Smallville Star Michael Rosenbaum Talks Lex Luthor Legacy, James Gunn’s DC Universe & More

Smallville’s own Lex Luthor, Michael Rosenbaum, revisits his journey as the iconic DC Comics character, the show’s ever-growing legacy, and the journey of his podcast business. October 16, 2001, marks one of the biggest dates in DC’s live-action legacy, as Smallville premiered on The WB, telling the ultimate origin story of a young Clark Kent, played by Tom Welling. Taking place before the tights, the Smallville series explored Clark discovering his Kryptonian heritage, and ultimately going through the lessons that would make him ready to become Superman.

However, as much as Smallville was about Welling’s Superman, The WB (before The CW) drama was also the great tale of Lex Luthor and how he would become the ultimate opponent to the future Man of Steel. Played by Michael Rosenbaum, Smallville chronicled the complex friendship between Lex and Clark before they landed in their respective roles as adversaries. By the end of Smallville season 7, Rosenbaum’s incarnation of the DC icon had embraced his destiny as the villain of the story.

Screen Rant exclusively interviewed Rosenbaum, who is a major favorite at this publication and often viewed as the best actor to have played Lex in live-action. As James Gunn’s Superman movie is gearing up its production, the Smallville star reflected upon his experience playing one of the most famous DC Comics foes of all time and seeing the show’s massive legacy continue to grow. Outside of his acting, writing, and directing career, Rosenbaum has also become a prominent podcast creator, touting Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum and Talk Ville Podcast under his belt, both of which he discussed in the interview.

Michael Rosenbaum Breaks Down His Smallville Legacy As Lex Luthor

Screen Rant: We’re 25 years out from when Smallville first premiered, and everyone is still finding the show wherever they are in the world. Is it surreal for you to see how massive the show continues to be after all this time?

Michael Rosenbaum: Yeah, I’m honestly shocked because when you’re doing a show like Smallville or any project, first of all, you don’t really know how it’s going to be received. For me, the first time that I ever felt like [a project that I was working on] is going to be a hit was Smallville.

When I saw the pilot, and David Nutter filmed it, we were doing ADR, and he goes, ‘Would you like to see the opening of the show in the pilot?’ I go, ‘Sure,’ and he showed it to me. I had a tear in my eye. I go, ‘Oh, my gosh,’ and I walked out to call my parents who I’d never call [like] that and certainly didn’t ever call them and tell them, ‘Hey, I’m doing this project.’ But I said, ‘This is going to be a hit. I’m going to be recognized after the show.’ Because I never would say that, and I felt it.

Now, that being said, I didn’t know that, 10 years after the show was over, I’d still be able to go to cons where many Smallville fans would still be coming to see me [or] that Tom [Welling] and I would be doing a podcast called Talk Ville Podcast, a rewatch podcast. I didn’t think the show had legs like that and it’s pretty astonishing. Then the articles that would come out, it’s really cool when you see your peers come over to the house, like James Gunn, who’s a friend, saying nice things like, ‘I think you’re the best Lex Luthor,’ and from other actors, which is nice! I smile and say, ‘All right, I did something right!’ Because I certainly don’t do a lot of things right.

When it comes to this whole world, I will call my grandmother and check in with her all the time as she goes, ‘Where are you?’ I’m like, ‘Well, I’m doing a convention and signing autographs.’ [She will ask] ‘For Smallville, they still want your autograph?’ [Laughs] ‘I guess so!’ It’s pretty astonishing, to say the least, but I welcome it! I’m grateful. I love the fans. Sometimes we cry together, we laugh together, and I really love doing it. I love that Smallvile still has a good fanbase.

We’re living in an age where there are more conventions, and there are more opportunities to engage with the fans. But when you were shooting Smallville, did you get to go to San Diego Comic-Con and big events like that? What was your interaction with the fandom back then?

Michael Rosenbaum: I got the opportunity to go to some cons along the way. I’ll never forget, one of the first cons I went to was in Orlando – Mega Con, I think it was called – and I took my grandparents with me. The line was wrapped around the building and I couldn’t believe it. I remember my grandfather said, ‘Who are these people here to see?’ and I said, ‘I think me,’ he goes, ‘This is crazy.’ He sat there and watched for hours, he didn’t get bored watching me meet fans, talk to them, hug them, and sign for them. He couldn’t get over it, he stayed with me the whole time.

