Movies - TV
Smallville's Director Had To Beg Tom Welling To Even Accept An Audition
By JAMIE GERBER
The popular Superman prequel show “Smallville” ran for 10 seasons from 2001 to 2011, telling the story of a young Clark Kent as his tremendous powers develop while navigating through high school. The series explores a more relatable younger version of the iconic hero and survived as long as it did thanks to Tom Welling’s compelling performance.
However, the actor originally turned down the chance to audition, because the script wasn’t released and Welling said that his manager thought that meant that, “they don't have a script, or it's not very good.” When the actor declined, director David Nutter who had seen Welling’s headshots and was interested in having him audition, begged him to come in for a read.
“He said I could come in and read the pilot script if I signed an NDA. I realized the show was not about Superman,” said Welling. The story appealed to Welling because it wasn’t a typical superhero show and had “a very human journey.”