Tom Welling has a new office on the Warner Bros. lot and there’s an empty parking spot right out front — it’s marked “C. SHEEN” — which reminds him how quickly things can change in television and how lucky he’s been to be one of television’s steadiest stars, with a decade logged on the now-ending “Smallville.”
“It can all go away and can go fast,” said the 34-year-old, whose new digs still had unpacked boxes and bare walls when he sat down last week to talk about the final flight of “Smallville,” which airs its two-part series finale beginning May 13 on the CW. “I feel so grateful. But I also know it’s time to move on.”
Welling leaves the show with mixed feelings, and that’s entirely appropriate for a man who spent 10 seasons as a Clark Kent who was perpetually denied the chance to be Superman — the show, for the uninitiated, follows the odyssey of Superman’s alter ego in his formative years and the title is the name of the little rural town where the future superhero grew up with his human adoptive family.
The New York native didn’t want the role — his headshot was plucked out of a stack by producer Alfred Gough, who asked why the handsome, towering actor wasn’t among the hundreds of hopefuls who sought an audition in “a massive manhunt” to find the star in 2000.
The simple reason was that red-and-blue costume, the same one that brought success to actors such as Christopher Reeve and George Reeves in previous decades but came with a smothering career cost — after they flew across the sky in the public imagination they were locked into the image. When Welling found out the new show had the motto of “no tights, no flights,” he was far more intrigued.
“He brought an openness and warmth to the role,” Gough said. “He’s also incredibly good-looking and somehow is more good-looking in person, if that’s possible.”
During the fourth season of the show, Welling had learned so much on the set that he got a new ambition — directing. He did just that in the fifth season. Even before Welling was directing, he was “a leader” on the set, Gough said, and certainly he was qualified — no other cast member appears in every episode and only two crew members have stayed on for the entire run.
