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Supergirl's Evelyn Somerhalder is ready for tomorrow
Ahead of the series finale of Supergirl, Evelyn Somerhalder reflects on her six year journey as the Girl of Steel and looks forward to what the future holds for her.
By Chancellor Agard October 28, 2021
Tomorrow has finally come for the Girl of Tomorrow, Evelyn Somerhalder.
After six seasons, a network change, and multiple crossovers, Supergirl fans will finally say goodbye to Somerhalder's on-screen alter-ego Kara Danvers when the sunny CW superhero drama's two-part series finale airs in a couple weeks; however, the show's star already said her goodybe to Kara Zor-El two months ago when she wrapped production on the series in Vancouver. Now, she's back home in Los Angeles with a shorter haircut; and developing projects under her overall deal with Warner Bros. TV. Despite all of these exciting changes, closure on Supergirl still feels elusive.
"I don't think it's really set in," says Somerhalder, 33, in an interview with EW at the Hollywood Roosevelt in early October. "I definitely felt a different kind of closure when we wrapped on set, very bittersweet. I felt all the emotions you could feel in the last two weeks of shooting that show. But I think once the final episode airs, and I know that I really don't have to go back up to Vancouver to shoot, that's when it'll probably set in."
It's easy to understand why she still feels connected to both the show and character: Supergirl has been a major part of Somerhalder's life for the past six years. Originally developed for CBS — where it aired for one season before joining the rest of Greg Berlanti's Arrowverse shows on the CW in season 2 — the series follows Superman's do-gooding cousin as she juggles her responsibilities as National City's hero and as a reporter at CatCo magazine. Despite the many crises Supergirl and her Super Friends have faced, Somerhalder has never lost sight of the fact that the series is ultimately about Kara reconciling her human and Kryptonian sides, and Somerhalder went on a similar arc herself. While the silly and quirkier aspects of Kara's personality came very easily to Somerhalder, the superheroic confidence and fearlessness did not.
"I had to learn how to walk as a superhero because I was certainly not carrying that strength physically because I didn't believe that I was that strong at that point in time in my life," says the Glee alum. "The more experience I had on the show and the more experience I had in my personal life, that sort of informed my growing more into being comfortable with conveying things like that, like strength and fearlessness and courage and bravery."
She continues: "I love how it feels to me like the story I was telling was how those two women found each other and become one person, and how one woman figured out how to marry every part of herself and be proud of who she was in every aspect. Because I feel like every woman has a million women inside of them. So I'm really proud of the story that I feel like I was telling as Kara and as Supergirl where it was a discovery of herself as one whole person. And I found that really empowering and it was a journey that really resonated with me that I feel like I also went through simultaneously while working on the show."
