Tom Welling Discusses An Intimate Smallville Scene That Felt “Rapey” While Being Shot
In a recent podcast, Smallville stars Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum discussed a sex scene from the series they felt went too far.
Actor Tom Welling has had an interesting career in front of the camera, noted for a recent stint on the Netflix series Lucifer, as well as his starring role on The CW’s Smallville as a young Clark Kent, aka Superman. Welling and former Smallville costar Michael Rosenbaum host a weekly podcast that recaps the show’s episodes individually called Talk Ville, and a recent episode of the podcast had the two stars recall a bizarre moment from the series’ first season. When the show was originally broadcast on The WB, there was an intimate scene on Smallville in season one, episode 15 that the two believe went a little over-the-line when rewatching it back, involving actors John Schneider and Annette O’Toole.
According to the Talk Ville podcast, Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum were discussing a scene in Smallville season one episode, “Nicodemus” in which Welling’s character of Clark Kent walks in on his adopted parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent, having sex in the kitchen. The scene involved actors John Schneider and Annette O’Toole in an intimate situation, to which Rosenbaum notes might be “a little rapey” while watching it over 20 years later. Welling proceeded to confirm Rosenbaum’s feelings, adding that “It was uncomfortable for everyone, including me,” as the scene had to be cut down for time and effect.
Sex scenes on television and in film can often be uncomfortable for many reasons, including the fact that actors have to be very vulnerable in front of hundreds of cast and crew while filming the scene. In this scene in particular from Smallville, it appears that Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum were uncomfortable rewatching it because John Schneider’s acting made it look like his character was forcing himself onto his wife, rather than it being a consensual act among spouses. Nowadays on a set, there are intimacy coordinators that help make scenes more believable and a little less forceful, which would have come in handy 20 years ago when the Smallville scene was filmed.
Along with his ongoing podcast, Tom Welling is pursuing other projects as an actor that have seen him recently cast in the new spin-off series for The CW called The Winchesters. A prequel to the events in Supernatural that starred Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, The Winchesters is set in the 1970s and depicts John and Mary Winchester falling in love as they fight supernatural monsters together in search for their fathers, who have gone missing. Welling plays Samuel Campbell, Mary’s missing father who disappears after opening a secret tomb hidden in a New Orleans cemetery, as introduced in the pilot episode that aired on October 11, 2022.
For Tom Welling, the chance to be featured on The CW again most likely opens up more doors for his acting career. He costarred in several films early in his career like the Cheaper by the Dozen movies in the early aughts, but it was his role on Smallville that helped define him for years. He recently reprised his role as Clark Kent in an episode of Batwoman, also for The CW, before the series was eventually cancelled.
