Professionals' Tom Welling Discusses The Joys Of Smallville Reunions And His Podcast With Michael Rosenbaum - Exclusive
Tom Welling is no stranger to The CW, and fans are happy to welcome the actor back to the network. Welling stars in the new series "Professionals" alongside Brendan Fraser. Before that, he set the tone for the slew of superhero shows that would come down the pipes when he starred in "Smallville" as a young Clark Kent.
The series broke a genre record at the time, lasting 10 seasons before Clark graduated from being the Red-Blue Blur to becoming Superman. Once that happened, the show found its natural conclusion — because the series was never about Superman. "Smallville" focused on how a young kid with powers navigated life, love, and saving the world on a smaller scale so that he may one day be the larger-than-life hero that we all know. And though Welling isn't gracing our screens as a superhero these days, fans have been treated to more than a few reunion panels and fan opportunities with the cast.
Looper spoke to Tom Welling during an exclusive interview in which he discussed his many reunions with the "Smallville" cast and which actors he'd like to see on his new series "Professionals."
Reuniting with the Smallville family
Tom Welling went a long while without doing the fan convention circuit, but he's done a multitude of "Smallville" reunions with his former co-stars lately. On what it's been like catching up with his castmates and if there are any who might be a good fit on "Professionals," Welling said, "They'd all be good fits on 'Professionals.' They're really good guys." "Smallville" may be a superhero show, but it certainly wasn't lacking in the action department — so the cast is more than familiar with stunt work.
"It's so funny — somebody said it's the 21st anniversary of it airing, and in some ways, I feel like I know them all better now," Welling added. "We don't all talk every day, but when we do these reunions, it's fun to catch up, and the conversations are different now. There's a lot of talk about kids, which never really happened on 'Smallville' because nobody had kids. Now I'm a year or two older than John Schneider was when he played my dad on the show. That's always funny to do."
The dynamic duo back together
Conventions aren't Tom Welling's only realm of reunions, either. "I'm doing a podcast now with Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor, called 'Talk Ville,' where we watch the episodes and then comment and give behind-the-scenes [tidbits] that we remember," he noted.
Looking back on a show you've done for over a decade is certainly different than living it, and you tend to view things with a different lens. "It's fun to revisit it because so much time has passed. So much time has passed that I only remember the good stuff or the positive things, [and] it's been long enough that we can talk about it," Welling continued. "If we had tried to do a podcast the year after it ended, there'd probably be a lot of negative stories because all that stuff [would be] fresh."
"Smallville" was no walk in the park when it came to filming, either. The physicality and emotional tone were both quite demanding, and fans may not realize how much work went into the final product. "When a show airs, it's made to look seamless and great and awesome," Welling noted. "But [though] a TV show's 42 minutes, it takes 10 actual days to film that. So there's a lot of stuff that happens to get 42 minutes of television. I look back now at it fondly, [but] at the time it was a lot going on."
"Professionals" airs Tuesdays on The CW.