“We Had Freedom to Change the Mythology:” An Oral History of ‘Smallville’ - Hollywood Reporter

Audiences tuned in to see a hopeful vision of America, with the pilot telling the story of an alien growing up in Kansas, facing the challenges of the teenage years while feeling different.

Few in Hollywood were interested, and Welling didn’t even want to audition for the role (at first).

But the duo’s heartfelt pilot script won over its actors, and the authentic performances of its cast won over viewers.

The WB didn’t want to hear it.

When we ended up going to The WB it was sort of a surprise to us.

I think it was a surprise to them as well, because they liked the pitch and were surprised they did. .

Jenette Kahn, who was the publisher of DC Comics at the time, said, “Clark is who he is because of his parents.

TOM WELLING, Clark Kent I was auditioning a lot during that period of pilot season, going out three, four times a day.

WELLING He said I could come in and read the pilot script if I signed an NDA.

I was terrified I was going to walk into a show where I’m running around in tights.

He looks like what you think Superman will look like.

Kristin had already been cast, so I walk into the waiting room and it was me and Jensen Ackles, who I’d seen on TV before but didn’t know.

I think there was one scene in the graveyard.

I thought, “Oh this is going to be cheesy.” They wouldn’t send me a script, and I wasn’t really interested.

Finally they had me go in, and I didn’t care.

When you don’t care, you just have this confidence that you’re not throwing all your chips in going, “Oh my God, I got to get this part.”.

What I think you mean is you weren’t attached to the result.

I go, “What are 700 other guys doing wrong that you are auditioning?” And they said, “Well, we want a sense of charisma, we want a sense of danger, we want a sense of comedic timing.” I only had three pages to work with.

“They want to screen test you.” I said, “I’ll never have an audition as good as I just had.

Tell them to rewind the tape.” So he goes, “You’re going to lose this role.

JOHN GLOVER, Lionel Luthor I got a call from my agent that said they want you to play Lex Luthor’s father.

But they might want you back a couple of times.”.

ROSENBAUM Glover always said, “I used to get so annoyed with you on set.

ANNETTE O’TOOLE, Martha Kent The pilot had already been shot.

I think we all frankly knew she probably wasn’t going to work, and when we started shooting the pilot that became pretty apparent.

I knew it was going to be shot in Vancouver.

I didn’t want to be away from my family because I had teenagers.

I watched the pilot and thought, “Oh no.

I’m doomed.

It wasn’t until I read the pilot that I said, “Not only will I meet, but I will do whatever it takes to earn this role.”.

MILLAR We shot the scene in the pilot where Lex’s Porsche hits Clark and he goes into the water on the same day that we shot Clark meeting Lana in the graveyard.

ROSENBAUM In the pilot episode, we had this 12-ft water tank.

ROSENBAUM My hair would start to grow throughout the day, so they had to really make sure all these colors were blended to make me look like I was bald so I didn’t have the hairline.

The first couple of years it took two-and-a-half hours and after that I said, “You guys got to do this quicker.” Eventually they made it about an hour and 15, and I was able to deal with it.

WELLING One of the hardest scenes for me was in the pilot, where I open up the door and I say, “I’m Clark Kent and you’re in Smallville.” Or some version of that.

I think we did that 15 times!

When I’ve seen it, I’m like, “Dude, this is a cool show.” That’s David Nutter not making a show that was rushed.

ROSENBAUM The first couple seasons we didn’t have all that.

In 99.9 percent of all television shows, they do not direct performance, because there is no time or they don’t want to insult anybody.

“You need to be better, man.”.

I think they had to do it, because they had so many inexperienced cast, namely Tom, me and the younger actors who came in to guest star.

ROSENBAUM I remember when I was doing ADR [for the pilot], Nutter goes, “Do you want to see the opening of the show?” And I’m not kidding, my eyes filled up with tears.

I just said to them, “People are going to recognize me.

This is going to be a hit show.”.

I think the second plane hit the tower when I was on my way to work.

GOUGH They didn’t stop shooting.

America came to a grinding halt but in Canada they didn’t stop.

It was because we didn’t know what in the world was going to happen tomorrow.

O’TOOLE This horrible thing happens and I’m just waiting all day for them to call me [to film].

It starts to get dark and the poor little AD said “Annette, we’re not going to get to you.

ROSENBAUM So many veterans have come up to me telling me how much Smallville helped them through tough times and that their whole platoons would watch Smallville together as a distraction to what was going on.

This is a scene where you could sort of say, “Hey, let’s get this over with.” The next thing I know she was talking to me and she put her hands on my shoulder and I’m about to apologize.

I’m very proud of that scene because it caught me by surprise.

SCHNEIDER I had a line of dialogue in the pilot that said, “I want you to make sure you know where the money came from that bought that truck.” It is a great piece of writing.

I didn’t tell him no.

We were like, “We don’t have time.” They were like, “You really need to go meet with them.” We drove from Warner Bros.

We were in his office and at a certain point he said, “I want to take you over to the Spider-Man set.” They were doing some reshoots on the first one.

My husband and my manager were just like, “Go in.” On Friday they told me I got it, and then on Saturday I was doing all these tests and final stuff.

I didn’t know I still had to meet Tom, and if he hated me, I wouldn’t get the job.

WELLING  [Beeman] said, “Hey, so next week you and I on Thursday are going to fly out to New York and we are going to spend the night.

The next day we are going to do a couple scenes in New York with Chris Reeves.”.

GOUGH [Reeves’ people] said, “It’ll be half a day, that’s how much you get.” So we staged it very simply.

Chris came in and saw the staging and goes, “I don’t have a lot going on right here, we could do something more.” We said, “Well Chris, we only have you for this amount of time.” He said, “You have me as long as you want?

I’m here, I’m doing this.”.

He ended up staying for like six or eight hours until his nurses were like, “We’re going to unplug the lights, you guys.

He said, “Yeah, I’m not doing that well.

(Laughs.) She said, “It’s Margot!” I said, “I know who you are!” Then she goes, “You know what.

I’d go, “I don’t want to wear a purple shirt again,” and he’d say, “I don’t care what you want to wear.

It doesn’t hurt me.” He would always come up to us and say as he’s fixing our wardrobe, “You should do that [take] again.” Or he’d say, “I don’t know why we’re going again, that was perfect.” Out loud.

ROSENBAUM The one thing everyone has me quote when I go to conventions is, “I am the villain of the story.” I always loved that line, a glimpse of Lex’s evil.

It was nice being good Lex, but there was a time I would want just a taste of that evil.

But because I’m me and he’s him, I felt like I failed at that, somehow.

There was one scene I did when I was being him where I got emotional and a lot of people came and said “No, no, no, Tom never got emotional about anything.”.

I thought Miles was going to hit the roof of the makeup trailer.

I’m so glad that I did.

And I think they are too.

“THEY WANTED TO KEEP GOING …  INDEFINITELY.”.

They wanted to keep going sort of indefinitely.

We knew it was going to go further than season eight.

The show would keep going.

“OK, we think the best thing for us and for the show is for us to step aside and let someone else do it.” We are always interested in doing other shows or other movies and things like that.

I think I was 25, 26 when the show ended.

I didn’t know what the stories for Lana would be in the future.

I didn’t want to live in a love triangle forever.

ROSENBAUM When I left the show, people at first were like, “Oh, he just left the show.” I didn’t leave the show.

When I was in my last scene, I didn’t think I was going to get emotional.

We were never going to rebuild it again, practically, because the show was ending.

He would want to run lines with me three days before a scene and I’m like, “Dude, I’m trying to get through the day right now.” So he never messed up

The first time I did it, he said, “What is that?” I said, “You got acting all over your shirt

Everybody is like, “You might be on a successful show, you must be going nuts on the weekends.” I am asleep as fast as possible with my dogs, with my phone off and not seeing anyone

He worked so much that we didn’t really have a chance to hang out

I like to think that Smallville deserves that credit

We are incredibly grateful to all of the people

to see where he has gone and has grown that empire into something that is so significant and so impactful, not just to the business but to people, so I like to think to have a small part in helping people understand superheroes in a different way