Feature: Smallville

Welling Up with Pride

There’s no one more pleased with the success of Smallville than its star, Tom Welling…

Now, if you’re settling down to read this expecting a well-rounded, balanced report of my chat with Tom Welling, aka Clark Kent from the meteorite capital of the southern United States, Smallville, forget it! I have to confess, right from the get-go, that within several seconds of meeting the star of Channel 4’s runaway success series, I’d fallen completely in love. If truth be told, it took less than two minutes for me to fall in love with all the male stars of this highly entertaining series. This is an incredibly sad state of affairs, especially as I am old enough to be the younger cast members’ mum and am supposed to be a professional person. But, hey, it was a beautiful spring day, most of the cast was all done up in their best bib and tucker and those that weren’t looked simply gorgeous anyway. Clearly enjoying the real-life atmosphere of a spring formal dance combined with end-of-term excitement, they were, to a man, the most charming individuals on the planet. Resistance was futile.

Tom Welling in particular is a very warm, welcoming, spontaneous person. We’d met a few minutes or so before the ‘official’ interview took place when he and Sam Jones III (Pete Ross) were grabbing a spot of lunch. Apologizing for not being able to shake hands – he had a plateful of food in both of his – Welling immediately complimented my unusual name and lit up like a Christmas tree when I teased that all the best people were called Tom. The effervescent Jones immediately joined in the fun by retorting that it was okay for all of us Toms to stick together because he actually felt that Samuel and Jones were the best names in town. In fact, there were three of them in his family alone and he was sure there must be a journalist for him called Samantha out there somewhere. Easily placated when told that my favourite female character on television is called Sam, Jones smiled broadly and wandered off with his best buddy to enjoy a few minutes’ rest before work resumed.

Ten minutes after our first exchange, I was sitting on the grass beside a tuxedoed Tom Welling, who was gracious enough to ignore the fact that I was gazing into his startlingly bright eyes and drooling onto my tape recorder. It’s been well documented that Welling was a model before launching himself onto the soundstage and, yes, I can confirm he is stunning to view. However, few of the walking clothes pegs I’ve met have half the degree of enthusiasm and wit displayed by this articulate young man. He’s polite, soft-spoken, except for when he’s yelling ‘hellos’ to other members of the cast or crew, self-effacing, funny and completely dedicated to his role in Smallville. Very like Clark Kent, in fact.

Professionalism – and the Editor – demanded that I come up with some intelligent questions which might give an insight into Welling and the character he portrays. Unfortunately, all sensible thoughts had left the building so we began with me shoving aforementioned tape recorder at the poor chap and asking him to just ramble on about whatever took his fancy. “What? I just start talking?” he gasped.

Like the hero he plays, Mr Welling took a deep breath, gave a dazzling smile and rose to the occasion…

by Thomasina Gibson

You can find out the many things Tom Welling had to say and how our intrepid reporter coped with him, as well as all the many other features, in:
Cult Times Special #23

© Warner Bros
Feature © Visual Imagination 2002. Not for reproduction

Taken from

Cult Times Special #23
Special - School Days 2002
ships from Sep 12 2002
News-stand Price
UK £4.99 / US $9.99

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