Lois Lane is a fictional character portrayed by Canadian-born actress Margot Kidder in the Warner Bros. Superman film series produced by Ilya and Alexander Salkind, and is an adaption of the original comic book character. Kidder played Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in Superman (1978), Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). The role proved to be Kidder's most notable, catapulting her to international fame, and this iteration of Lois Lane has been considered one of the most iconic love interests in superhero films.
The 2006 film Superman Returns follows an alternate continuity from the first two films, with Kate Bosworth portraying a later iteration of the character.
Development Actress Margot Kidder was cast as Lois Lane, Superman's primary love interest, because her performance had a certain spark and vitality, and because of her strong interaction with Christopher Reeve. Over 100 actresses were considered for the role. Margot Kidder (suggested by Stalmaster), Anne Archer, Susan Blakely, Lesley Ann Warren, Deborah Raffin and Stockard Channing screen tested from March through May 1977. The final decision was between Channing and Kidder, with the latter winning the role. Footage of Warren's screen test has been included as a supplementary feature on VHS and DVD releases of the film.
In the spring of 1977, only one month before principal photography was scheduled to begin. Kidder was subsequently flown to England for screen-tests. Upon meeting with director Richard Donner, Kidder tripped while walking into the room. Donner recalled: "I just fell in love with her. It was perfect, this clumsy [behavior]." She was ultimately cast in the role, which would become her most iconic. Filming lasted approximately eighteen months.
Following Christopher Reeve's paralysis, Margot Kidder dismissed the notion of a Superman curse, remarking in a 2002 interview, "That is all newspaper-created rubbish. The idea cracks me up. What about the luck of Superman? When my car crashed this August, if I hadn't hit a telegraph pole after rolling three times, I would have dropped down a 50ft to 60ft ravine. Why don't people focus on that?"Poole, Oliver. "Curse? It's the luck of Superman". The Daily Telegraph. December 9, 2002
Margot Kidder was flattered when cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth arranged lighting for her shots in the first Superman film and insisted on concentration by saying "Quiet, I'm lighting the Lady."Superman – The Movie (Four-Disc Special Edition): Disc 3, "Making Superman: Filming the Legend" H Wendy Leech doubled for Margot Kidder in Superman II. Leech, who is the daughter of James Bond stunt performer George Leech, met her husband Vic Armstrong, who served as Christopher Reeve's double for the first two Superman films. Kazuko Yanaga provided the Japanese dubbing for Margot Kidder in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Hiroe Oka and Sayaka Kobayashi also dubbed for Kidder's Lois Lane in Japanese.
Kidder later appeared in two episodes of The WB/The CW television series Smallville as Dr. Bridgette Crosby, an emissary of Dr. Virgil Swann (played by Christopher Reeve). She declined to make a third appearance on the show after Reeve's death because she felt it would be doing his memory a disservice. Through her appearances in the Superman films, Kidder maintained a close friendship with her co-star Reeve, which lasted from 1978 until his death in 2004: "When you're strapped to someone hanging from the ceiling for months and months, you get pretty darned close," Kidder told CBS. "He was such a huge part of my life... He was complicated, very smart, really smart, and he knew he'd done something meaningful. He was very aware of that and very happy with that role."
During the production of Superman Returns, Kevin Spacey, who played Lex Luthor in that film, recommended director Bryan Singer to cast Kate Bosworth in the role of Lois Lane because she co-starred with Spacey in Beyond the Sea (2004) as Sandra Dee. Claire Danes and Keri Russell were reportedly considered for the role. Amy Adams, who would later be cast as Lois Lane in the 2013 reboot Man of Steel, confirmed in an interview that she had also auditioned for Lois in 2005. Adams had previously auditioned for Lois in 2003 when Brett Ratner was planning to direct Superman: Flyby. Bosworth studied Katharine Hepburn's acting for inspiration, particularly in The Philadelphia Story (1940) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), as well as Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich (2000).
Portrayal and characteristics The filmmakers had a very specific concept for Lois: liberated, hard-nosed, witty and attractive. Kidder was cast because Richard Donner and the producers agreed that her performance had a certain spark and vitality, and because of her strong interaction with Christopher Reeve. Donner felt that Kidder seemed to convey the general American concept of Lois Lane—pretty, pert and perky, intelligent and ambitious without being pushy. During filming, Donner noticed that when Kidder wasn't wearing her contact lenses, "she kept her eyes really wide" and moved around in a clumsier way. He said it "gave her this wonderful character" and instructed her to not wear them on camera for the duration of the shoot. One of the most important aspects in the first and second films was the romantic relationship between the two main characters; Clark was hopelessly in love with Lois and even gave up his powers to be with her.