I was doing cons, but Tom and Kristin weren’t doing them. I got both of them to finally do it after the show ended; I finally kept bugging both of them. I said, ‘You guys are ridiculous. Get over it. Listen to me. These fans will love seeing you. You’ll have a good time. You got to do it.’ They started doing it, they loved it, and the rest is history.

Being Defined The Best Lex Luthor Of All Time

The conversation often comes up, whether it’s from fans, critics, journalists, or fellow people in Hollywood, about how you are defined as the best Lex in live-action of our generation. What do you think it is that still speaks to viewers to this day? Why do you think people resonate so much with your version of Lex?

Michael Rosenbaum: That’s a really good question. I think the answer is that it wasn’t just a show where Lex is immediately evil and twirls his mustache. Well, he doesn’t have any hair, so the proverbial mustache! This was a story about a guy, a human being, who was trying to not fall in the shadow of his father. He wanted to do good for the community and to be a better person to change people’s views on the Luthors. You got to see the good side of him, you also got to see the flashbacks of when he was a child and what trauma he endured.

I think that came together along with solid writing for this character and great scenes, whether it was with Tom as Clark or John Glover as Lionel Luthor. I always say that it’s not just my acting, but it’s the other person’s acting. It’s the way the show was filmed, the sound design, the crew, everybody comes together for a perfect storm. But I think that I always approach characters for the most part as, ‘How do I keep them grounded? How do I speak like a human being, talk to people, like a real person? How do I listen, respond, and react to other people?’ That’s how I learned to act from high school or college on. Again, for some reason, this combination of the writing of the character, the depth and the acting, all of it came together.

I think that’s why people respond to it. Whenever I auditioned for anything, I tried to deliver a line how I would say it. Then I come up with a character, but how would you say something if someone said, ‘Hey, you’re a bad, evil man, Lex!’ I’d say, ‘Why would you say that about me? You don’t know me!’ If you just take it from the standpoint of how would Michael say this? How would Andy say this line? Don’t try to put too much character and read how you think a real person would speak. That’s my approach. I feel like that worked for this character. It’s being as down to earth, as real and grounded as it possibly could.

I think people felt sorry for the character, because he had a lot going against him. A lot of people had their opinions on him before they even got to know him, and that’s hard to deal with. It’s like high school. All of a sudden, people are making fun of you and talking about [how] you’re doing this and you’re like, ‘That’s not me, why are they talking about me?’ That’s why I always can understand people in high school who get picked on — I got picked on, I know what it’s like. That’s why I tried to come from a vulnerable, real place with the character and I hope it paid off, apparently it did for some people.

By the time we get to Smallville season 7, and when we see Lex’s final turn, it’s almost heartbreaking. You understand Lex because he had such a rough upbringing to the point where all the people around him were always against him. In a lot of ways, it was written in stone that at some point.

Michael Rosenbaum: Exactly! I think that when you look at all the adversity he faced and the childhood trauma, I think that it’s a given. We all have a threshold and he was pushed to the point where he had to stop doing what he’s doing and become something else. I think that’s what ultimately happened. For example, you got Jonathan Kent calling you a liar and waiting for you to fail. You got your father just deceiving you and keeping all these secrets from you, [as well as] the women in his life. After a while, you go, ‘You know what? I don’t need any of you. I don’t need anybody! I’ve got the way I have, and I’m going to do things my way.’ I think that’s what happened ultimately.

It’s funny, I would call the creators, Al Gough and Miles Miller, and I would say, ‘He’s too evil in this scene.’ They’d say, ‘We know you’re going to play the opposite. We know you’re going to fight against what that is and you’re going to make it likable, and vulnerable, so just ignore the parentheticals.’ They really trusted me, ‘Michael will bring something to this that will be special.’ There’s a lot of pressure, but I always tried to find something in every scene where it was a nuance. You could see me thinking something ambiguous.

