By JENNY COONEY CARRILLO - Dreamwatch Issue # 101

Hair today, gone tomorrow? Not if you're Michael Rosebaum. Life couldn't be better for the Smallville star, who plays the teenage Lex Luthor in the hit show. He talks to Dreamwatch about shaving his head, topping Gene Hackman, performing in drag, and Lex's evil genius tendencies...

Of course, the first thing you notice about Michael Rosenbaum is his bald head. He stands out in any room, and seems almost proud of that fact as he arrives in a Los Angeles hotel suite wearing a blue T-shirt, grey pants, and burgundy sneakers. Although his bald head and chin both show a hint of stubble, Rosenbaum admits he's grown accustomed to all that shaving and has begun to finally embrace his complicated role as teenage Lex Luthor.

Dreamwatch: Has your life changed much since you shaved your head?

Michael Rosenbaum: Huge! I was scared because I thought I'd lose my confidence and I haven't; it got a little stronger. I think I look better without hair, I don't have to worry about what I look like in the morning. But it's also painful. I have to shave it every day and I get the bumps and the ingrown hairs. It's a painful life I lead! {laughs}

DW: What about women? Do they recognize you right away now and do they find it attractive?

MR: It's very exciting. I wasn't doing too badly before, I'm not going to lie. But now I'm doing a little better. I'm trying to get my buddy to shave his head because he's got islands--literally four different islands on his head--in his efforts to keep some hair, and I'm like, "Man, just shave it. Who cares? Look at me, it's not too bad!" And just as he was coming around, we're at a stoplight on Sunset {Boulevard} and there are these two girls in a Jeep and I turn and I look at these women and I kind of smile and I swear to God the girl looks at her friend and goes, "That bald guy is looking at you." And I was thinking, "Well, what comeback could I have right now? What could I possibly say to top that?" And the light's about to turn green, and I'm reassuring my buddy, ""That rarely happens" and he was like, "I'm not shaving my head." So now he spray paints his head and it's awful!

DW: When you went in to audition, did you know the character was going to have to be bald?

MR: Yeah, I was frightened. I was on the phone every day to my manager saying, "I do not want this. I am not the most attractive person in the world with hair. And if I shave it, it's probably not going to be any prettier, because I don't know what's under there. I don't know if I'm going to be John Merrick the Elephant Man or Yul Brenner." And my manager was like, "Michael, they want you to shave your head but they're going to let you try a bald cap." And the bald cap looked horrible. I have a big head, a large cranium, and it gave a few extra inches to my head and I wasn't pleased with the way I looked. So I decided to take a chance. You take risks as an actor and if I never worked again, so be it. I {had to} do something to take me over the edge from an unknown to a known, and that was it. They got the big barber clippers, the ones that vibrate a whole building, and I just sat there while they did it and said, "How does it look?" And the producers stood back, not saying anything, and I could see them sweating, like, "Thank God." Because, let's face it, it's one of those businesses that a lot of time pretty people sell, especially for TV. If I had looked horrible, I probably wouldn't have gotten the job.

DW: Did you ever imagine you would get to play Lex Luthor?

MR: Never in a million years. I wasn't even a big Superman fan, but I loved the movies and I saw Gene Hackman and he was a genius, and {I thought} "How do you top that?" People would ask me, "How do you top Gene Hackman?" Well, you don't. That's A:You don't ever try to top Gene Hackman. And B: You bring some individuality, some of your own personality to it and try to differentiate yourself from a character you've seen portrayed so many different times.

I didn't want to be a cartoon. I didn't want to be ridiculous. I wanted to give him a vulnerability, a reality, a kindness, and a unique quality. Just make him real, and people are embracing that. Thank God!

DW: So what do you think of this sexy image you have now?

MR: I don't think I'm the ugliest guy in the world or the best looking guy in the world, but if I wasn't Lex Luthor right now, then I probably wouldn't be as sexy, would I? I'd just be some guy on the street that girls wouldn't turn their head to. I know what it's about. I'm not stupid, but I'm going to take advantage of it. But at the same time, I don't try to take myself too seriously., especially with this whole thing on the internet where you see your face and they're calling you Sexy Lexy. If you take that seriously, you're gone, man! At least I would be. My friends would kick the shit out of me. And that's not even counting the Lex Luthor doll that's coming out! I know I'm going to walk into a room one day and all my friends are going to be laughing because one of my friends will have the head of the doll stuffed up his ass. I'm almost certain that's going to happen! I have some great friends. {laughs}

DW: What else have you been in recently?

