Cassidy Freeman

Cassidy Freeman
Cassidy Freeman, 2009
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2006–present

Cassidy Freeman (born April 22, 1982) is an American actress, most notable for her role as Tess Mercer in Season Eight of The CW's action drama Smallville. She was born in Chicago, Illinois.

Her brother, Clark Freeman, formed the band called "The Real D’Coy". Now, Members in this band are Andy Mitten, Clark and Cassidy Freeman.^[1]

An American actress born and raised in Chicago, Cassidy Freeman started her career in theatre performing at The Lyric Opera of Chicago. At The Latin School of Chicago, she took part in musicals, school productions and choral groups. She then enrolled in the Cherubs program at Northwestern University in 1999.

She continued to immerse herself in the world of theatre while she was studying at Middlebury College, which she graduated in 2004 with a B.A. in theatre. While there, Cassidy got the opportunity to live for a semester in Bolivia where she studied the country's history and culture. She also did plays in Washington D.C. and New York City. In Los Angeles, she became part of The Sight Unseen Theatre Group.

In 2008, Cassidy was cast as Tess Mercer in the popular CW series Smallville. She also appeared in Finishing the Game and played a beautiful paramedic named Charlie in the medical drama pilot Austin Golden Hour.^[2]

After shooting a pilot scheduled for the CW that never took off, Cassidy Freeman, a.k.a. Tess Mercer, the new bad girl of Smallville welcomes the chance to bring a new character to an already-established popular show, now in its eighth season. Freeman plays Mercer, the replacement for the evil iconic villain, Lex Luthor, and is a series regular.

Smallville revolves around the story of the young Superman of DC comics, and is basically his story before he became Superman. When the show began, Superman was still in high school; now he works at the Daily Planet. Freeman’s character has naturally evolved as well – she is the CEO of LuthorCorp, and her character is a mix of Mercy Graves and Ms. Teschmacher.

In Hollywood, as the forces of good and evil, real and supernatural are forever in conflict and of great intrigue, shows based on superheroes and supervillains bring in strong ratings. Above all else, viewers wish to believe a bit of a superhero is hidden within, waiting to be revealed.

Freeman, however, explains and defends her character: “It’s great to be a villain. You get to do a lot of things that are more complex and different than the basic good guys.”

When asked her opinion of Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, she states, “I think he did incredible work in that role. He went to a really dark place, and it shows.”

As Freeman soon wraps this season of Smallville, she shares a closing comment.

“Plenty of villains get their due praise in the end. They always have a seed of redemption in them, and you always want to see them do better!”^[3]

• Cassidy Freeman at IMDb
• TV.com Profile
• The CW Cassidy Profile
• Cassidy Freeman interview with BuddyTV (October 23, 2008).
• Cassidy Freeman interview with ACED Magazine (November 25, 2008).