Sometimes I wouldn’t think at all, sometimes the camera would just move in on me and I turned my head. I wasn’t thinking about anything, and people would say, ‘Oh my gosh, what were you thinking about?’ I’d go ‘Nothing! I was thinking about nothing. Lunch, I’m hungry!’ I think that’s sometimes when you can clear your brain of thought, people wonder ‘What is he up to?’ He’s not up to anything, he’s just checking out Clark’s butt! [laughs]

Returning For The Smallville Series Finale For The Fans & Himself

It’s been over two decades now at this point, but what is something that still stays with you the most about this entire experience of having played Lex? Especially when you came back for the finale, which, by the way, thank you for coming back, that’s something I’ve been wanting to say for years.

Michael Rosenbaum: I had to! People thought I left or quit the show. I was supposed to do six years, and I signed on for a seventh year, but I refused to sign three more years. There’s a lot of things going on with that. I was ready to move on. I talked about it and can talk about it now because he doesn’t work there anymore, but the former president of Warner Bros. Television, Peter Roth, took me out for dinner. He’s like, ‘You got to come back for these three years! What are you going to do with your life?’ I said, ‘My grandma thinks I’m funny. I’m going to try go and direct stuff and live my life.’ He was trying to convince me and then my agent got a call the next day that they’ve made an offer. They didn’t even offer me anything, they just said, ‘You’re going to make what you’re making, and we want you for three more years.’

I sort of felt, ‘Oh, then they don’t want me. They obviously don’t want me.’ That’s how you feel. I moved on, and it was easy to move on. I felt that after 165 episodes or whatever I did was good, but I was proud of the role. I came back for the fans and also came back for me. I came back for the Smallville series finale. I don’t know if you know this, but I might have said it. I felt I needed to come back, so I called the showrunners [Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson], and two weeks or less before the series finale, I said, ‘You have me next Friday, the whole day for one day. Make a bald cap. Let’s film if you want me.’ And they made it happen. I got a bald cap, and I worked 24 hours straight on that day. I’ll never forget it.

You were filming Breaking In at the same time, right?

Michael Rosenbaum: Yeah, you’re right. I was doing the show at that time. But it was the best thing I ever did, coming back, because I really got to say goodbye at the same time everyone else was saying goodbye to the show. I was saying a real goodbye to the show and to them, and it was emotional. I cried with my makeup artist, Natalie [Cosco]. It just hit me after she cleaned my head off for the last time. I got out and had a cry, and she cried, it was a beautiful moment. It was like closing the door on something that was or could maybe be the biggest thing that I’ll ever do. That would be great; that’s fine with me. How many people get to say they were on a tremendous hit show like Smallville and played a great character [like Lex Luthor]? I was very proud.

I’m glad I came back. I think the fans really appreciated it.

I know you’ve talked about it before where you felt a little bit iffy about how Lex lost his memories and all that went down in the series finale. How are you dealing with it today, do you feel ‘I am OK with the way it ended’ or ‘I would have wanted something else for my ending?’

Michael Rosenbaum: I don’t know. I didn’t watch the show, not one episode after I left. In fact, I didn’t watch many episodes while I was on the show. That’s why we’re doing Talk Ville Podcast with Tom. We watch every episode, and I’m forced to watch them. But I watched the series finale, and I invited some friends over. My friend Joe who had kept watching the show, and my other friend were telling me what’s happening. Because I didn’t know what the hell was going on, I’m going, ‘Wait, Lois and Clark are getting married?’ and they started explaining to me.

But when I watched it, I go, ‘It’s got a good energy to it.’ I loved my scene with Clark and Lex. I thought that was really good, and it was a nice way to end it. I love that I killed my sister [Tess Mercer, played by Cassidy Freeman.] For someone who shot for just one day, to see that, I was proud of it. I was happy, and I was glad that it was all over.

The Potential Of A Smallville Animated Sequel Or Reunion Movie

Something that I know many of us at Screen Rant always wonder about is the potential of the show coming back. I know you and Tom spoke a year or two ago about this, but you guys were developing a Smallville animated series with the cast and creators. I know last year the strikes probably forced it to get put on pause. But is there any update you can provide us with?

Michael Rosenbaum: All I could share is that it’s a great idea. We have Al and Miles, the creators of Smallville backing us up. When it’s the right time, we’d like to go and do this; pitch to Warner Bros. It has to be the right time, and right now is not the right time. We had the strike, we had a change of executives at DC — one being one of my best friends in the world, James Gunn. When the time’s right, I think it’s something that’s a no brainer, unless they have other ideas.

