LOS ANGELES —Melissa Benoist is flying high these days. In fact, the Colorado native spent one August weekend in a harness, dangling from wires and buffeted by the force of a huge fan, “flying” against a green screen for eight hours.

“It’s so hard and physically taxing. But you feel like you’re flying!” the titular Supergirl said. “They can’t keep me up too long because it is a little painful.”

Benoist will alight in American homes on Oct. 26 on CBS, although by then the “Supergirl” pilot has been available online for months.

The Arapahoe High School graduate, veteran of a Denver theater school and alumna of several Colorado dinner theaters is well-grounded. She has her priorities in order as she tackles the title role in one of the hottest pilots for fall 2015.

With her slightly reserved manner and open smile, Benoist, 26, is the poster child for empowered women and girls. It’s a responsibility she takes seriously.

The show’s essential feminism is “what I love about it,” she said, although viewers may not label it that way. “You’ll just remember that strength and bravery and hope that she brings.”

After landing prime gigs in “Glee” on Fox and the film “Whiplash,” Benoist nailed the role of Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Superman’s cousin, also a refugee from Krypton in the DC Comics universe. She is poised to soar in the epic drama from Berlanti Productions as TV’s overdue female superhero.

“She’s going to take the nation, this girl. She’s like a candy you can’t get enough of,” said executive producer Ali Adler (“Chuck,” “The New Normal,” “No Ordinary Family”) last week, between takes on Soundstage 29 on the Warner Bros. lot.

There, on the vast set of Catco Worldwide Media, the magazine run by media mogul Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) where Kara works, an army of production workers prepared sound, lights, cameras, props and more. Benoist appeared, fresh from hair and makeup, introduced herself to an extra and took her place. Director Dermott Downs called for take after take of a bit of dialog from the third episode, resetting, cueing background action and restarting again and again.

Finally he barked, “moving on!” and Benoist was momentarily free to chat.

She has been married for more than two years to “Glee” castmate Blake Jenner, “longer than anyone knows,” she said. Benoist said she misses Colorado greatly and gets to Grand Junction, where her mother lives, more often than to Denver. Her father, a physician, is in Wheat Ridge. Her younger sister is a scientist, her older sister a novelist.

“My whole life was theater, there wasn’t even a question of what I would do.” Benoist always thought Broadway was her goal, she said, and it still may be someday. “I really hope so.” She has a range: “this morning I was listening to Nirvana, just light morning music,” she joked.

Being super

The feminist themes of the series are clear, allowing the writers to toy with the “girl” in the title.

“She is strong, brave, not a girl. But (calling her that) is intentional.” The point is that Kara’s heroism will be a process, sometimes leaning toward girlhood, sometimes finding more maturity.

“Are we ever all woman or all girl?” Benoist asked.

She finds the production grind of “Supergirl” to be tougher than “Glee.”

“It’s a harder process. “Glee” had dance numbers, but “Supergirl” has fight choreography and action. “I did not realize how long it takes. Tedious is the word. … It also feels a little dangerous, you’re swinging fists at each other.” So far, she’s suffered no black eyes, just bumps and bruises.

The cast jokes about doing a musical episode, she said, since all have music training. The idea isn’t so far-fetched: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” did it in the sixth season, when a villain caused the entire town to sing rather than speak.

“OK being weird”

Benoist wasn’t a comic book fan as a kid. She grew up watching Michael Keaton play “Batman” and got into Marvel (“that’s sacrilegious to say now”) through a boyfriend in college. She perfectly understands Kara’s personality when she’s not Supergirl, she said. “She’s unsure, shy, awkward, just trying to survive in an environment where she can’t be her true self. I really can relate, although I’ve always had a little more comfort in my own skin. I’m OK being weird.”

She’s ready to deliver a positive message to young girls: “Everyone has the potential to be what they want to be,” she said.

“Nothing against Wonder Woman, but I like how modest (Supergirl) is. It’s not anything about sex appeal, it’s not about anything but her strength and her drive and how motivated she is to make a difference for the better.”

She never expected to be in a position to change the world like her younger sister, an ecological scientist. But now she is poised to be a role model.

Recently, CBS screened the pilot for 400 girls and their moms on the Warner Bros. lot, and surprised the crowd by introducing Benoist afterward. “I had only watched it with my family. It was pandemonium!” She was amazed by the reaction of the crowd, how they rooted for Kara. “It was a little telling, maybe this is what is on the horizon.”

The question will be whether TV viewers have room for another superhero at the moment, with Greg Berlanti’s “The Flash” and “Arrow” already filling that space. The difference, of course, is her femme quality.

Might Kara find romance in future episodes? There are a few potential characters of interest in the Catco workplace, Benoist said, not naming names.

“We look forward to exploring all areas of her professional, personal, super and romantic life,” executive producer Adler said. “Mostly it’s an evolution of her soul. This is about her becoming a superhero.”

Benoist credits her mom with keeping her centered and positive when life was rough (not just through her parents’ divorce but the mundane daily challenges, she said). To stay grounded when not flying, Benoist tends a garden. And she looks up to Annaleigh Ashford, another Colorado success story, who most recently appeared in “Masters of Sex” on Showtime. After attending the Academy of Theater Arts together, Ashford and Benoist keep in touch.

Benoist says, “Alann and Paul (Academy founders Alann Worley and Paul Dwyer) are both so worried” about how she will hold up under the pressures of Hollywood fame, given the attention she is about to attract and the level of exposure she is about to endure.

She admires how Ashford has managed to stay grounded in the midst of the showbiz glare and intends to do the same.

“I tell everyone, the second I start to act (L.A.-actress-y), smack me in the face.”

Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ostrowdp