BIG thank yous to Nadia @ DTS for this transcription, and Scarlett for posting it. It's a great read.
Interview with TW from the latest issue of SV Magazine...
TAKING FLIGHT
Season four has gotten off to a flying start for Clark Kent - having flown, raced the Flash, swapped bodies with Lionel, tussled with Mxyzptlk, and had his powers stolen by witches. TOM WELLING talks to Paul Simpson about his experiences in Smallville's fourth year so far...
"This is just in-between shots," Tom Welling says, apologizing in advance if our conversation is cut short. "We're out here on the football field [filming Jinx], and everything takes between five minutes and half an hour." As it turns out, we get nearly an hour to look back over Clark's recent history...
SMALLVILLE MAGAZINE: When you signed on for the show, did you think you would fly at some point?
Tom Welling: I would have been foolish to think that it would not happen at some point. It would be insane to think that you could play this character and not get into that eventually. What I think you have to do is look at it in each circumstance and look at how it affects the greater story arc, and still maintain the integrity of what we first signed on to do, which is Clark Kent in high school. I will never allow this character at this time to be Superman on this show. I don't believe in that. That's not what I signed on for. I signed on to help show the evolution of this character, which will potentially lead to him becoming that. But I knew they would try, in one way or another, to do it, but not do it so we're pinning another name on it, making it another character, or doing it under the influence of something. All of our characters have done things that aren't necessarily character-based or driven on what we originally thought, because of some influence like a flower, or a ring, or a bug. I'm still playing the character, but have him do things that aren't necessarily at the core.
SM: You and John Glover both got a change to play each other's characters in Transference.
TW: That was such a tremendous experience for me - working with John and playing another character with literally no time for preparation. He stayed on set with me all week, and he was the only person in my mind whose opinion was credible. We had a director, who was great, and I trust him, but at the same time I'm playing a character created by another actor, and for him to be there and for him to say, "Yeah, that was great," or "Yeah, try this" was fantastic. His insight into the character is much different to what a lot of people think about this character, and I was privileged to hear a lot of the ideas he has about Lionel. I was sworn to secrecy about them, but they definitely give you a different view from the inside out. I hope we can at least get people to suspend their disbelief for even a second that I'm playing Lionel - I'll take that!
It was so difficult and there was no way of knowing if I was doing right or wrong. I felt like my head was spinning the whole time, and I would have done a million takes of everything just so that they could piece something together in the editing room that might look like Lionel! It was a lot of work in a very short amount of time, but there's no way I would have got close without John. It's great, it's a great script, a good idea, and I think that the situation that we found was really good.
It's basically the movie Face/Off [the 1997 film starring Nicholas Cage and John Travolta], and not to ruin it, or make it better, but that's what we watched to get some reference. The director watched it, the producers watched it, I watched it. I don't know if John got a chance to watch it, but the concept was such a huge idea that we had to narrow it down, and we came across this movie which had done it already. It gave us some clarity at least as to what our direction should be. With Face/Off you're talking Academy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actors, and months of preparation, months of shooting.
SM: You and Jon had three days...
TW: Not even! We talked on the phone for 10 minutes before the first day of shooting. I was never able to get free to sit with him! That's been the standout episode for me by far. The season opener was great, but I think for me personally, the experience of working with John - you look at what John has done in his career, just to be able to talk to the guy, and to have him pay attention to what you're doing and then have him direct you and try to fill the shoes of a character that he's created so brilliantly. For me, that could be one of the biggest experiences I've had on the show.
SM: Season four seems to have returned more to Smallville High, and executive producers Al Gough and Miles Millar have said that they think last year got too far from high school.
TW: I know that they think that's the case, looking at what we're doing this season. But would I change what we did? No. I think what we did was great. Lionel in a sense is the modern day Lex, and I think that stronger you can establish that, the more drama you can create. It's also a very big part of Lex's development as well. I like the grown-up storylines. Sometimes we can get stuck in the high school mentality and it can get a little boring. The more grown-up situations you can get into, the more interesting it is, because then, at least with my character, he's a fish out of water. He doesn't have the maturity yet. I think it added drama.
