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Michael Rosenbaum is “honored” to be called the best Lex Luther more than twenty years later Smallville premiered.
“For a long time I wasn’t aware that people thought or felt that way,” Rosenbaum, 52, said. We weekly exclusively while promoting his new book The talented farter. “It was only in the last five or ten years that I started to feel it. People would have top ten lists, and I just didn’t believe it for so long.
Rosenbaum made his debut as Lex Luther in season 1 of Smallvillewhich aired in 2001. He left the show after the seventh season in 2007, but returned for the 2011 series finale.
“It’s been a lot of years. I think when you do it, you want people to appreciate what you’ve done,” Rosenbaum said of the show. “There [are] so many Lex Luthers in the past, and I wanted people to be happy with what I was doing. I was happy.”
Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luther
The CWSocial media didn’t really exist back then SmallvilleIt was at its peak, so Rosenbaum didn’t get an “immediate response” from fans. “It was a bit of a mess,” he admitted.
Before there was the Arrowverse, there was Smallville. The series, which ran for ten seasons on The WB and The CW, followed a teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling) in his early days as a child on a farm living with his adoptive parents Martha (Annette O’Toole) and Jonathan Kent (Johannes Schneider ). In addition to developing his powers, […]
Rosenbaum said Us that he is truly “humiliated” by the continued response from Smallville fans.
“I’m proud of it. It’s amazing how many new people are watching Smallvilleand their children are now watching it. A new generation,” he added. “We all started it. Before us there was none Flash And Arrow And Superman and Lois And Gotham.”
He went on to call Smallville a “well-made” and “great show,” crediting the writing, acting and cinematography.
Michael Rosenbaum
Jon Kopaloff/WireImage“I think that’s why it’s so much [superhero] shows now, and even more movies,” Rosenbaum said. “I think Smallville was an important reason for that.”
Smallville also created something “beautiful” for Rosenbaum off-screen. The actor’s friendship with former costar Tom Welling – who played Clark Kent on the WB series – has largely transformed over the years, thanks in part to the show’s continued success.
“We were friends, but we didn’t really hang out because we worked all the time,” Rosenbaum recalls. “It wasn’t until after the show ended that I got Tom to sign autographs. We have a rewatch podcast called ‘TalkVille’ and we do something called Smallville Nights where they do little events at these cons. We just got closer.”
The WB was a teen dream network before it became The CW in 2006, giving fans a ton of eye candy to watch across all their hit series. From Summerland and Supernatural to What I Like About You and Charmed, The WB was all about bringing the best actors to the forefront, and […]
Now Rosenbaum and Welling are ‘trying’ to sell a show together. “We are like brothers,” he added.
Welling and his five-year-old son Thompson even showed great support for Rosenbaum’s recent children’s book, The talented farter.
“He and [wife] Jess [Lee] I read the book and they sent me a video today,” Rosenbaum said Us before sharing that the book is about a little boy whose “only ability is to make his farts sound like things you hear every day.”
The actor said the book “adds humor to life” and he is super proud to have written it. (Yes, all included fart sounds are Rosenbaum’s own.)
“Everyone gets a kick out of it. I mean, farts are funny. They are part of the norm. People do it. I don’t care,” he said. ‘You never know what you’ll get with a fart. It could be the weirdest sound you’ve ever heard.”
The talented farter is out now.