MR: I was in a movie for Touchstone Pictures called Sorority Boys, which was just a slapstick, raunchy, stupid comedy that's brainless and fun. I'm one of the leads in drag. It's my second time around with that--I owe that to my mother from the days of her dressing me up like Pat Benatar for a lip-synching contest in fifth grade!

DW: Is this true?

MR: True. Newburgh, Indiana. My teacher said, "Hey, you get extra credit if you want to do some kind of talent show." So everybody was doing their own things and I was going to lip-synch a song and I wanted to sing Shadows in the Night by Pat Benatar. My mother goes, "Well, let's go the extra yard." So she gave me breasts and eye shadow and high heels and I walk in there...it was just ridiculous. The reaction was just the worst reaction you could possibly imagine! And I forgot the words halfway through, so I was just dying out there. But I got three A's for the participation. Now, I played a drag queen in Sweet November with Keanu Reeves, and I'm in drag for this other movie. I played a gay character in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, so maybe it inspired a lot of type casting! Lex Luthor would be considered the antithesis of all that, I think!

DW: And what about the feedback from fans about Lex Luthor? How does that affect you?

MR: So far, it's been really good. Everybody's like, "Oh, I love how he's playing Lex, and the way the character is developing and he's very interesting and very ambiguous," and so on. I called my dad and said, "Vanity Fair or Esquire said I'm the most ambiguous character on any prime time series, isn't that great?" And he was like, "What does ambiguous mean? Is it good?" and I said, "I think it's good!"

DW: Do fans accept this version of the Luthor story?

MR: They have been sticking to it for the most part, and I think they like this new twist on Superman, the story before the story {we already know}. Every now and then someone will come up and say to me, "But Lex Luthor wasn't in Smallville, so what's that about?" and I'm like, "Hey, I don't know! I play a character. It's fictitious and it's fun." But as long as they're talking about you, it doesn't matter, right?

DW: Are you worried about being Lex for the rest of your career?

MR: No way, man. I can grow my hair back. I'm a good actor, and I also happen to be having a wig made as we speak, a really quality wig. They asked, "Well, what do you want it to look like?" I'm like, "Whatever Brad Pitt is doing with his hair!"

DW: So you're going to wear a wig when you're not shooting?

MR: Yeah, I'll wear a wig because you go into directors and as much as they say, "Oh, we see the acting ability," they don't because you walk into a room and you're bald. They see you as that person and that's it.

DW: Does it bother you that all the questions are always about the hair and not the acting?

MR: I guess right now I don't mind. Sometimes, I get tired of the hair questions and I go, "Okay. Let's talk about where I come from and what I want to do and my aspirations and my achievements and what I look forward to in life and let's not look at my hair too much." But it's hard to get past that when you walk into a room bald.

DW: So, are you looking forward to that time in the show when Lex finally becomes evil?

MR: I would if they said, "Hey, the show's cancelled after the second season and there are six episodes left and we're going to make you evil right now." Then I would be ready for it. But I don't want to be evil until I have to be, until it makes sense. I think, go out with a bang. If we're a successful show and we're doing it for five years and then at the end we have six episodes left and it's what people have been waiting all these years....We've seen hints of the story and the subtleties in my character. You've seen the dark side, and finally it comes out at the very end.

DW: Could Lex handle Superman in a fight?

MR: Yeah, because I'd just have him killed. I'm Lex Luthor. I just hire people to do my dirty work!

DW: Have the writers given you a full story of where Lex will go if the show does go on? Do you know when or how you will turn?

MR: No. I don't know exactly when it's going to happen, why it's going to happen, but there are going to be instances where you see his shift into the dark side. People will say, "Remember this--no wonder he's an asshole now, no wonder he's the evil genius!" I'll be the guy they love to hate or hate to love.