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FORTALEZA, CE (FOLHAPRESS) – Tom Welling, who is immortalized as young Clark Kent in “Smallville,” says he is now more proud of the series than when it first launched two decades ago. “I had time to analyze. When you are in it, you don’t know what happens. I could see it as a viewer and it continues to be a good series,” he says in an interview in Fortaleza.
The American actor revisited the episodes alongside Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor, for the podcast “Talkville” in 2022. “It was fun, I remembered things I had forgotten. In a way, I forget that the series happened. It was ten years of my life, but it’s not something I talk about in daily life,” he says.
Welling and Erica Durance, who played Lois Lane, were the main attractions of the 25th Sana, the largest geek culture festival in the Northeast and North of Brazil. They participated in a panel – where they recalled scenes, talked about the behind-the-scenes and even tried to do the “Ceará boo” – and in photo sessions and autograph signings on Sunday (20).
The duo comes to Brazil following the new version of “Superman.” Regarding James Gunn’s film, Welling says in a formal way: “I can’t wait to see the movie.” “Smallville” stands on its own. The series is something separate from what came before and what will be released,” says the actor, who was in the country in 2018 for the CCXP. The ten-season production was successful with Brazilians when it was aired by SBT in the 2000s.
For Durance, the continued interest in the superhero today has to do with him being “a good guy.” “He comes from another planet and saves the world. We love this story. We love the good guy and the woman who supports him, but who is also independent and does her own things. So they keep doing reincarnations of this,” he evaluates.
Her version of the journalist stood out for having her own arc that went beyond the romantic pair with Kent — they only become a couple in the ninth season. “I was able to portray her for a long time and also a younger version of her. This is one of the ways our characters stand out from other versions, because you see them growing up, and this creates a level of identification,” says the Canadian actress.
“It was allowed for our characters to have time to breathe, to stumble. Many of them made mistakes,” completes Welling.
Durance revealed that initially, she had refused the role. “I’m from Canada, and usually they don’t give big roles outside of Canada. When they said they wanted to see me for the role of Lois Lane, and I said no, they’ll never hire me,” she said. “My agent told me I had to go anyway. I thought ‘well, whatever, let’s go.’ I treated it with a lot of humor, and I think they liked that vibe.”
Welling said that he only accepted the role because he would play a young Clark Kent, not Superman – he only wears the costume in the final episode of “Smallville.” “What I agreed to was playing a high school student trying to discover his identity. His journey was important to me. It constantly reminded me that Clark didn’t know he was Superman.”
“when you get such a big role, a character that everyone loves so much, if you spend too much time thinking about this amorphous idea of the character, you will never be able to portray it with truth,” comments Durance.
They say they don’t mind being remembered today for these roles. “There are other things I would like to be remembered for,” jokes Welling. “I’m surprised how much people love the series and how huge it is in some countries,” says Durance. “We traveled around the world and met people, so we realized how big an impact it had on their lives, and that’s amazing,” adds the actor.
The journalist traveled at the invitation of Sana
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