Serinda Swan has made the journey from Smallville to the Blue Area of the Moon, and from the DC Comics television universe to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actress, who debuted in 2009 as the magician Zatanna during the eighth season of Smallville, now stars as queen Medusa on Marvel’s Inhumans – and she admits that diving deep into her comic book research was a big part of the fun, as she was particularly fascinated by the character’s long, complex mythology and sometimes-shifting allegiances.

“Medusa started in 1965,” says Swan, whose credits also include Ballers, Graceland and TRON: Legacy. “She's got layers. She's got different volumes of her. She's a villain one day, and a hero the next, and I think that's what makes it be timeless. You get to see all the sides of these perfectly flawed Inhumans.”

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Ahead of Friday's broadcast premiere of Inhumans, Swan joined CBR and other outlets at ABC’s press day for the Television Critics Association to reveal why the role made her flip her literal wig.

Did you go back and look at the comics? You sound like you did the research on it.

Serinda Swan: Yes, absolutely. She's existed long before I have, and I think it's important that you go back and you take a look. One of the things that [showrunner] Scott Buck had told us was, "Please don't tie yourself to what you've read. Not because we don't want to do it justice, but because we're not showing every single side."

If I tried to get all the years and all of the nuances of Medusa into one show, it'd be very confusing. It'd be very hard, and it would be a failure because we'd be very schizophrenic. So what we've done is we've taken a very specific slice of who this person is, and we're showing that, and then we hope to grow it from there, through time and support.

What does excite you about the potential, knowing all the facets of her that you've read in the comic books?

How powerful she is. She is awesome! One of the things is, she stands alone. She's not an interpreter. She's not just the queen. She stands beside him. When she doesn't like something she says, she challenges him. If she leaves or gets left out of decision-making, you'll see her challenge him and say, "This is not what I'm here for."

I think she's strong and she's flawed and she's brilliant, and I think she is confused at times and I think the question on sort of the inequality is she comes from this thing. From this family where she has this belief system that the humans are not the answer. You know we did have to flee and we did have to run away. And then you see her go to Earth and she begins to make friend with the humans. So there is that beautiful balance where yes, there's always the two opposing sides, but I think Marvel does a really good job of blending the two together and finding, you know, showing the duality between both sides.

But I just love how diverse her story is. I mean, she started in 1965, you see her in X-Men, you see her in Spider-Man, she crosses over, so there's like all these little slices that I've picked up. But the common thread is her power. She is such a powerful character, and loving and loyal-ish – some episodes she's not so loyal. [Laughs]. I picked up those ones and I was like, "Oh! What happened to my husband? OK."

But you know when it comes around, when you're doing a story for that long there has to be some spice in it and this is one of the little slices you get to see: the loyalty and love in the royal family.

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One of the trickiest things to figure out when you're in a show like this is how to act out your power. And you've got it twice as hard because she has an unusual CGI-generated power. Tell me about finding your comfort zone in showing off Medusa's fighting skills with her hair.

Yeah, I missed that day in acting class where it was the “Magical Hair Day!” I didn't find that, so I had to do it by myself. I looked crazy for a while in front of mirrors. I'd be like, "Angry hair day, sad hair day." But it was just figuring out the comfortability. Like, I'm holding something right now and I'm not thinking about it and it's not something that is really conscious. And that was with her hair – I had to figure out what was conscious movement, what was defending movement, what was unconscious movement and then figure out how the physicality would follow that.

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So when you see the fight scenes with one foot that goes back instead of putting up my hands, you just have to kind of do it with your spine instead where you pull it through internally because you know that externally it's going to be visually shown through the CGI. And, again, it is terrifying doing something for the first time!

This type of CGI hair has never been done before on such an iconic character in such a grand scale. It's not that it's going on in some small show, off to the side – it is front and center in a Marvel IMAX ABC show! And it's brand-new, and there is gonna be flaws and there's gonna be trials and tribulations, but if you're going to go and you're going to do something for the first time, it's pretty great to have Marvel behind you.

How do you feel as like an actor going into something that fans already hold so close to their hearts, sometimes to the point of being a little aggressive about their opinions.