We’d like to do it — the whole cast would like to do it. They would voice their own character from the show, and we have a concept of what the show is. I asked Tom the other day, ‘If Al and Miles came to us and said, ‘We got this great idea for a Smallville movie. We want you guys to get in shape for the next two months, and then we’re going to go shoot this movie like a real finale…’ We were both like, ‘Yeah!” If it was right, I think that would be dope. So many other shows are doing that. I would certainly consider it. It would have to something that, again, was grounded.

But if Al and Miles did it, and wanted to do a one and half hour movie, I think Tom and I — we’d all consider it. I think we’d have fun going back, but we’d have to really work to get back into those characters in that mindset because we’re a lot older. But if you shaved my head and you put makeup on me, it still works!

So, you would shave your head again?

Michael Rosenbaum: Would I shave my head again? For sure! Look, I probably wouldn’t play Lex again unless James had offered me Lex Luthor. Of course, I would have taken Lex Luthor [for the new Superman movie.] But he didn’t, which is fine, and Nicholas Hoult was just on the podcast. I love him, I finally met him and he came over the house. He’s such a great actor, and I have no doubt that he will be fantastic as Lex. Who knows? Maybe you’ll start calling him the best Lex, and then I’ll be second best.

Befriending The Next Lex Luthor In Nicholas Hoult For James Gunn’s Superman

Listen, it’s been 20+ years for me and I have not changed my opinion whatsoever. There have been great actors who have come along to play Lex, but for me personally, I’ll always go, ‘Michael is my Lex.’ I won’t change my stance till the day I die. I don’t know if you have seen this [the Superman cast photo] as they are getting ready to start shooting.

Michael Rosenbaum: The picture? Yeah, I saw it! He’s sent me a picture before that, and I obviously never posted it, but he sent me a picture of his look. I was like, ‘I gotta see! That’s hilarious.’ He had more of a buzz cut, but he looks good, man. He’s a good looking young guy, and I think it’s going to be great. I’m excited for them.

I try to be happy for people, and I try to enjoy the process and enjoy things that are in front of me. Because it’s all silly, and we’re all lucky to be here. Seeing a guy like Nicholas get the role and actually getting to know him a little bit is really cool. It’s really cool when you meet someone, and they’re there more than you even thought they’d be, so I’m excited for him.

Whether Or Not He Would Be Down To Play The DCU’s Lionel Luthor To Hoult’s Lex Luthor

We’ve seen other Superman actors come back to play new, different roles. In my mind, I was just thinking the other day, what if you came in and maybe played a young Lionel Luthor. How would you feel about that?

Michael Rosenbaum: If that ever came to the table, I would certainly consider it. I feel like I’m capable of really doing anything for the most part. There’s very few things that I think that I won’t do. But for me playing a role like Lionel Luthor? No one would play him better than John Glover, but if someone did offer me to play that role, I would certainly be able to play that pretty easily. I think that just playing Lex was hard, it was a difficult role, but it really wasn’t that difficult.

There’s a lot of physicality and mental games, but I was lucky to have enough experience in my life to take those experiences and put them on screen and go, ‘oh, this is how I’m being treated, okay.’ I can go back and remember feeling that feeling I had when I was younger and take moments from that. That experience is an actor’s best friend and If you don’t have a lot of experience, you come from a cookie-cutter family. Everything’s sunshine and you’ve never had any adversity in your life, and you never felt real pain. I don’t know how deep you can get. I have a feeling that the characters that the actors that are the best, a lot of it comes from history, it comes from their childhood or their life experiences.

I think maybe there’s an exception to some, but sometimes you meet your friends’ parents, and go, ‘Gosh, why couldn’t I have parents like these parents? These parents are together, and they talk to them, there’s no ego.’ I was able to use moments that I remember as a child, and those things that, I think, I’m actually appreciative of those now and I embrace those things. So I always say, if you have flaws, use those [to] understand what makes you, you. Use those to your advantage by being a better person, by not doing certain things that maybe you experienced in life, or someone did to you.

But all those things are important for an actor, they always made us study all these things like Stanislavski, Udo Hoggins thought and Strasburg. My [take] was be grounded, [to] bring experience from your past into roles if you can, because that’s going to make you more believable. I personally think that, again, being grounded in reality, is the most important thing, and listening, as an actor, for sure.

