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Isn't Tom Welling too old to play Clark Kent in Smallville?

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  • Isn't Tom Welling too old to play Clark Kent in Smallville?

    In season 1 of Smallville, he's supposed to be a 14 year old kid, even though the act is like 24! He also looks in his mid 20's! He doesn't even look like a teenager, nor does he do a good job of playing a teenager. Honestly, when watching Smallville season 1, I never really bought him being a teenager. I just couldn't really believe it. He's obviously not one! I could maybe buy it if he was supposed to be 18 or 19, but not 14! Does anyone else think he's just too old? Why they did cast a fully grow man to act as a highschool kid? I just don't get it..

  • #2
    Older actors are routinely cast as teenagers due to child labor laws, which prohibit minors from working full-time. In the case of Superman, he's a sort of Hercules figure, so they could use that as an excuse to cheat the age factor a little. I was surprised though, to learn Welling was 24 when the show started; he looked around 19 or 20 to me.

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    • #3
      In hindsight, they probably should've started with Clark, Chloe, Pete and Lana being 16-17 years old. It would've made the characters closer to the actors real ages (KK and AM were both 19 in 2001. And Sam Jones was 18). And would've made stuff like Lana being the head cheerleader and Chloe the editor of the school newspaper, etc. more realistic.

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      • #4
        Sam Jones looked ridiculously younger in the first year, compared to Seasons 2 & 3; not sure why. By contrast, Michael Rosenbaum looked older in some first-season episodes, than he did later on; its a little puzzling. Kristin Kreuk and Allison Mack were the only younger actors that remained fairly consistent in their appearance.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by jon-el87
          In hindsight, they probably should've started with Clark, Chloe, Pete and Lana being 16-17 years old. It would've made the characters closer to the actors real ages (KK and AM were both 19 in 2001. And Sam Jones was 18). And would've made stuff like Lana being the head cheerleader and Chloe the editor of the school newspaper, etc. more realistic.
          Agreed.

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          • #6
            They probably hired older actors so that they could sexualize their characters to their hearts' content. Look at Nicodemus or Spell. Could they have gotten away with that if the actors' age matched that of their characters? Who would have wanted to perv on a shirtless 14-year-old Clark hahging on a cross if the actor was actually 14?

            Yuck.

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            • #7
              Yeah, that aspect of the show bothered me most of the time. To be honest though, what got on my nerves the most about the "crucified Clark" idea was the promotional image being shown everywhere, for what seemed like an eternity. I get why they chose that campaign, since the character's often been seen as a Messiah archetype...but I still think they pushed it too far sometimes. That was nothing though, compared to having Clark actually join the "shack-up club" in Season 5; I was on Jonathan's side in that discussion. Too often, writers and executives want to make these characters more "relatable" by bringing them down to our level...but my main question has long been where to draw the line. At what point do we instead write everyone else to be more noble, since Superman (and thus Clark by association) is supposed to inspire people? The whole "soap opera" factor was my biggest overall complaint about the show, and I'm glad they tabled it somewhat later on.

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              • #8
                The other aspect of the crucifixion thing that bugs me is how little the town seemed to care that one of their "traditions" were harmful and stuff. I mean, there is a reason why so many people died so easily while hanging from the cross in the past. I find it hard to believe that Jeremy Creek was the only one severely hospitalized from it....
                Whitney and the others should've been jailed for doing that kind of ****.

                They were so focused on making it clear that Clark was the Messiah and stuff that they didn't stop to think about how the viewer would see Smallville as a very ****ed-up place to raise somebody like Clark.

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                • #9
                  Well, Clark and Jeremy weren't in nearly as much danger as actual crucifixion victims. Asphyxiation was usually the cause of death in that form of execution, since people had to push themselves up on the nails in their feet to breathe. Aside from the Kryptonite necklace and Jeremy being struck by a meteor, the risk of death was virtually nonexistent. I always got the idea that if Lex hadn't come for him, Whitney and the other jocks would've taken Clark down the next morning.

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                  • #10
                    considering how cold it could get at night in Kansas during October, and considering the fact that they stripped a scarecrow victim of most their clothes.... scarecrow victims could easily die from frostbite or something if they were left there overnight.

                    Whitney is just lucky he picked Clark and not some random normal guy otherwise I'm sure he would had been charged with murder.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by moviefan2k4
                      Older actors are routinely cast as teenagers due to child labor laws, which prohibit minors from working full-time. In the case of Superman, he's a sort of Hercules figure, so they could use that as an excuse to cheat the age factor a little. I was surprised though, to learn Welling was 24 when the show started; he looked around 19 or 20 to me.


                      ….. I get the laws but they didn’t have to use 24+ ages for a 14 year old kid. Could’ve used an 18-20 yr old so they would actually look that young. It’s stupid

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