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June 26, 2015: Exclusive Interview with Lana Lang Actress Diane Sherry Case
Actress Diane Sherry Case starred as Lana Lang in the 1978 classic blockbuster, "Superman: The Movie" in scenes from Clark Kent's high school days in Smallville, Kansas.
In the following exclusive interview with the Superman Super Site, Case talks about her days of working on the set of the film as well as her career prior to and following Superman which involved such highlights as meeting the Beatles and a recent return to acting. Enjoy:
Super Site: Your first starring role on television was in the 1964 episode "Jose and the Brat" of the "The Bill Dana Show", an NBC spinoff of "The Danny Thomas Show." Had you been pursuing a career in acting prior to this casting and what memories do you have of this early role?
Case: “The Brat” was my first interview and I guess I had beginner’s luck. I was from a southern family, “Yes, Ma’am, No Sir” - very polite and I had a mother who would hall off and slap me if I dared to be sassy. In the “The Bill Dana Show,” I got to be a total brat and it was so liberating. I immediately fell in love with acting!Super Site: Your role as Lana Lang in "Superman: The Movie" was the first time this iconic character had been featured in a blockbuster film. How did you find out about the casting call and what was it like knowing you had gotten the part?
Case: By then I had worked a lot and it was simply a matter of the casting director calling me in to read. He actually just sent Richard Donner a few choices and voila!Super Site: Although the character of Lana Lang was Clark Kent's sweetheart during his Smallville days, she is not as well known or publicized as Lois Lane. What steps did you take to learn more about the character and prepare for the role itself?
Case: Oddly enough, I didn’t refer to the comic book. I was simply a teenage girl who has a crush on a nerdy guy in whom she sees something very special, something others don’t see. I just wanted to capture Lana’s fascination with Clark, her curiosity, the secret they are beginning to share and the magic of young love.Super Site: "Superman: The Movie" truly lived up to it's promotional slogan of "You'll Believe a Man Can Fly." Looking back, what are your fondest memories while on the set and working with such a talented cast?
Case: I was in Calgary waiting to shoot my scenes for nearly a month. Richard Donner wanted the perfect “magic hour” light for the football field scene, so we waited. I had only planned to be in Calgary for a few days and they just kept me there – I never knew when I’d be done. I was upset that I had to turn down other jobs when I wasn’t even shooting. One was a big commercial, which would have made me a lot more money. (I’m glad I did Superman instead!)I really enjoyed driving to Montana with Donner and the special effects supervisor, who had all sorts of incredible stories. And we all went to Banff, the national park in the mountains, with a beautiful old hotel. I don’t know how many tens of thousands of dollars per day were spent when we weren’t filming.
More than the stars, I remember the cowboys, the off-season rodeo guys who were our drivers and took care of our dressing room trailers. And I remember meals – there must have been two hundred of us in the cast and crew, all eating together.
Super Site: You recently were part of the "Superman: The Movie" cast reunion at WonderCon and a guest at the annual Superman Celebration in Metropolis, IL. What is it like meeting all the fans of this iconic film all these years later at these special events?
Case: I didn’t think much about the film for many years and I was “out of the loop” in show biz. So feeling the excitement of the fans after all this time came as a surprise. It’s awesome to see that "Superman: The Movie" has become “immortal.” It has definitely stood the test of time. It is truly an honor to be the original Lana Lang in what is undeniably the best Superman film.Super Site: Prior to "Superman: The Movie", you had starring roles on such memorable TV series as "The Bing Crosby Show" and "Adam-12". What have been some of your other favorite roles & series to work on and why?
Case: Aside from the fact that Bing Crosby arranged for me to meet the Beatles (probably the most exciting day of my life, short of giving birth!), I tend to remember the roles that I wanted and didn’t get! I would have loved to play “The Bad Seed,” but I was much too young. And my first boyfriend, Jonny Provost (from the "Lassie" series) was in a film based on a Tennessee Williams play “This Property Is Condemned” in which the director’s niece, I believe, got cast in the role I wanted. But the worst near-miss was "The Sound Of Music". I was on location with Heather Menzies on the film “Hawaii” in which we both played Julie Andrew’s sisters. Heather was scheduled to go to Switzerland for Sound of Music right after Hawaii finished. But I didn’t get to interview for the role I was right for, as Angela Cartwright had been on the Danny Thomas show for a decade and the part was hers from the start. Alas!Actually, the most memorable roles I played were in theater. I loved the classics, I loved being able to rehearse for weeks, I loved being on stage. I did "The Seagull" with Sean Penn, a Noel Coward play with Jeff Goldblum, and I learned to write fiction by reading the great playwrights. Complex characters, interesting but natural dialogue, subtext – I learned it all from theater.
Super Site: In the years since "Superman: The Movie", that character of Lana Lang has continued to grow on both the big screen ("Superman: III") and small ("Smallville"). Where has your career taken you over the past 37 years and what does the future hold for Diana Sherry Case?
Case: How dare you – I’m not even 37 years old! (laughs)Though I’ve had an amazingly life, I do have some regrets and “what ifs.” I trashed my career three times. Well, the first time, I was a kid and my mother just suddenly stopped it. The second time that I was working a lot, I took off to Mexico and joined a circus! And the third time, shortly after Superman, I went off to New York to do underground theater with Lee Breuer, a brilliant director who taught at Yale and invited me to be a member of a new theater group he was forming, in which I wrote and directed. It was very stimulating intellectually, but career-wise? Zilch. And I neglected to tell my agent or Screen Actor’s Guild where I was going nor to leave a contact number. This was before the internet when it was actually difficult to track down someone with an unlisted number.
When I returned to Los Angeles and happened to read a copy of Variety that had an article about "Superman: III", I wrote to Richard Lester the director. I immediately got a response: “We couldn’t find you, we just cast the role of Lana.” Strangely enough, Annette [O'Toole] had been in my acting class. I’m still mad at myself, lol, for disappearing. I will never know if they would have cast me or not, nor what effect that would have had on my life.
But then, my awesome kids might not have been born! In the last few decades, I married a musician, raised two children, divorced said musician, directed three short films, wrote two novels, published a dozen short stories, graduated with two advanced degrees, developed a therapeutic writing program and worked with teens as a psychotherapist for a short time. I’ve also written three screenplays, and my dream is to direct one. And recently, I’ve been acting again!
Other than that, life if pretty darn swell - I am grateful for many, many blessings.
Super Site: Thank you so much for taking to time to participate in our interview! It was an absolute pleasure to meet you at the Superman Celebration and hopefully we'll meet again soon.
Case: Thank you Neil – it was a pleasure to meet you and I really appreciate the fact that you were responsible for encouraging me to go to the celebration!
