Tom Welling talks to TV Guide Magazine about his decade-long odyssey as the man who would be Super.
You’ve already filmed the series finale and you have just a couple more weeks left. What’s going through your mind so close to the end?
I find myself pretty excited to, in a sense, graduate. Every summer for the last 10 years, just after July 4th, I’ve come back here. And this year, I won’t. I am anticipating that around that time is when I’m probably going to start more reflection. Because we are so busy now there isn’t much time to think about that. So I’m looking forward to a reflective July.
TV Guide Magazine: What were you thinking as you filmed the very last scene?
I wasn’t thinking that it was the last scene, because as much as it’s the end of Smallville, it’s the birth of this next phase in this character’s life, which is pretty exciting. I’ve said this like a broken record, this show, to me, has always been about Clark Kent — it hasn’t been about Superman. And it was very important at the end that we make sure that we wrap up the Clark Kent story. I hope that people have enjoyed the story that we’ve told.
The show has undergone many cast changes over the years, and maintained a loyal fanbase. What’s been the key to Smallville‘s ongoing success?
One perspective that I subscribe to is the idea that the evolution of this show has matched the journey of Clark Kent. Each time that a character is taken away from our story, that was another step that Clark had to make to grow up. At the beginning [series creators] Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar] did a really good job of figuring out where to start with this character. There have been a lot of other shows to come out where the characters are almost too evolved that they don’t really have anywhere to go. Clark had a lot to learn and it’s taken him 10 years to learn it. Losing his parents, Lex, Lana — these are all big moments that have thrust him further down the road to becoming who we all think he’s going to be.
