April 2003

Super Success

Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor)

TV Guide: What is next for Lex in the second season?

Michael Rosenbaum: They keep digging up Lex's past more and more. Last year they looked into it a little but this year they bring back Lex's brother, so it was interesting to bring that character on to the show. Lex has a relationship with this woman Helen, who's a doctor, but I'm sure there are some twists to come and obviously more deceit from his father.

TVG: How much of a challenge is it to keep your character on the borderline when we know he becomes evil later?

MR: I try to keep him as ambiguous as I can and when I get lines that could read evil I just throw them away. We still have three or four years hopefully with this show so we don't want things to happen too fast.

TVG: But do you feel Lex is already struggling with that dark side?

MR: He fights it every day. And I play it like I'm going to win. I play it like I'm going to be a good guy and that's what I keep fighting for every day when I memorize my lines. But basically he's a bald headed freak who lost his mother at a young age and has a screwed-up father so you also understand why he's going to go evil eventually.

TVG: What kind of reaction do you get from fans?

MR: I had no idea that people would embrace Lex because he's the bad guy. In the beginning the fans were like, "We don't know why Lex is even in Smallville" and I thought they hated me, but now people come up and say, "I hate you, man, because I hated Lex before and now you've made me like him. I'm freaking out!"

TVG: What do you do in your spare time?

MR:I play ice hockey and I bought this conversion van so I travel a bit, and sometimes go to Seattle for the weekend and haul all my friends in the van. I play guitar and I write too, so I've always got things going on. I don't sleep at night because my mind is always moving.

TVG: You and Michael Chiklis (The Shield) are living proof that bald can be good for a career, right?

MR: People used to say "Michael who"' and "Let's see him audition." Then I shave my head for this role and everything changes and suddenly these same people think I can act because I got a different hairstyle for every role now so they think I'm really versatile too.