Checking in with EMMANUELLE CHRIQUI
Many an actor will tell you they have grown along with their character, be it through a difficult story arc or just its life experiences.
Such has the case for Emmanuelle Chriqui, whose “Superman & Lois” alter ego of Lana Lang Cushing enters Season 3, which commences Tuesday, March 14, on The CW, now divorced from husband Kyle (Erik Valdez) and trying to figure out how to move forward with her family but also a woman fully in control as the mayor of Smallville.
“I never in a million years thought that I would ever play a mayor,” the Canadian actress says with a laugh. “I don’t know why. Maybe because I’m naturally not a political person at all.”
“When we started the show, Lana was just this great people pleaser,” she continues, “not the most empowered, really sort of flailing in her life, trying to figure things out and just being that really flawed, perfectly human character. And it was just like allowing myself to grow with every episode and with the writing and seeing like where she goes, how she evolves. So from the beginning, like from Season 1 until now, she’s had this incredible transformation from feeling sort of like gun-shy to I think genuinely believing like if you can dream it, you can do it.”
Chriqui readily admits that coming into “Superman & Lois,” she was neither a superhero nor comic book. But after listening to the pitch from series creator Todd Helbing for “this superhero show also mixed in with this ‘Friday Night Lights’ element,” she was sold.
“When I left the meeting with him, I had an absolute sense of excitement, which is what I wanted to feel,” she says. “And you know, it was I think the best decision that I could have made.”
Full name: Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui
Birth date: Dec. 10, 1975
Birthplace: Montreal (but raised outside Toronto)
Family ties: Single; is the youngest of three children born to Morrocan immigrants Liliane and Albert Chriqui
TV credits include: “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues,” “The Adventures of Sinbad,” “The O.C.,” “Unscripted,” “The Borgias,” “Entourage,” “Thundercats,” “Tron: Uprising” (voice), “The Mentalist,” “Men at Work,” “Cleaners,” “Murder in the First,” “The Grinder,” “Shut Eye,” “The Passage”
Movie credits include: “Detroit Rock City” (1999), “Snow Day” (2000), “100 Girls”
(2000), “Wrong Turn” (2003), “Rick” (2003), “Waiting ...” (2005), “Deceit” (TV, 2006), “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” (2008), “Cadillac Records” (2008), “Women in Trouble” (2009), “13” (2010), “Girl Walks Into a Bar” (2011), “Three Night Stand” (2013), “It’s Complicated” (2014), “Fort Bliss” (2014), “Entourage” (2015), “Hospitality” (2018)
Favorite book: “I am such an avid reader. OK, one of my favorite books that I always tell people is ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’ by Jon Krakauer, which was turned into a show. I read that book maybe a decade ago and I was so floored by it. It was an excellent novel. I loved that one. Oh my God, there’s so many . ... I love the author Paulo Coelho. He wrote ‘The Alchemist.’ ‘The Alchemist’ is definitely one of my all-time favorite books. And I would say Khaled Hosseini. You know, he wrote ‘The Kite Runner’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns.’ ”
Favorite movie: “I would say an all-time favorite would have to be like ‘Shawshank Redemption,’ ‘The Godfather’ and ... I just saw this foreign film ‘The Worst Person in the
World.’ It is amazing. Oh my God, it’s so beautiful. It’s just so amazing. And then I would just say that generally speaking, I will watch anything Anthony Hopkins does. Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet (laughs).”