Timelines Original continuity Superman (1978)
Lois meets Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) when he begins working at the Daily Planet newspaper. She is introduced to his Superman persona when he rescues her from a helicopter accident. Lois quickly becomes enamoured with Superman and accepts his offer to be interviewed for the newspaper. During the interview, she learns about Superman's homeworld, his abilities, and takes a fly in the sky over Metropolis. Lois later dies in an earthquake caused by Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) in the climax of the first film. Superman is so distraught by her death that he flies around the globe at supernatural speed, travelling backward in time and preventing the earthquake from occurring, saving Lois' life.
A scene in the film shows young Clark Kent outrunning a passenger train, with a little girl, played by an unknown actress (Cathy Marcotte), on-board observing him. The extended version of the scene shows the girl to be a young Lois telling her parents (portrayed by Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill in uncredited cameos) without them believing her.
Superman II (1980)
After she finds out that Clark is Superman, Clark tells Lois more about himself, flying her to the Fortress of Solitude and revealing that he loves her. Wanting to spend his life with Lois, Clark uses a Kryptonian device to alter his DNA, making him human. Soon after, Clark and Lois learn that three Kryptonians, led by General Zod (Terence Stamp), have arrived on Earth and are threatening humanity. Clark decides to restore his powers and defeats the Kryptonians. Later, Clark finds Lois upset about knowing his secret and not being able to be open about her true feelings. Clark kisses Lois, using his abilities to wipe her mind of her knowledge of the past few days.
In the completed "Donner Cut", which was released after Superman Returns, there are some subtle differences in Lois' arc. An early screen test between Reeve and Kidder for the first movie was used for the scene in which Lois finds out Clark's secret identity by coercing him at gunpoint with a pistol filled with blanks. In addition, Lois breaks up with Clark at the end, unable to deal with his dual identity as Superman, causing him to fly around the globe at supernatural speed and travel backward in time to undo the events of the film, including Lois finding his identity and leaving him, while ensuring Zod and his sidekicks never escape the Phantom Zone, similar to the first film.
Following the release of Superman in December 1978, Richard Donner was controversially fired as director, and was replaced by Richard Lester. Several members of the cast and crew declined to return in the wake of Donner's firing. In order to be officially credited as the director, Lester re-shot most of the film in which principal photography resumed in September 1979 and ended in March 1980. Due to budgetary reasons and actors being unavailable, key scenes filmed by Donner were added to the final film. Since the Lester footage was shot two years later, continuity errors are present in the physique and styling of stars Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve.
In Donner's footage, Reeve appears less bulked as he was still gaining muscle for the part. Kidder also has dramatic changes throughout; in the montage of Lester-Donner material, shot inside the Daily Planet and the Fortress of Solitude near the movie's conclusion, her hairstyle, hair color, and even make-up are all inconsistent. Kidder's physical appearance in the Lester footage is noticeably different; during the scenes shot for Donner she appears slender, whereas in the Lester footage she looks thinner.
To replace creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz, Superman co-screenwriters David and Leslie Newman were then brought back to re-tool the script constructing a new opening and ending. The new script featured newly conceived scenes such as a new opening involving Superman thwarting the nuclear terrorists at the Eiffel Tower, Clark rescuing Lois at Niagara Falls, and a new ending in which Clark causes Lois to forget his secret identity through a hypnotic kiss.
Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Lois' role was notably small in Superman III, consisting of 12 lines and less than five minutes of footage. She is away from Metropolis on vacation to Bermuda, which put her in the middle of a front-page story.
Both Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder are said to have been angry with the way the Salkinds treated Superman director Richard Donner, with Hackman retaliating by refusing to reprise the role of Lex Luthor. After Margot Kidder publicly criticized the Salkinds for their treatment of Donner, the producers reportedly "punished" the actress by reducing her role in Superman III to a brief appearance. Hackman later denied such claims, stating that he had been busy with other movies and general consensus that making Luthor a constant villain would be akin to incessant horror movie sequels where a serial killer keeps coming back from the grave.
In his commentary for the 2006 DVD release of Superman III, Ilya Salkind denied any ill will between Margot Kidder and his production team and denied the claim that her part was cut for retaliation. Instead, he said, the creative team decided to pursue a different direction for a love interest for Superman, believing the Lois and Clark relationship had been played out in the first two films (but could be revisited in the future). With the choice to give a more prominent role to Lana Lang, Lois' part was reduced for story reasons.
Kidder and Hackman subsequently reprised their roles as Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, respectively, in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), with which the Salkinds had no involvement. Kidder filmed her parts in 1986. The film is regarded as one of the worst films of all time.
Superman Returns