Michael Rosenbaum, who plays bald future baddie Lex Luthor on The WB's "Smallville," is on his way to have some fun.

"You know where I am right now?" he shouts into his cellphone. "I'm in the car -- Motley Crue at the Staples Center, front row. This interview needs to be started with that."

Before he rocks out, though, Rosenbaum is eager to talk about the next original episode of "Smallville," called "Onyx," which airs Wednesday, April 13. After a kryptonite explosion, Lex is split in two, releasing his truly evil side, Alexander, whose first act is to imprison Lex inside stately Luthor manor.
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Alexander then heads out on a rampage, which takes him across the paths of future superman Clark Kent (Tom Welling), upright farmer Jonathan Kent (John Schneider), high-school journalist Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), bad dad Lionel Luthor (John Glover) and lovely Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk).

"You know," Rosenbaum says, "there comes an episode in an actor's life ... I'm trying to make this as melodramatic as I can. It's been a good time this year, but I'm always ready to do a little stretching. I'll be honest, I freaked out when I first saw this script.

"The first thing I do when I get a script, I don't read it, I go through and see how much I'm in it, like every other actor. My line, my line, bulls**t, my line.' I started looking at it and realized, 'There are 50 pages in this script, and I'm in 47 of them.' I freaked out and took a Xanax."

Playing two characters, in essence, also turned out to be twice the workload.

"It was something like 15, 16 straight days. It was just a lot of dialogue. Once I started to get into it, I got really excited. A lab experiment goes wrong; Lex splits in half. It's the stuff people have been waiting for, for four years.

"There are a lot of fun things, all the things Lex has wanted to do all the years, in all the episodes, like tell Jonathan Kent to shut up, give him a little smacking. I've been dying to hurt Jonathan Kent, and in this episode, I get to. I get so upset. I want to beat the crap out of John just because he plays Jonathan. I get to beat the crap out of Clark. I got to beat the crap out of my father. And I get to make a pass at Lana.

"And the most important thing, the most fun, was beating the crap out of myself over and over."

"Smallville" is currently in its 4th season, taking on some stiff competition in its timeslot from ABC's runaway castaway hit, "Lost." Some fans have also complained that it's the show's weakest season creatively.

"I can't comment on it being the weakest season," Rosenbaum says, "because I'd get smacked. I'd just say it's very difficult to write series television. I think next year, it's definitely going to be more adult-oriented."

All this time, Rosenbaum -- who has a full head of hair -- has been shaving himself bald.

"When I look at anybody with hair, I'm jealous," he says. "But that's not a laughing matter. I'm tired of shaving my damn head. I should get paid more just for that."

Asked how many seasons he thinks "Smallville" has left in it, Rosenbaum says, "You're asking me a very dangerous question. Are you asking me how many years I hope it goes for, or how many years I think it will go? I'm going to say, it'll probably go another season or two."

Looking ahead, Rosenbaum is starting to get projects going behind the camera, with help from one of the "Smallville" writers.

"Greg Beeman and I are writing partners," he says. "We wrote a series based on my childhood. I can't talk too much about it, but it's a very dark, twisted series. We're working right now with the former president of The WB, Jordan Levin, and a few other guys, and we're trying to make it happen.

"Then I wrote another series with two friends of mine, that Barry Josephson is producing. So, yeah, I'm doing a lot of writing, trying to get some projects made. I need to start exploring. It's a nice outlet for me to be creative. It's nice, when you have a couple of days off, to sit in front of the computer and just write. And my keyboarding class came in handy -- we timed it, 55 words a minute."

Rosenbaum would also like to do more comedy, but apparently there aren't all that many roles for bald white dudes.

"Well, that's the thing," he says. "A lot of directors can't see past the bald. A lot of directors say, 'Michael, I want to work with you, and I will work with you, when "Smallville" is over and you can grow your hair back.' I've had some directors who put wigs on me, but then I hate the wig.

"But it's only another year or two, and then I'll grow it back, God willing, and I don't all of a sudden go bald the last season. A nasty trick to do to me in the final season would be if I go bald. Wouldn't that be the irony of it all?

"But I have some good hair. I have some strong hair. It's going to be OK."

With filming winding down for the season, Rosenbaum is currently concentrating on filling up his personal concert schedule.

"I'm going to see the Little River Band June 3," he says, "and no one's going to stop me. I'm stuck in the '70s. The music I listen to prevents road rage for me. Somebody cuts me off, Christopher Cross helps me through it. That's the way it goes. You can quote me on that one."