Yes, we got a little away from high school last year, but we're coming back to it, and it's just another example of how you sometimes want the arc to go up and down - not meaning up and downs as negative or positive, but as something different, in the variance sense. That's what last season gave us - it gave us another up to get us down into this season.
SM: At the end of Covenant, why do you think Clark turned to Jor-El?
TW: He was like, "If you can't fight them, you might as well join them" and he was also choosing the lesser of two evils. A lot of times in life you get to a point where you go, "I just can't fight it. There's nothing I can do about is, so I better get up out of bed and go to work!" And in a sense that's what Clark had to do. He had to somehow try what it was that was causing him and everyone else so much pain, and maybe he reasons that by causing everyone else a little bit of pain he can save them a lot of pain in the long run. The lesser of two evils.
SM: When he's back as himself at the end of Crusade, do you think things have resolved themselves?
TW: Mom and Dad ask him if he remembers right off the bat, and he says that he doesn't, but what we find out later is that he remembers exactly what happened, and in season four you'll find that what happens greatly affects something later down the line. He does remember and he does try to learn form his experience, but he does also try to save everybody else the pain of letting them know what happened when he turned that way.
SM: What is Clark's relationship with his parents like now?
TW: I think that there's a sense of realization from Jonathan that he won't always be there, and at least while he's there he can give Clark a little more freedom to make some choices, to grow up. I heard someone say the other day that the important thing about raising children is to make them feel safe enough that they can have you at some point, and feel confident enough that they can survive on their own. I think that's what Jonathan is doing right now.
Mom is Mom, and they're getting a bit closer. With Dad being in the hospital last season, I think there was more opportunity for there to be dialog with Mom because Dad wasn't physically there, and then we got to the whole idea of "You don't want to bother Dad because he's sick, so you talk to Mom." I think that even though there aren't that many scenes, I think there's more of a connection between Mom and Clark. It's happening without the words, even without the screen time.
SM: It seems at the end of season three that the relationship between Clark and Lana has run its course, and now there's a very different spark between Clark and Lois. Do you think the producers might push Clark and Lana back together?
TW: If they do, they're going to have to be really creative. I don't see how it can happen. But then again, I don't know how Clark can see it now. Between seasons three and four she went to Paris and she's learning about her, and she's got this whole storyline with the tattoo. I really don't see how it can work, but you never know.
I know that Lois isn't exactly a romantic addition, but you're right, there's a spark, a chemistry between Clark and Lois where they can't stand each other but at the same time, they can't stand not being around each other. Lana has a great line, "That's how the great one's start." At the end of season three, I don't know if Clark is so much overwhelmed and feeling more lonely. I don't know how selfish is it that he shows up with the flower and ends up disappearing after he sees Lana with Lex. The Lex variable in that situation was not something he counted on whatsoever, and he read a lot into it with Lex's motives, and of course Lex has a perfect answer later on about why he is there and what he's doing. It's just more drama in Smallville, I guess!
SM: Now that Chloe has returned, what is their relationship like?
TW: That relationship is as up and down as the emotional levels of Clark and Lana. I know that the trust issue is big for Clark and Chloe. Here's the biggest story of her life right in front of her and she doesn't even know it. Clark is hoping she doesn't find out, and for her to constantly pursue his secrets behind his back, he doesn't like it. It happens a lot with Lionel doing it to Lex, Lex doing it to Lionel, Lex doing it to Clark - it happens all over the place. In Truth, Clark's 'best friend' went behind his back when she agreed not to, and obviously she was under the influence of something that she couldn't control, which we ultimately found out about, but that episode touched on a very big story arc between Chloe and Clark, and it's not until many episodes later where it's resolved at all.
SM: If it ever does get resolved...
TW: It is somewhat... There's an acceptance of each other's fault and a promise that it won't happen again, and choosing to trust in that promise once again.
SM: At the start of Devoted, there's a scene set during the first season. Was it odd to go back to that?
