August 2001

Villain Without a Cause

There's something deliciously diabolical about Lex Luthor. Richer than Bill Gates, smarter than Stephen Hawking, he is the perfect nemesis for Superman. What Supes has in brawn, Luthor has in brains... and he's bad to the bone.

Michael Rosenbaum wants to change that. The 29-year-old actor plays a young Luthor in Smallville, the WB's television take on the superhero's teenage years. In the series, Clark Kent is trying to keep his blossoming superpowers secret. Lex Luthor, forced to work in Kansas by his billionaire father, is intrigued by the hero. Rosenbaum's Lex is thoughtful, gentle -- not yet the wicked villain Superman fans love to hate. The actor is tapping into his own hometown upbringing for the role -- he grew up in Newburghh, Ind. (population: 3,000). Local boy made good, though: Rosenbaum has acted in skits on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and starred with Kevin Spacey in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

Here, Rosenbaum chats about Smallville and his take on his character.

Question: What's most interesting about Smallville?

Rosenbaum: There's so much to these characters; they're so complex. And this all takes place before they become what we all know they'll become -- the superhero, the arch-nemesis. That's the most interesting thing to me. I know where my character will get to, but how do I get there?

Q: Lex Luthor is evil, twisted, brilliant. Will we see that intelligence in your character?

A: Oh yeah. There's a kindness to him right now, but I think he's inadvertently manipulative. His brilliance really lies in his ability to make people feel comfortable. He's like a python: You don't know you're being squeezed until it's too late.

Lex has never had any friends; he has a father who is somewhat repulsed by him.... Lex is asking: "How do I outsmart my father? How do I beat him at his own game?" So he sits and he reads and he knows everything.

Q: You're playing someone who's supposed to become one of the smartest men on the planet. How do you do that, as an actor?

A: It's about believing every word you're saying. That's what it is. If you memorize the words and you just say them -- and you don't know what you're talking about -- you're going to come off fake. But if you say them as a throwaway, that's what makes it different.

I look at Lex as someone who comes up with these brilliant ideas, and just throws them away. When you harp on the words and enunciate the words, that's when people say: "OK. No one talks like that."

Q: Lex is a supervillain in comic books, the baddest of the bad. Is the Smallville Lex a villain?

A: I think of him as the antihero. Lex is really a judge of character. Everyone sees Clark on the outside as this goofy, insecure kid. But Lex sees something else; he sees something special in him.

Everyone sees him as the evil guy. But they don't know where he came from. I know they're just waiting for him to be evil, somehow. But I want people to embrace this character and say, "Wait a minute. I know he's going to be evil, but why am I drawn to him? Why is he so kind to Clark? Why do I trust him? Why do I think that he actually means well?"

If you know where someone comes from -- the humanity of the character -- you're more likely to identify with him. Lex has been through a lot. He has a father who has given him everything except the thing he's wanted the most: Love. Everyone needs love. I want people to see that side of the character.