Besides stunning viewers with her one-shoulder leather crop top at the Teen Choice Awards, Supergirl star Melissa Benoist took home the award for Choice Action TV Actress. The competition included DC’s Legends of Tomorrow‘s Caity Lotz, The Flash‘s Candice Patton and Danielle Panabaker, Arrow‘s Emily Bett Rickards and the sole non-superhero related nominee, Jordana Brewster. Enthused Melissa, “I’m so happy I get to put on a cape and fight like a girl each day. I hope every girl in this audience knows how strong they are.”

 

J-14 recently caught up with the actress at San Diego Comic-Con in a roundtable discussion, where she provided the following preview of Supergirl‘s third season, beginning, appropriately enough, with just how strong the Girl of Steel is, having actually beaten her cousin Clark Kent/Superman in a fight.

Question: In the season two finale, Kara’s cousin, Clark Kent, was very clear that Kara was stronger than him. Was that an important revelation?

Melissa Benoist: Absolutely. I think Kara, the entire time she’s been on Earth, has maybe subconsciously compared herself or not thought that she wasn’t up to Clark’s strength or speed or what have you. Especially in that moment, that was her fight and that was her battle. She was fired up and saving him in a sense when they were fighting. So the stakes were really high for her. I think she deserved to best him [laughs].

Q: It was also obvious that Cat Grant [Calista Flockhart] knows that Kara is Supergirl. Does Kara realize that?

MB: Hmm, that’s a good question. I don’t know. No, I think she thinks she has Cat fooled, because she has to. Or else, that relationship is so clear. Like, Kara Danvers with Cat Grant, their relationship is different from Supergirl’s relationship with Cat Grant. I don’t know if she realizes. I would love to see a scene where they talk about it. I really want to see that scene.

Q: Do you think she’s lying to herself to keep her life the way she likes it?

MB: Yes, I think that’s the way to put it. I think she might be in denial that anyone in her life that’s close to her knows. In the same way, even with Lena Luthor, that relationship. She has things very set in the way she knows them. Kara doesn’t like change. She can’t handle that, so it would really put her life in upheaval.

Q: How far has Kara come from when we met her to where she is in season three?

MB: Very different. It’s a dark period for Kara. The end of season two was a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking experience for her. The first time she’d been in love and put herself out there. Someone who had lost their entire world and their entire family besides Astra and Non must have abandonment issues. So she’s coping with grief and guilt for sending him [Mon-El] into space, and fear that she doesn’t know what happened to him. It’s a new chapter of womanhood for her. I think she’s really growing up. It feels more adult. It’s not as sunny as she always is.

Q: Every time you put your hands on your hips, that’s the classic Supergirl pose. Do you feel the magnitude of that?

MB: It definitely feels like I can’t stand that way, oddly enough, unless I’m wearing the suit. When we’re shooting and if I’m dressed as Kara Danvers in CatCo clothes and I put my hands on my hips, I’m, like, “That’s not where they need to be right now. That’s not right.”

Q: Will we see any more sister nights between Kara and Alex?

MB: We did get kind of split off into our own stories last season, but Kara and Alex find each other again this season. There will be couch nights.

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