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Tom Welling Reflects On Smallville, Looks To Section 13

BuzzFeed caught up with Tom Welling to talk about his past and what might be coming in his future.

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As Tom Welling’s new movie The Choice is coming out very soon, BuzzFeed caught up with the actor for an extensive interview where Welling looks back on his time as Clark Kent on Smallville (2001-2011), his brief hiatus and the movies that followed, all leading to what will hopefully be a new show on CBS called Section 13.

You can read the entire interview here.

"Abyss" -- Tom Welling as Clark Kent in SMALLVILLE, on The CW Network.  Photo: /The CW  ©2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.During that conversation, Welling talked a bit about his time on Smallville.

“There was a lot of growing up I needed to do on that show. Fortunately, Clark had no idea what the hell he was doing and I had no idea what the hell I was doing,” Welling said to BuzzFeed with a laugh. “We kind of grew up together.”

In the piece, Tom talked about the humanity of the character — which one might take as an explanation for why we didn’t really see him in the costume “This needed to be a show about Clark Kent, not about Superman,” Tom said. “That was always the rule: No flights, no tights. When we got into Season 5, they started to say, ‘Well… maybe…’ But I always maintained that’s not the show. Thank god Peter Roth [chief executive of Warner Bros. Television, which produced Smallville] knew that and always championed in our favor. … It was an incredibly unique experience.”

And what does Tom think of all of the current crop of superhero TV? “It’s a compliment,” Welling answered. “I’m very proud of shows like Arrow [and] The Flash.… They’re able to ground these characters so that the viewer can relate on a human level to people who used to be only in two dimensions.”

wellingchoiceAfter Smallville, Tom had two goals: “I wanted to play a human and I wanted to be a part of a film whose theme was bigger than whatever character I was playing,” he said to BuzzFeed. “By being on Smallville for 10 years, I was able to make some really fantastic choices with that character, but now I’m drawn to real people trying to live real lives.” In doing so, he’s done some movies including The Choice, and now he’s creating, executive producing, and hopefully starring in a new project, Section 13, for CBS.

“Emotionally, I can’t even think about what I’m going to do if Section 13 doesn’t go, but I also can’t even think about what I’m going to do if it goes. There’s just so many unknowns,” he said. You can read more about the Section 13 concept here.

At the end of the day, Tom sees his notoriety as the proto-Man of Steel “a big compliment.”

“It means people like what I did. … I guess the joke is when people say, ‘Hey, Superman,’ I have a tendency to reply, ‘Well, I’ve been called worse.’”

You can read the entire BuzzFeed interview here.

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6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Tim Wolfe

    January 26, 2016 at 8:37 pm

    There should of been more then 10 seasons of Smallville look at Supernatural

    • Craig Byrne

      January 26, 2016 at 8:57 pm

      Not really. Smallville, as loved as it was and as much as I loved it too, went on probably 3 seasons too long as it was. Prolonging it even farther would have meant extending the story in an even worse way. We’d keep waiting for him to become Superman and it’d never happen, because Tom doesn’t want to wear the suit.

      I think the time also comes when you can’t expect these people to do the same thing for so long. The BuzzFeed article talks a little bit about the toll that doing Smallville put on Tom’s life, and the long hours… sometimes you’ve got to think they want to do something different. That’s a lot of investment to expect from just one person. It works for Jensen and Jared at Supernatural, but that’s also not a show with a set ending. Smallville’s ending, we always knew would be him becoming Superman. Would we have really wanted to watch 15 years and him still not doing it?

      This article made me respect Tom and his wishes a whole lot more. I hope others follow suit.

      • Sarah

        January 26, 2016 at 10:02 pm

        I am super happy for His return to TV in Section 13! Tom Welling as well as being a beautiful man is above all a wonderful and great man, I hope Tom That Will Be Able to Achieve all its desires

      • Bob Marshall

        February 7, 2016 at 2:25 pm

        Although it probably went on a little to long I’m glad it did. Season 9 was THE best season of the show IMO. Infact that season is probably my favourite season of TV ever.

        • Craig Byrne

          February 15, 2016 at 1:58 pm

          You’re definitely entitled to your opinion, but I thought a lot of Season 9 was a mess. Didn’t care about the New Kryptonians at all after the premiere, and making Clark so far from being the “Last Son of Krypton” really hurt what makes him special, in my opinion.