Think about it, you got to look at Christian Bale and think, ‘Yeah, he’s had some dark s–t happen.’ I don’t know anything about him, but he’s had stuff that he channels through and he gets that, he could grab it where other people are like, ‘I don’t know how to get upset.’ That’s the thing for me, I could snap. If you don’t have that history, or you don’t have those experiences, you really have to act. If you have them, you should be able to channel them or snap right into them. Somebody wants me to be angry, [they just need to] give me five seconds. Those are gifts, even though they didn’t seem like gifts when you were younger, they felt very hurtful or painful.

Now, as the profession that I’ve chosen, they might not help you if you’re a baker. [laughs] But if you’re an actor, those things are there as their gifts. They’re their treasures that are disguised for a long time until they come out and you’re like, ‘Oh,wow, I didn’t know I had that in me.’ Well, you do, so it’s pretty cool, I never really thought about that.

Reflecting On Arrowverse’s Crisis On Infinite Earths Crossover & An Almost-Return In A Mystery DC TV Show

We were all bummed when you couldn’t take part in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover a few years ago. Your reasoning was so sound, and I fully support you on why you couldn’t come back. Can you dive into that situation a little bit more? If you could have seen Lex come back, what is something that you would have wanted to see?

Michael Rosenbaum: I don’t know, but I will say this. There’s only room for one Lex. If they’re doing this multiverse story, I don’t want to be with other Lexes. If they want to show me in a different realm, world or universe, great, and then have the other me in another universe, that’s fine. But I didn’t really love the idea of having my Lex and other Lexes, it just wasn’t something that interested me. I believe that the reason I didn’t do it was because they pretty much said, ‘Hey, we’re shooting this next whatever. We don’t have a script. This is what we’re getting you. Are you in or out?’ I’m like, ‘I’m out.’ [There was] no money, no script, not telling me what’s going on.

It felt rushed?

Michael Rosenbaum: Well, it was not only rushed, but… They were considering me for another show, to play Lex Luthor. I’m not going to say what it was for, but they wanted me and I think that ultimately, it didn’t work out. But I was flattered. There was something else that I turned down, and it didn’t get picked up, either. But I met with everybody, just to be respectful. I was honored as it’s always nice to get an offer, but it was the kind of role where you needed make up for, and it was probably a couple of hours of make-up every morning. I can’t really say what it was, but I just said, ‘No thanks. I’m not doing this for a show.’ For a movie, you [would] consider something! That’s the thing, if you’re playing Lex Luthor for two or three months for a movie, big deal, shave your head! It’s a little different shaving your head for seven years.

They paid well, and it made my career. I still do so many fun things because of Smallville. I would never change any of it and now that I’m older, it’s sort of like, ‘Wait, where does it film? How many hours? Oh, yeah, no thanks. I do not want to do it.’ Now, that’s not to say if somebody said…there was a series that I almost did that filmed in Atlanta, and I loved it. I was a little bummed, and I never get bummed! But I was like, ‘Ah, I thought that role was made for me’ and I thought we were going to get the offer for it.

I wasn’t upset, but I felt that would have been fun. That would have been something I wanted, I would have had fun doing. I love the atmosphere of it and I think it’s going to do well, I hope it does well, because it looks like a show that I would watch. [What] I’m trying to do is where I want to do projects that I would want to watch. Because I’ve done some that I’m like, ‘No, I would not watch that. I wouldn’t want to watch it even if I wasn’t in it, or if I was in it.’ [Laughs] I have the mentality, now that I’m getting a little bit older, there has to be an element of fun. I have to like the project, I have to believe in it. I want it to succeed. I think it has a chance. If I’m going into something going, ‘This is going to be shred, this is going to be failure,’ that’s not a good way to approach it so I try to just be realistic.

The Rise Of Inside Of You With Michael Rosenbaum

I definitely want to talk to you about your podcasting empire that you’re six years into now with Inside of You, and it’s such a wonderful podcast. You reflect and spotlight mental health amongst your guests and yourself. For actors and creators in Hollywood, when you hear these experiences, what impact have they had on you, not just as a fellow actor or as a host, but as a human being when you look back at your career with everything that you’ve done and what you’ve gone through?

