In celebration with the re-airing of Smallville pilot episode, Kryptonsite caught up with Eric Johnson (who played Whitney Fordman, Lana’s boyfriend in Season 1) on what was it like doing the show ten years ago. Here are the highlights.
Ten years after the pilot shoot in early 2001, is there anything that still stands out for you to this day?
The thing that really sticks out for me was our director, David Nutter, and his absolute passion and enthusiasm for the project, and just how much he really cared… The scope of our pilot was so huge, compared to most of the things that you do for television. We had a twenty day shoot, and there were big stunts, like the car going off the bridge. The stuff we did was incredible, and my eyes were wide open when we were doing it.Is it true that you had originally auditioned for other characters?
… believe it or not – I sent tape in of me doing Lex Luthor. [laughs] And then they said no, and then they wanted to see me read for Clark Kent. And I was like “ummm, you know I’m blond, and I’d need to go to the gym, like, 24 hours a day for months.” But David Nutter was really kind… and so when they asked “would you read for this other part of Whitney,” I said absolutely. It seemed like a really good fit, and I was just thrilled to be a part of it.At what point during the first season did you get the idea that Whitney might have a limited life on the show?
[Laughs] It was actually pretty early. It was evident from the get-go that whatever they intended, what the result was, was not exactly what had happened. Things hadn’t gone as planned. The character started off on such a negative note – and they really tried throughout the season to redeem Whitney to a large degree, making him more of a sympathetic character – and I think that it just ended up alienating him further. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, and not something I would ever take personally. If you string the main character up in a cornfield in the first episode, you’ve got a long way to go for redemption…We never actually did see Whitney’s body. Did you ever think there was a possibility of him actually coming back?
[Laughs] Well, you never know on Smallville, right? I definitely never would have said no. I know there was a scheduling problem once for something that they wanted in a flashback, but they were really good to me, and it would have been fun to go back and play with the old gang, that’s for sure.