  2. Cheryl Meadows

    January 27, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    Regardless of whether or not Smallville could have been longer or shorter is not as relevent as the influence this show has had over the past decade and beyond. From the technology to the concepts to the underlying themes, Smallville, which also was influenced by Lois and Clark, has set the bar for innovation, idealogy, philosophy and cannon. It’s good that Tom Welling is moving on to other things, but for years to come, this maybe considered he best body of work. He is certainly gifted and charismatic. It also doesn’t hurt that he was a fellow Michigander. with natural hidden talent. Much success to he and the other cast members future. Smaillville live1

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Smallville

Smallville’s Rosenbaum & Welling Plan Live TalkVille Event

Smallville actors Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum are planning a live TalkVille event in Los Angeles.

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By now you have surely heard TalkVille, the podcast from Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum where they reminisce about their time on the classic WB/CW series Smallville. Some may have even been to “Smallville Nights,” the events that Tom and Michael host at cons. Well, now fans can prepare for another kind of live experience, as the former Clark and Lex actors have a live event planned for May 22 and 23, 2024 in Los Angeles.

Held at the Bourbon Room in Hollywood, this TalkVille event will also have a bonus kick off with “Smallville Nights” for special ticket holders where Tom and Michael will act out memorable scenes from Smallville with some lucky audience members. If you’ve been to “Smallville Nights” at a convention, you already know it’s a good time.

May 22 appears to be sold out, but you can purchase tickets for the May 21 event here. Tell them KryptonSite sent you!

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Smallville

Michael Rosenbaum Would Consider A Smallville Movie

Michael Rosenbaum has revealed in a new interview that he would consider reprising the role of Lex Luthor for a Smallville movie.

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Screen Rant today posted an extensive interview with Michael Rosenbaum where he talks about his role as Lex Luthor on Smallville as well as his podcasting empire which includes Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum and TalkVille. There are many fantastic topics covered – you can read the entire interview here – but one thing that might get Smallville fans really pumped is that Michael expressed an interest in reprising the role for a Smallville movie.

“I asked Tom [Welling] the other day, ‘If [Smallville creators] Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar] came to us and said, ‘We got this great idea for a Smallville movie. We want you guys to get in shape for the next two months, and then we’re going to go shoot this movie like a real finale…’ We were both like, ‘Yeah!’ If it was right, I think that would be dope. So many other shows are doing that. I would certainly consider it,” Michael said.

“It would have to something that, again, was grounded, but if Al and Miles did it, and wanted to do a one and half hour movie, I think Tom and I — we’d all consider it,” he continued. “I think we’d have fun going back, but we’d have to really work to get back into those characters in that mindset because we’re a lot older. But if you shaved my head and you put makeup on me, it still works!”

The Screen Rant interview also touched upon the notion of a Smallville animated project — something that Michael and Tom both have been pushing for in recent years. Is there anything new to share?

“All I could share is that it’s a great idea. We have Al and Miles, the creators of Smallville backing us up. When it’s the right time, we’d like to go and do this; pitch to Warner Bros. It has to be the right time, and right now is not the right time. We had the strike, we had a change of executives at DC — one being one of my best friends in the world, James Gunn. When the time’s right, I think it’s something that’s a no brainer, unless they have other ideas. We’d like to do it — the whole cast would like to do it. They would voice their own character from the show, and we have a concept of what the show is,” he confirmed.

You can read the full Screen Rant interview here.

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Crisis on Infinite Earths

Marc Guggenheim Answers Two Smallville-Related Crisis Questions

Arrowverse architect Marc Guggenheim has answered questions about Michael Rosenbaum and Erica Durance’s Smallville roles in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

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Arrowverse architect Marc Guggenheim has been releasing a fantastic Substack newsletter called LegalDispatch in recent months, and with this week’s edition, he answered some Smallville-related questions regarding the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover — specifically, what Michael Rosenbaum‘s Lex would have done if he had shown up, and also, if there were more plans for Erica Durance to appear as Lois beyond her brief scene with Tom Welling.

Being transparent, Marc answered some of those questions! First, regarding what role Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex would play:

Well, here’s the thing. By the time we’d engaged with Michael about appearing in Crisis — thanks in huge part to Stephen Amell’s efforts — we’d already shot the Smallville reunion scene in Hour 2. Nevertheless, I was eager to get Michael’s Lex into the story if I could, so my brain started working on options that could be fit into the episodes that we were still shooting.

I forget the story impetus for them, but I noodled with a version where Michael’s Lex would interact with Jon Cryer’s Lex, which I think would’ve been quite entertaining had it come to pass.

Also, was there any temptation to have Erica Durance’s Lois Lane appear in more than one episode?

There was absolutely a temptation for sure. As with most things, however, we were subject to the limit of a combination of screentime, story requirements, money, shooting schedule, and the actors’ personal schedules.

You can read this week’s LegalDispatch here.

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