Getting Hooked Up with Superman Returns: Parker says she was doing Hurlyburly in New York when she heard talk of Superman Returns. "There was talk. There is a lot of talking involved in how you get cast - a lot of conversations. I just imagine them spiraling going, around, ‘So, what do you think of so and so? And we need to see these people?’ It goes on for months. ‘Oh, they are talking about you. They are really interested.’ ‘Well, we’ll see what happens and I would like to read it.’ ‘Uh, no, you can’t read the script.’ ‘Well, I don’t have time to read it anyway, I’m doing a play. Good for me.’
Then they offered it to me and I said, ‘Can I read it?’ And they said, ‘You have to say yes before you can read it.’ And I was like, ‘OK, I really don’t have room to say no, [laughing], so yeah.’ They flew someone in to bring the script to me and I read it in a café.”
Parker says the script's bodyguards stayed close by as she read it. "Oh yeah, with briefcases and glasses like Men in Black. [Laughing] Robots moving around.”
Superman Returns Compared to Previous Superman Movies: “…I love the movie," said Parker. "I saw a cut of it a month ago when I was here doing Boston Legal and it was so warm and romantic, and it had such a nice peaceful message, which I didn’t… I mean, when I read the script I was so glad it had these elements to it. It dealt with issues of feeling left, orphaned, or as far as being different. And it’s this great love story. Lois has a husband who watches her in love with another man, Superman, who brings her to the hospital."
Parker continued. "I only saw it once but there are a lot of things in this movie that I really like, that really turn Kitty into this totally fleshed out, full on character/woman in a comic book world. I just see her in love with Lex and waiting for him to be that man she thinks that he is. He’s not and he will never be, and it takes somebody [trying] to destroy the world that she finally wakes up to that little fact."
Working with Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor: Parker had to balance her performance with Spacey's in order for their relationship to work in the film. "He was cool like that," explained Parker. "He’s just in character. He was just like Lex in this world. You know, you’re tiny and the set is huge. You’re just like the ratio to you and the world that you are in is very… That was a real adjustment to find out how to fit into this big, majestic environment going to set on Krypton, which was all black. You’re waiting around and it kind of smells like rubber. Different things feed into it. He’s a great actor, so I never thought that it wasn’t Lex and I didn’t ever feel that it wasn’t Kitty. That’s really the thing you should want, that should be happening.”
Developing a Backstory for Kitty Kowalski: "That was kind of confusing, because the guys – [writers Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris] – were talking about [Lex and Kitty] having met in prison, but I didn’t really want to see her as a conscious villain. Like, ‘Oh, I like guys who are in prison.’ You know what I mean? You’re like,’ Oh, yeah!’ I think she’s romantic. I think she’s a romantic. She liked him and loves him for the money that can buy the pretty things that she can look at.”
Sharing Scenes with a Real Dog: Parker laughed when asked about working with a dog. "The dog came about sort of naturally. We were shooting in the Vanderworth mansion and we’d had a long day. I said, ‘I want that dog in every shot.’ Look is so important to movies like this and parts like this, that waiting with the dog and the glasses… The shu was great. Her dog trainer, Lindy, was amazing. She trained cats before she trained dogs. She had a parrot and a cockatoo named Marcello. Lindy was amazing. By the end of it, her hair matched the color of the dog (laughing). They were very attached. We had a special relationship.”