People get very aggressive. But I understand. This world is a world that people have grown up on, that they love. These characters are people that they relate with, that there's hopes and dreams and, you know, projections.

I remember when I was younger I used to stare at the clouds and be like, "I'm Storm and I can make them move!" And then they would move and I would be like, "I'm so Storm!" And then they would not do what I wanted to do and I'm like, "Oh … and I'm Serinda. OK." And then I'd do something else and be like, "Maybe I can move pencils with my mind."

I think it just ties into that want for everyone to be special. And I think when you have a character that you relate to in such a capacity, to see it come to life, it's almost like when you don't necessarily want to see the movie when you've read the book because it's your character and it's personal and I understand that. Because I may not be, or look, the way that someone envisioned.

So I understand that sort of, you know they feel like "Oh, that traitor!" And I'm like, "OK – but I promise you I love her as much as you do. And I'm trying to take care of her and I'm doing my research and I'm trying to bring this best slice of Medusa that I can and if we can get the opportunity for more years and more seasons, we're only going to become more collaborative with the fans. We're only going to be able to show you more. And I'm really honored to do this role. I'm terrified, but I'm honored.

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Can you talk about the relationship between Medusa and Crystal?

Yes! My little sister! It is unique. She used to be part of the Royal Family, I mean when the decision came down, obviously I decided to marry into the family, and she became a princess vicariously, so there's this appreciation that she has always been supportive of my decision.

But there is also a little bit of resentment there and you see that throughout the season where you can tell that her hand was forced in some circumstances and she wants to be a regular teenage girl with a 2,000-pound bulldog that teleports her. So there are real human issues and again, I keep saying: It's a real human drama in an Inhuman world. You'll see the sisterhood play out throughout it.

With Black Bolt not being able to talk--

Yes – perfect husband ever!

He and Medusa have a this sign language they use. Does that multiply the work for you? Or do you think it'll become easy enough where suddenly you'll know his language?

I mean, for Medusa that's already what happens. For Serinda, Season 1, eight episodes in, I'm definitely like, "Whoo! OK ..." Because a scene between him and I is a monologue. So it's all of his words, all of my words so I have to not only have an authentic conversation but I also have to make sure that silence brings clarity to the audience. So what I say has to be what I say, and what he has said and moves the plot along. And not sound like when you're doing an interview and you go, "I'm going to ask you a question – can you put the question in the answer?"

So it's like, "What did you do today?" "Well, what I did today was ..." You know you want to make sure that you don't sound that way. So that was helped a lot with the writing, and also with Anson's expressions but then it was a lot of work making sure that I knew the lead male and the lead female's dialogue. All of it.

So when I first took it on I was like, "Oh sweet, I'm the lead female!" And my team was like, "Yeah, but you also have to learn all the dialogue for the lead male." But why I'm excited to be Medusa is they literally give the voice of the lead male to the female. And that's a really cool dynamic to have.

In her relationship with Maximus, there seems to be a bit of a longing on his part. Does she feel that way towards him as well?

No, she's always seen him as a friend, she's always seen him as someone that pushed the boundaries. And as he says in the scene, "Like don't you remember when we used to run away and play?" And she was like, "Yeah, of course I do – but that was because I was a child and that is not how I am now."

And you know she is a rebel, this is just a moment in her time where she's taking on this queen role, but she's been on the streets. She's had to live a rough life sometimes and so I think they have that dynamic. And one of the beautiful things about Medusa is she wears her heart on her sleeve, and she loves Maximus, but at this moment he's being a little bit of a pest.

When you dived in to explore Inhumans’ background, what was cool about those original comic book designs that are so distinctive.

Iconic! Yeah, because they're distinctive, I think there's a very clear voice. I think when you look at the visuals … like, they send us all these little things and I went and got my assistant, I'm like, "Get everything you can! Everything Inhumans and everything Marvel you possibly can!" And you can see sort of where it changes from the original art, sort of in the middle, then it goes like, very curvy, then it goes more like tough girl.

I like the evolution. I think you can't get to where you are now without such a strong base. It was really beautiful for me to be able to see how well thought out Medusa's evolution has been.