Michael Rosenbaum: When I first started doing Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, somebody said, ‘You have a good voice. You should do a podcast and interview some celebrity friends, you can make some money. I go, ‘Alright!’ and I didn’t make money. no one listened and I just thought, ‘What am I doing?’ Then a year or two years, I thought, ‘I don’t really have an audience here.’ Then something clicked and I started to just open up. I started to talk about mental health, facing adversity, I was vulnerable, talked about my dysfunction. That’s when guests started feeling like they could open up and talk about their lives.

Even little things, even if they don’t open up completely, they talk about, ‘Oh this is what helped me get through this. When my mom died. This is what helped me I went through a really tough time like this.’ It’s just candid conversations that I’m a fan, I’m not a regular interviewer guy. I’m not like, ‘Hey, here we are, I’m Mr. Interview guy!’ I’m a regular dude. I’m the guy who asks questions that I feel like anybody out there listening would be asking, ‘Oh what was that like? Did you work with so and so, did you get star struck? Did you get any movie posters or autographs?’ I was sort of like a kid and I love that inner child coming out, that inquisitive side of me. I was starting to enjoy it more.

But then I noticed that I had some fans starting to listen, I had some followers and listeners, which is when I created a Patreon account where people support the podcast and really keep it going at Patreon.com/InsideOfYou. It’s like this community and support for each other. The next thing I know, it’s so much easier getting guests, like I had Keanu Reeves on. I just had Billy Dee Williams on and Nicholas Hoult. I think it’s because word of mouth is that not only are the fans liking the conversations as my listeners, but I think the guests are enjoying it and they text me after and they’re like, ‘Hey, that was really special. I know I don’t talk about that stuff.’

A lot of podcasts are three hours long and I get bored after an hour. I have ADD, so I want to get a good conversation. You could be on your way to work or on your way home, you could finish it and move on to the next one. You don’t need to sit there three hours and talk to somebody. I don’t know how they do it, but kudos to them. But three hours with a guest? No, thanks, but I fell in love with this podcast. It’s very important to me. I had a live podcast with Zachary Levi, we’re going to try and do more.

Then from there, of course I went to Tom and I said, ‘We should do a Talk Ville podcast, a podcast about Smallville. I think there’ll be a good following.’ so I got him to do it. We’re in our fourth season And we both really like it. We notice all the fans at the cons where there’s Talk Ville shirts and there’s a lot of inside jokes that we all can understand and recognize and it’s become a beautiful thing. So the podcasts, I think, are successful because I think people see how much fun we, they and the guests are having. It’s real, authentic and sometimes people say I s–t on the show for Talk Ville because I’m honest and sometimes I don’t like everything that’s going on. So you got Tom’s perspective and my perspective and yeah, I hope people will listen to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum and Talk Ville!

Helping Tom Welling Become A Podcaster Through Talk Ville Podcast

That’s something I want to ask you about because you’ve been podcasting for years now, but now, seeing Tom get into it, how much fun has it been for you to see him find his footing into being a main host and finding his podcasting voice? Because I honestly never thought, as someone who loves Tom Welling, he would be someone who would do a podcast every week.

Michael Rosenbaum: It’s trust. I got to tell you, it’s taken time. Tom and I weren’t that close on the show. When I say not that close, we just weren’t best friends. We weren’t hanging out all the time, he was busy. I love Tom. But Tom had his life, I had mine. After the show. we started hanging out more, he lived near me at the time. We hung out, he did the podcast, we became closer. He realized I had his back and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do the podcast. Then he watched it before and he’s like, ‘This is great!’

From there, I said, ‘You got to do conventions, I think you’re really going to enjoy this. You’ll make some money and you’ll make so many people happy and you’ll be happy too because you’re making them happy.’ He finally agreed to it and he did that. Then I came up with this idea for Smallville Nights – yeah I’m tooting my own horn here – it’s like a show that we do with these cons. We do these private events and we read old scripts, and I wear the bald cap.

