OK! Interview: Laura Vandervoort

The episode may be titled "Arctic," but Smallville's cliffhanging season finale tonight will be red-hot, just as the rest of the season was – thanks to Laura Vandervoort.

Better known as Supergirl, the Canadian-born star has set tongues wagging and proven that Kryptonians are hot aliens when she first stepped on screen in the CW hit last fall in her busty top and short shorts.

"I wasn't a huge fan of it!" Laura tells OK!, laughing at the skimpy gear. "I was already nervous about fitting with the cast right away so the shorts didn't make me feel comfortable! But it was apart of the role."

And boy was she a perfect fit (no pun intended).

With a second-degree black belt in hand, Laura, a self-proclaimed tomboy, was the perfect gal to be the balls-to-the-wall, tough chick that is Kara Zor-El, Clark's (Tom Welling) cousin. Diving right into the stunt work, the 23-year-old has performed so many on her own that her stunt double saw little to no action.

"When I first go the role, I started doing the training with the harnesses and other stunts and I ended up taking to it pretty quickly," she says. "I really enjoyed doing the stunts. I would say I ended up doing like 90 percent of my own stunts. I feel bad for my stunt girl! But I love they cant get me down sometimes."

Jumping right in on the first day helped pacify some of the nerves that arrested her about joining an already established show and cast. A veteran of Canadian TV and completely aware that Supergirl even existed in the Superverse ("I never knew there was a Supergirl, so I had to look her up and do research"), Laura won the coveted role a week after her screen test. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of Tom on the Vancouver set.

"They've been doing it for six season the cast was kind of tight because everyone was there from the beginning and my first scene was a five-page dialogue, I'm like, "Tom Welling! Oh my God! He's so tall!" she laughs. "I watched Kristin Kreuk and Allison Mack and I was pretending it wasn't a big deal to me but it was! I clung on to Erica Durance because she was the last newbie. It was good in the end towards the end I was relaxed and it was comfortable and fun going to work."

There will be less fun next season as Lex Luthor himself -- Michael Rosenbaum -- will depart the series after tonight and will be demoted to guest star.

"The second to last day he shot he was in a scene with me an he was funny as always dancing around with me and he had his video tape and recorded everyones comments to him and he bought sushi for the entire cast and crew," Laura says. "He may come back, but he is such a great actor he has a lot ahead of him."

And will Supergirl come back? Though it's widely reported that she will return -- perhaps even as a regular -- Laura is pleading the fifth on that one. Because the show's creators, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, are leaving the series as well, the actress -- who spent the season logging air miles jbetween Vancouver and Toronto to shoot the Canadian series Instant Star -- says she doesn't know the plan or direction for the show or Kara.

"We hope that it's the old show of how it's always been with them," she says. "I hope it won't be a huge difference. I haven't talked to the new producers, but you have to see the finale to understand where I am right now."

Ever the tease, Laura, who will spend the summer shooting The Reef, a sequel to Into the Blue, won't dish any scoop. But she cautions for, what else, lots of action and suspense.

"A lot dramatic things of happens in the finale," she says. "We're pulling out all of the stops. It was a big episode to shoot. I get to be a little bad-ass. And someone's going to disappear. That's all I'm going to say!"

By Joyce Eng