TW: Yes. The hardest thing was trying to get the look we had back in season one. We were trying so hard at the beginning of season one to figure out what Clark was supposed to look like that the hair and makeup department were really thrown for a loop on that one. It was a good exercise to young yourself up a little bit, be a little more innocent, and go back to whether you think you might have been. We all had a good time. It was good to see Eric [Johnson, Whitney] again.
SM: How much has the dynamic on set changed with the arrival of Erica Durance (Lois Lane) and Jensen Ackles (Jason Teague)?
TW: They got right in, as far as getting along with everybody - it's like they've been here since day one. They're both such great people and everybody up here is so great, they're part of the family. It feels like they've been here forever. Even more so, what's great is that it's opened up some more storylines for myself and for Lana, and allowed us to do something with people that we never got to do before. I never had that banter that I have with Lois. Lana's never been able to have a true relationship with a guy on the show. A lot of the time, you never see these girls in a relationship with a guy on the show, you just see them in a situation, and you almost have to let yourself believe that there's a relationship even when there's no proof that there's a relationship. Kristin has an opportunity to develop a relationship with another character and I think that they're both enjoying that, and I'm enjoying the relationship that Clark's building with Lois. Again, it gives us something else to do and serves the greater purpose of the storyline. Whenever you can do that, that's great, and we were just fortunate enough to get two people at the same time who play such big characters in the show who are such great people. We're all working toward the same goal, and we all want to get there. It's a very supportive environment up here.
SM: With Lois on the show, the appearance of the future Flash in Run and Mxyzptlk in Jinx, do you wonder who will appear next?
TW: Oh yes, we always joke around about "Where's Batman? Where's the little guy, Spider-Man?" There are some characters that could very easily come in. I think Batman, a young Bruce Wayne, as a friend of Lex Luthor, could be awesome. There's a lot of stuff that has to be worked out with the studio, a lot of political stuff that has to happen, but just looking at our show and what we would like to happen, I think it would be a great idea. Working with Kyle when he came in to do the Flash, that was a lot of fun. And it's another character who has these abilities, and Clark and him can see a lot of themselves in each other, who they want to be and what they might have been, and questions they have. The whole idea of "we don't know where this is going, but we're going to try to use our abilities for good rather than bad" is a very sort of comic book theme here. I enjoy those themes.
SM: The scenes with Kyle Gallner have an element of having fun with the powers, with Clark and Bart showing off...
TW: That actually happened on set between Kyle and I when we were racing, and I was trying to catch him. We both had to end up stopping on a mark, and be both split, went past the camera and almost into the concrete in front of us. There was a little bit of rivalry with Kyle and I in an absolutely positive way - we just really got along. I actually saw a lot of myself in him, and I think he saw a little bit of what he would be like to do in his life, or his career maybe, in what I am doing. We got on great from day one. We just had a lot of fun, and he learned so much. I told him right off the bat, "I'll help you out, but I'm going to tell you straight so you can get it quick. I'm not going to sit there and dance around something, if I see something I'm going to tell you, and either you get it or you don't." We established this really direct relationship. He learned so much. Who he was on the first day and who he was on the last day - there were years of experience in there, it was amazing.
SM: Does it feel odd being the teacher after going through a learning curve yourself?
TW: I love it! I can definitely see that in a few of the kids we've had on the show, where they're new and they're trying to get it all. I've been there and I do know what it's like. At least for me, looking back, I knew what I needed and I know what kind of approach I need. It's different for everybody, but what I needed and what I had were people who were willing to tell me what I needed to know, rather than dance around it, and make me feel better. I didn't need that. I needed someone to tell me how to do it. I like being in that situation - I like being able to help, especially when people like Kyle want to learn so much.
SM: Finally, are you still hoping to get behind the camera yourself?
TW: We'll see. It's a scheduling thing more than anything else. We've got a lot of great people up here who know what they're doing, and they can help a director out as much as a director can come in and help them out. I don't know - at the rate we're going with schedules, there's no way. It would be something that I would have to really push for, and something that Al and Miles would really have to write specifically to give me the opportunity to do it. We'll see what happens. Right now, there's no time. But who knows what will happen.
(end of interview)