It’s funny, and people read with us. There’s no cameras allowed and I finally got him to do that. We’ve done like 30 or 40 of them now. Then I got him to do the podcast and I said, ‘Listen, man’ and he’s like, ‘I trust you. You said that your podcast is great, the cons, and Smallville Nights. I’ll do Talk Ville.’ Now, we’re working on doing a live podcast for Talk Ville, where we do this whole thing, maybe it’s Smallville Nights meet-and-greet for the live podcast. We’re going to try and do that maybe April or May.

We’ve just became like brothers. I love his wife, Jess [Rose Lee Welling,] she’s awesome. It was tough getting Tom on board at first and then he realized, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been missing this, this is fun.’ I see him having fun doing it and he lets me be me. He knows how my mind works. I come up with ideas. I’m like, ‘Just trust me, just do it.’ We have that trust, we listen to each other and it’s great, we built a great friendship, a team and a partnership, and business. But again, we couldn’t do it without the fans, without the listeners, without the patrons. It’s truly amazing when people not only listen to your podcast, or support it, but then join Patreon to give extra to the show. There are so many generous people out there. We are lucky, look at the fans, people say, ‘What’s it like?’ and they thank us. I go, ‘You guys are the reason, you guys are who needs to be thanked.’

I mean that honestly. Without fans, without people who appreciate you, we wouldn’t be anything. We wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be doing all this stuff. I think everybody has fun and they realize that we really do appreciate them. So that’s why we keep doing it. People like you, you’re awesome. You’ve always been incredibly supportive.

And I will continue to be, it’s a genuine honor for me! You guys are on Smallville season 4 now, and I’m very curious to see your thoughts and reactions when you get to the seasons when we didn’t have Lex. You mentioned earlier that you had friends that would tell you, ‘This has happened since you left,’ but how much do you know about the later seasons?

Michael Rosenbaum: Andy, I know nothing. I swear if somebody put a gun to my head and said to answer these questions, I have no idea. I never watched one episode, I have no idea. All I know is that my old stand in Morris [Chapdelaine] who I loved, they would shoot him from behind and make it look like me, and that was it. I had a sister! I remember her agents reaching out, ‘Will you talk to her before she goes in to film?’ and I did, I talked to her and she was really appreciative. I had her on the podcast as well on Inside of You.

That was one of my favorite episodes. I was waiting for Cassidy to be on, and then you did it!

Michael Rosenbaum: She was great, she’s a sweetheart! We’ll see what happens when we get to Smallville season 8. We’ll see if I can handle it. We’ll see, if, again, the support is there, the Patreons and all these people who keep listening, then we’ll do it. It’s year to year. So right now we’re going to do season 4. Hopefully seasons 5-6, that will just continue as long as people want to stay tuned. So that’s all we can do.

Upcoming Guests On Future Inside Of You With Michael Rosenbaum Episodes

Can you tease any of your upcoming guests on Talk Ville, I know you mentioned some of them for inside of You, but if you can tell us about Talk Ville in the next coming weeks, who can we look forward to hearing?

Michael Rosenbaum: I’ll give you this. I don’t think she has aired yet but Sarah Carter, who played Alicia, is coming on. We’re really excited.. We’ll have John Glover back on, don’t worry. We’re going to have Greg Beeman, Al and Miles again. We’re going to have more down the road. For Inside of You, with Michael Rosenbaum, we’ve got Nicholas Hoult coming up. We’ve got Shelley Hennig which is airing now. We got Dermot Mulroney, Billy Dee Williams, Gaten Matarazzo, Skeet Ulrich, Lou Diamond Phillips, Edward Furlong, Felicia Day and John Rhys Davies. We got Tom Payne from The Walking Dead. Chance Perdomo from Gen. V. Casper Van Dien, we’ve got so many great guests, so I really appreciate it if everybody tunes in!

I get nervous too. I’m usually pretty calm, but when Billy Dee Williams was here, Lando Calrissian…at first, I was a little nervous. He was very talking to me, and very good. Then I could see him opening up and enjoying and laughing and tthat made me feel good. I felt, ‘Oh, he likes me. He likes me. This is good!’ At the very end, I go, ‘Did you have fun? He’s like, ‘Yeah, yes I did! and I go, ‘Would you sign my Lando Calrissian doll?’ He goes, ‘Absolutely!’

