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"I have a hard time believing anyone is down-to-earth," commented a friend when I told her about my cool convo with  

KRISTIN KREUK

 , who plays Lana Lang, Clark Kent's on-again, off-again love interest on the WB's "Smallville" (Thursdays, 8:00 EST). It is hard to believe... but the 22-year-old actress of Dutch and Chinese descent is actually a lot like you. Need proof?

She's not neat.
If you have trouble staying organized and finding anything in your locker, you're not alone.

"In high school, I was the biggest procrastinator in the world," Kristin admits, laughing. "I had good intentions, but they didn't always work out. Every year, I would set up my locker neatly, but by the end of senior year it was a disaster area. I had one binder for all eight subjects, with papers everywhere."

Now, the Neutrogena model sees the mismatch between intentions and actions in her tidiness at home -- or lack thereof. Someone cleans her house because she never gets around to it, yet she couldn't deal if it weren't clean. "I'd be anal retentive," she says, "which is not good for my mental health."

She's an overachiever.
Though her piles of paper may be in disarray, Kristin's no scholastic slouch. "I was going to go to one of the local universities -- the University of British Columbia or Simon Fraser University at Harbour Centre (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) -- but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do," she confides. "It's hard to pick a career path when you're 17. I had a lot of trouble doing that!" Can you relate?

"I was one of those kids who wanted to do everything," she continues. "I wanted to be a marine biologist, an actress, a writer, an environmentalist, an activist... " When she was planning for college, she decided to focus her study on psychology and criminology. "The criminal mind is intriguing," she shares. "I was always interested in the imbalances in the human brain."

Ultimately, though, "actress" won out during her senior year of high school, when she was cast in "Edgemont," a Canadian TV series. Now, she uses her characters to pursue her passion of exploring the human mind.

She gets stressed.
Kristin may be out of school, but she's not finished with her education. "I love learning," she explains, "but I hate being graded for it. In high school, I worried about grades. I also watched my teachers and wrote for them, not myself." Meaning if she determined that a teacher preferred a certain style, she would alter her writing to appeal to that instructor. Were Kristin to return to the classroom now, she believes she'd be a different kind of student altogether. "I'd be a lot less concerned about grades, and I wouldn't be so stressed out," she says. "It would only be about learning. And I would write for me."

At the present time, Kristin continues her education through travel. Most recently, she visited Italy and Paris, and was excited to spend time in London and Pakistan while working on an upcoming independent film, "Partition."

She has an independent spirit.
Much like her "Smallville" character, Kristin has a mind of her own. But unlike Lana, she's not afraid to use it. "I've always been myself and stood up for who I am, which caused some loneliness in high school," she reveals. Learning to back her beliefs as an actress can be even more of a challenge. "In this industry, a lot of women are exploited; they're not treated with respect," she says, particularly in regard to on-screen nudity. "I've learned I can stand up for myself, and it doesn't mean I'm a prude or that I'm immature."

The fact is, sometimes she's just plain shy. "I get uncomfortable in large groups of people and loud music," she confesses. "I automatically tense up, and I find it hard to communicate." In reality, she's more of a quiet-dinner-party kind of girl. Though she's learned to stretch herself in social situations, she also accepts who she is -- a serious person who doesn't hang with celebs or clean her room. Just like you.

Get to Know the Girl Next Door
Reading relaxes her. "I love being caught up in another world. Right now I'm reading 'Fast Food Nation.' (I know, I'm behind the times.)"

She's skilled in self-defense. "I took karate from third to eighth grade; I had a purple belt. My mom made me take it, and I hated it."

"Superman" is not part of her past. "I wasn't a comic book girl. I was an 'Anne of Green Gables' and 'Nancy Drew' girl."

"Smallville" Q&A with Kristin
CB: What's the deal with Clark and Lana?!
KK: I think their relationship is complex. They know they love each other, but it's something they can't pursue until Clark can be honest with Lana. [She doesn't know he's really Kal-El, a.k.a. Superman.] The most important thing in a relationship is honesty and trust - it's an insecure relationship otherwise. If Clark and Lana are to get together, they have to find a way to be honest with each other.

CB: Tell us about Lana's personal journey.
KK: Her ultimate dream is to come into her own. She's progressing, making mistakes along the way, but she's finding out what she believes. In the beginning [season one], she lived for her aunt and her boyfriend, Whitney. She looked to them to find out what she wanted so they wouldn't leave her. Now, she's trying to let go of some of her guilt and her feeling of responsibility for other people being hurt or dying [like her parents].

CB: What changes will we see in season five, now that the characters are in college?
KK: It's a different type of environment; we can be more adult. We're all pretty much done with the high school thing.


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Robyn Tellefsen is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.

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