heroes and Marsha Thomason is from Lost. I mean, those are crazy shows and popular shows. I think I was the youngest one in the cast, so I wasn't sure if I'd fit in, but I definitely vibed really well with Marsha, being the two females in the movie, and we spent a lot of time beforehand. David is really sweet and quiet, he did his job and was really great. Chris did as well and we all meshed really great. I couldn't ask for a better cast.

Can you talk a little about working with director Stephen Herek? I saw on special features, for the water scenes, he was watching from a monitor up above, so how did that whole process work for the underwater scenes?

Laura Vandervoort: I wasn't sure how it was going to work. Originally, they were telling us they were going to have a whiteboard that a scuba diver was going to write on underwater that is going to tell us what Stephen wants us to do, so we would read it and do it. It turns out that they had a microphone that they could send down underwater - he could stay dry on the boat (Laughs). While we were down there, he would watch us from a monitor on the boat and Stephen would just say like, 'OK guys. Go back to your first mark back by that rock and, Marsha and Laura, swim together,' and just give us direction. It was really cool. It was muffled, so we would have trouble hearing and it would make the day a lot longer. When you scuba dive and you breathe in and out, your air bubbles are all you hear, so if he spoke while we were breathing out, we didn't hear what he said so he would have to repeat the direction four times so everybody would hear it. We got it all done though.

Stephen was also talking, on the special features, that whole chase scene, that whole Run Lola Run sequence. So how did that whole scene turn out for you, running barefoot?

Laura Vandervoort: Well, it turned out with a stress fracture and an air cast (Laughs).

Oh, really?

Laura Vandervoort: Yeah. I don't know how many days it was, in the end of the running scene, and I had to be barefoot. I got out of the hospital and we couldn't figure out a way that, somehow, I had found running shoes, so Marsha, who was in just sandals, and I actually were running down streets in Hawaii, full-tilt, with a camera on a golf cart and people watching us doing it down the street. It was crazy, but it was fun. I realized towards the end, when I felt a sharp pain, that something had happened, but we waited a couple of weeks and then went to the hospital and found out what it was. I got a little cast that I could take on and off to finish.

You're a trooper.

Laura Vandervoort: Hey, it was worth it. I only saw the movie once in a screening, but I thought the chase scene looked pretty cool.

Oh yeah, definitely. It did have that Run Lola Run feel to it, so it worked out pretty good.

Laura Vandervoort: Yeah, good. I can't wait to see the behind-the-scenes stuff, just the interviews we did before we started and how naïve we must have been about what we were going to do.

There's some good stuff on there, on the DVD, some nice featurettes.

Laura Vandervoort: Let me ask you. Did they show where I was on the boat and one of the Hawaiian guys pulled an octopus out of the water? Did they show me screaming and running?

(Laughs) Oh, no. They didn't show that.

Laura Vandervoort: OK, good. I was worried. I knew they were filming that and then after I screamed like a girl and turned around, I saw a camera there and everyone was laughing, so I was hoping they wouldn't show that (Laughs).

No. I don't think that's on there, so you're safe.

Laura Vandervoort: All right (Laughs).

So are you still going to be coming back to play Kara for Smallville? Is there anything you can tell us about that?

Laura Vandervoort: I can just tell you what I know. I did one at the beginning of the season and then I got a phone call later on, towards the end of the season, asking for my availability. I guess Tom (Welling) had decided that they were going to do another season, because his contract is up, but yeah, he wanted to do another season. It was my understanding that they were going to bring me back for the series finale, but it turns out there was going to be another season, so maybe I'll be back next year. I'm not sure. Nobody fills me in here.

You have a few new films coming out, so is there anything you can tell us about Damage or The Jazzman or anything else you might be looking at?

Laura Vandervoort: Yeah. I'll go down the list. The Jazzman was an independent film in Toronto with Josh Koffman, who directed it. He was the grandson of Moe Koffman and this is kind of the Moe Koffman jazz story. He's a famous musician and Corey Sevier, my boyfriend, is actually the lead in it. We just found out that we got accepted into the Montreal Film Festival. We're hopefully going to be going out there in August to support it. Then I did a movie called Damage with Steve Austin and Walton Goggins from The Shield.

Oh, I love The Shield. He's great.

Laura Vandervoort: Yeah, he's quite a character. Steve Austin, you know, Stone Cold, he's the sweetest guy ever, but he's very calm and collected and then there's Walton who's kind of off the wall and then myself in the middle ground, so we were quite the trio. I think the movie is going to be great. I just did ADR and I'm probably the most proud of this movie and can't wait to see it.

Do you have any idea of a release date for those or a trailer?

Laura Vandervoort: I don't know if it's ready for that yet. We just did ADR and I know they're working on finishing it with the music and all that, but I'm not sure when it's coming out. They hope for a domestic release, but they're not sure. I can tell you that Steve did a great job. For someone who's just getting into the acting biz, he's really great and really likeable. I had the opportunity to dye my hair black, which was a big thing for me. It changed the look and it changed the feel and it was really fun because I wasn't playing this blonde SuperGirl or the blonde girl anymore.

So, finally, for fans of the original film or these types of movies, what would you like to say to get them to pick this up when it comes out on DVD?

Laura Vandervoort: Just that it's better than the first (Laughs). We didn't try to copy the original, we just tried to do our own movie and hopefully they'll like it. There's a lot of action and it's a psychological thriller. There are a lot of bikinis in there, for the guys who want to see that. Yeah, it's just a good movie to pick up.

Well, that's about all I have for you, Laura. Thanks so much for your time and the best of luck with your new films.

Laura Vandervoort: Thank you so much. We'll talk soon. Bye.

You can catch the lovely Laura Vandervoort in Into the Blue 2: The Reef when it hits the shelves on DVD on April 21.