He was so cool, and I think they see that in me that I’m not just some guy who’s trying to get dirt. I’m just trying to have a fun conversation and maybe have them open up a little bit, be a little more human and show that side that they’re not just the intangible. I enjoy it, I hope it continues. I take it guests by guests, year by year, and hopefully if the fans continue to support me, and I’ll keep doing it.

I have to ask because you’ve had some of the other Lex actors on before, but have you ever tried to arrange an episode of Inside of You where you have multiple of them, like a roundtable discussion, with all of the Lexes coming together, they talk about their experience. I know fans would eat that up.

Michael Rosenbaum: That’s actually a good idea. I wonder who I can get on. That’d be cool! That would be really cool to get everybody just sitting down and or even on a Zoom call. I could go, ‘What was what was it like for you? What did you like about this?’ and talk about Superman that can be really cool. I would be up for that. Let me see what I could do. I know Nicholas said when he’s done filming, he’d love to come back on the podcast and talk about how it was, so I’d like to him to do that. But maybe we could do something, even if it’s like having those guys on for like 20-30 minutes as part of an episode. Let me see because I still talk to Clancy occasionally, I talk to Jon Cryer. Nicholas and I’ve been texting.

Let’s see what happens, I would love to see you also talk to Michael Cudlitz who’s been playing Lex Luthor on Superman & Lois.

Michael Rosenbaum: Is that still happening? How’s he doing? I love that guy! I interviewed him before, but that was way before he got cast as Lex. But good for him. Kudos to Cudlitz, that’s cool!

What Is Next For Michael Rosenbaum?

What are you working on right now? What can we look forward to from Michael Rosenbaum, whether it’s in TV or film? I know you tweeted the other day about wanting to direct again.

Michael Rosenbaum: There’s a lot of stuff, I’m creating a lot, I really am. I have a project that I’m working with the former president of Sony, with that we’re meeting with showrunners and then we’re going to go pitch it. I have another show, a half hour dark comedy that I just wrote and we’re trying to find a showrunner to pitch that. I’ve got this horror movie that I completed the outline. It’s dark and in the vein of It Follows. It’s really good, I really want to make it, that’s the one I want to direct. I had a period piece that I want to do. I have been writing non-stop and then there’s a couple of things. There’s a opportunity that I might do in a movie in the next month, very action-comedy, but we’ll see what happens there.

I’m starting to get the itch back a little bit to act because I took a break from it, with the exception of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and 3, which were small parts. But I’m starting to get that feeling of, ‘Let’s do something! If it’s the right fit and build that excitement up, hit me again, I would do it. I told my friends, ‘No more favors.’ I’m not just doing a movie because of a friend, if I’m doing something, [it’s] because I really think it’s either going to be a success or I want to do it or it’s fun. I’ve done all that, I’ve done the favors after favors and I just want to focus on what I want. It’s not about what anybody else wants anymore. It’s about what I want to do in my career, and hopefully that will come to fruition. I’m excited for the first time in a while, I think, because I got a good anti-anxiety medication for the first time in my life about a year ago. I was always riddled with anxiety and now I feel like I’m in a better place – I’m still not 100%, but right now, I can focus, I can enjoy things. For the first time, I’m enjoying the process in a long time and that means a lot to me.

About Smallville

After a meteor shower bursts from the heavens, raining destruction on the unsuspecting citizens of Smallville, years pass, and the healing process leaves the town’s inhabitants with scars and secrets. From the ashes of tragedy, a popular yet awkward teen attempts to decipher the meaning of his life and his clouded past. As he struggles with the transition from boyhood to adulthood, Clark finds that his strength and strange abilities set him uncomfortably apart from his peers.

About Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum

The “INSIDE OF YOU with Michael Rosenbaum” podcast is a fan favorite because Rosenbaum keeps it real and is unapologetically vulnerable, which creates a relaxing atmosphere where guests feel comfortable sharing the most intimate details about their lives.

About Talk Ville Podcast

Going Back to Where It All Started: Join costars Tom Welling (Clark Kent) and Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) as they take you behind the scenes of one of the greatest shows of all time, Smallville. With this weekly dose of nostalgia you will get an inside look at what it was like to film each episode and hear fun facts that only those on set could tell you! Tag along with Michael and Tom to revisit the iconic series that changed the way you look at one of America’s favorite super heroes!

Image & Description Sources: Inside of You & Talk Ville Podcast