It’s not discussed much anymore, but there used to be an old urban legend of there being a “Superman curse,” following the tragic events that met two of the most iconic actors to play the Man of Steel after they stopped portraying the role – George Reeves took his own life and Christopher Reeve was paralyzed due a horse riding accident. If you bought into the idea, it’s enough to put a person off of taking on the gig. But as it turns out, this isn’t something Smallville‘s Tom Welling ever considered.
The actor was recently asked about the so-called curse during an appearance at Fan Expo Canada when someone brought up that Welling didn’t jump at the part of Clark Kent in The CW superhero show when first offered it and questioned the reason why. The actor clarified that he wouldn’t say he was “hesitant” to accept the job and that it certainly wasn’t to do with that superstition.
“First of all, the whole curse thing never occurred to me. The thing for me at the beginning was they didn’t have a script to show anyone when you auditioned. Which means one of two things: either that they’re not ready and they don’t know what they’re doing, or they do but they don’t trust you with it.”
Welling then explained that he had to see the script first and when he did, he was impressed with what he’d read.
“So what I did is, I said I’ll sign an NDA form, let me read what you have, and then go in or not for the audition. And what I read was awesome. This was not a show about Superman, it was a show about a kid in high school trying to figure out who he was and what he was supposed to do with his life. It was a show about identity. I was like, ‘This is great! Why don’t you show it to everybody?’ They said, ‘Because everybody’s gonna share it, we want it to be a secret,’ and that sort of thing,”
Fans are no doubt glad that the actor wasn’t put off playing the young Superman, as he went on to star as the hero for the series’ full ten season run. And Smallville lovers are hoping he’s still got more to offer in the role, too.
There’s been a lot of talk of Welling reprising his Clark in the Arrowverse’s upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover. However, at the same event, the star played down the chances of that happening, so who knows? Something tells us he’s just trying to keep the surprise in tact, but we’ll find out for sure later this year.
