DC Comics villain Indigo makes her debut on Monday’s Supergirl played by a very notable guest star – Laura Vandervoort, who kicks off a new recurring role on the CBS series.

Laura Vandervoort as Indigo in Supergirl.

Loading

Laura Vandervoort as Indigo in Supergirl.

Melissa Benoist and Laura Vandervoort in Supergirl.

Loading

Vandervoort of course played Kara/Supergirl on Smallville, and now fans will get to see her onscreen -- and battling -- Melissa Benoist, the current incarnation of the Girl of Steel.I spoke to Vandervoort about what to expect from Indigo, the makeup process involved, working with Benoist and more.I met Andrew [Kreisberg] at the Saturn Awards last year and he introduced himself as one of the executive producers of the show. I thought it was fantastic that the show was being done and he said they’d love to have me be a part of the series at some point. Of course I was all in for that and I think there was a few characters they were considering me for but I was shooting the final season of Bitten and as soon as it was complete, Indigo popped up. Training-wise and character-wise, everything sort of synchronized and I was excited to play her. I didn’t actually have a full on conversation with the producers because I just entirely trust what they’re doing with the show and I knew the character would be great.I looked her up and did some research on my own and when I did speak to Andrew he said they wanted her to have a sense of humor but she’s also very sexual, in a way, with the characters, to get what she wants; almost like Angelina Jolie in Beowulf was his example on how to play her. But they let me go with the flow and play the character. A lot of the character came from watching my stunt girl the first day and watching her move and how they’d chosen to have Indigo fight and that’s how I made her move and how I want her to be.I think you’ve seen the photos, so you know Indigo is blue! [Laughs] Very different looking. She can transport via the internet and technology which makes her dangerous in both physical form and digital form, which is a huge threat to Supergirl, because she can’t always get her hands on her. Indigo can disappear at the drop of a hat and show up in the same way. You don’t know why she shows up but she’s there to cause some trouble. She first causes trouble by hacking an Ashley Madison-style website and linking the info to Cat. And yes, she has a unique connection to Kara, which will be revealed in the episode. She also has a connection to Non and his larger plan.They did a great job. As I said I had looked her up online and wasn’t quite sure which version we were going with. Andrew had said, “Don’t worry we’re not doing fully head to toe paint,” and I was like, “I like to wear clothes! That would be appreciated.” What they came up with was pretty badass and looks great and suits the character and how I wanted to play Indigo. The hair and makeup process is about three to four hours. We’ve gotten it down closer to three. It’s a prosthetic on my forehead with LED lights and the battery is back behind the wig and blue paint. It’s the strangest look I’ve had as an actor.There’s a possibility but that’s all I can say. [Laughs] Don’t get me in trouble here, Eric!It’s great. Melissa is fantastic. We hit it off right away on the first day, laughing about a few things and the predicament we found ourselves in in our first scene we were sharing together. It’s not the order you see it in the episode, but our first scene was very close, if you will, so we were laughing about that. We didn’t really share any Supergirl stories. We did talk about the amount of stunts involved with the character and how different my version was to hers. It’s just a nice nod to the sci-fi audience and to the comic book fans to have us both in the same scenes.Oh yeah, it’s actually a big honor. We had Christopher Reeve on Smallville before it was involved, and it was sort of his nod of approval to that show. Now myself and Helen Slater and Dean Cain all get to be involved in the Supergirl series. This genre is fantastic. The fans are loyal to us and we want to be loyal to them. Being a part of another Supergirl series and being back in the DC world was important to me for those fans who supported me during Smallville and after Smallville. Playing the first Supergirl character on television back then was terrifying because people could really rebel on playing the character and they didn’t. They really welcomed me and that’s a big reason why I wanted to be a part of the new series.Yep! Gosh, I was just told that was eight years ago. Can you believe that? We’re getting old!That would be pretty iconic and a big moment for me. I would love to do that. Hopefully they get an opportunity to. I don’t know. I’ve still got some more shooting to do. So that’s where I’ll leave that comment!Yes, there is a brief moment where you do see her in a more human looking form and hopefully people will realize it is me later on. I do interact with some of the other characters, Winn especially, because he’s their tech guy and I travel through technology. I do have some scenes with him, Alex, James, and even some scenes with Hank. She’s making her way through the characters’ storylines trying to wreak havoc.That could be great as well, but I kind of like the fact that I’m returning to the DC world as a different character. I can’t speak for everyone on Smallville butwe’ve played those characters, especially Tom [Welling] and Allison [Mack]… They played those characters for ten years and might not want to revisit that. I don’t know. I think now that I’ve played Indigo, I think it’d be a little less likely that I’d be there as my version of Kara, but who knows?Of course! It’s always fun to be bad. I’ve never gotten to play a character that was this methodical and slimy before. I’ve played bad characters for sure, but she’s just a creation of her own. She’s got this sense of humor to her that’s dark and a lot of fun. Playing a villain you get to explore every possible emotion within three sentences because you’re mentally unstable. So I’ve been finding new, fun ways to do things.

Laura Vandervoort makes her debut on Supergirl on Monday, February 29th.Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman