Smallville’s cast reflects at NYCC on what made this Superman different

It Smallville cast can’t stop talking about Michael Rosenbaum. While the actor who brought Lex Luthor to the small screen was not in attendance at New York Comic-Con’s Smallville cast reunion, much of the panel’s anecdotes, jokes, and plugs were about him. Moderated by Walt Disney World entertainer Cameron Matthews, the panel welcomed John Glover (Lionel Kent), Erica Durance (Lois Lane), Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang), as well as Clark Kent himself, Tom Welling — who hosts a Smallville rewatch podcast “Talk Ville” with Rosenbaum. “Michael’s an idiot,” he said, “so it’s a lot of fun.”

Looking back at the series, which ran for 10 seasons and over 200 episodes on The CW, it’s impressive that the show kept its character-based storytelling and stuck to its “no flights, no tights” policy for so long. 20 years later, viewers expect superhero shows to immediately reveal the villain and get to the suit. As Welling said to the other cast members on stage with regards to the phrase “no flights, no tights” which he had written into his contract, firmly believing that “we wouldn’t have lasted 10 years if we’d put the suit on in season 1.”

It gave them the freedom to slow down, be a drama series, and not “be beholden” (Welling’s words) to any particular comic book arc. Even a character like Glover’s, who could so easily be a campy villain, was humanized in the series. The actor stated that the greatest compliment was being stopped by people on the streets and asking if he is supposed to be good or bad.

Refusing to take that easy route “made the show focus on what it was supposed to focus on,” added Durance, who owned up to being the nerd on set and was well aware that Lois wasn’t supposed to come in at this point in Clark’s life per the mythology. (Meanwhile Welling admitted later that while he knew who Lois Lane was, he didn’t realize Lana Lang was a comic book character until later in the show’s run.) Durance’s high energy was such a change of pace, in fact, that the writers started giving her incomplete and run-off sentences in the script to reflect the way that she talks. Welling remembered her asking him about it and saying “Why are they doing this? I can screw up these lines all by myself.”

Kreuk, Durance and Glover all ribbing Wellings and Glover made the overall atmosphere light and humorous. One running bit was that Welling was responsible for casting the show, when in reality he — ironically, as an actor playing Superman — wasn’t always aware of the power he had on set. “I didn’t wanna cast Rosenbaum,” Welling joked, citing “his attitude” as the reason. “I just didn’t know that we would click.” Durance said he’s the only person she ever swore at on set. “In fairness it’s not him,” she said.

“It’s kind of him,” joked Kreuk. “It’s kind of him. He pushes.”

Welling loved to play pranks. Welling recalls that he had pranks with Rosenbaum on several occasions during his time as a series producer. When Lex Luther has to give a speech as president of the United States in season 7, episode 18, they wrote a two-page long speech for Rosenbaum to recite that they knew wouldn’t make the episode, and didn’t tell him until he was on set that there wasn’t a teleprompter. “Didn’t someone put him in a green screen suit too?” asked Kreuk, and Welling sheepishly rose his hand and explain they had him dance around like smoke in a skin-tight suit.

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When a fan asked Welling about Christopher Reeve, Welling replied that he had shot with Christopher Reeve. SupermanActor in his final on-screen appearance prior to his 2004 death.

“Me and Greg Beeman, who was the showrunner at the time, flew up to New York,” said Welling. “We had one day of shooting. Chris wasn’t supposed to stay for more than three hours, but he probably stayed about six and a quarter. […] The idea was we’d shoot all of his coverage, he was gonna leave, and then I was gonna shoot all of my stuff with someone else. But he wanted to stay with me, and it got to the point where his nurse said to him ‘I’m gonna call the police,’ and he’s like, ‘On who?’ and she’s like ‘On You. You’re done. You can’t be here.’ He really just wanted to be there and I think it turned out great. I didn’t know what to expect, but one thing he did not want you to feel was sorry for him.”

That dedication is something that the cast all can relate to and which makes the show stand the test of time, even after so many years. “Family,” said Glover. “It’s about family. This draws everyone in. Everyone has a family, but this one was special because it was so close to our hearts. A very special boy.”

“I think it’s about the weirdness that makes you special,” Kreuk echoed. “Everybody has that desire, that thing that makes them kind of odd or different is the thing that actually sets them apart. It’s an aspirational kind of dream.” It’s comforting to see stories where those values prevail when the world or a person’s personal life is difficult. For Welling, it’s about the simple concept of identity that makes superhero stories like Smallville relatable to everyone no matter who they are: “Who am I? “Why am I here?” What am I supposed to do?”