Oct. 21, 2024

Tom Welling talks conventions, cats and creating characters in massive fandoms

Tom Welling talks conventions, cats and creating characters in massive fandoms

Join us for an exciting episode of KJ Today as we sit down with the talented Tom Welling, known for his iconic roles in Smallville, Supernatural, and Lucifer. And you better believe we talked cats too!  Tom shares insights about his latest film,...

Join us for an exciting episode of KJ Today as we sit down with the talented Tom Welling, known for his iconic roles in Smallville, Supernatural, and Lucifer. And you better believe we talked cats too! 

Tom shares insights about his latest film, Mafia Wars, which was shot in the beautiful city of Rome. He discusses the challenges and thrills of filming action scenes, as well as the depth of his character, Terry, who finds himself in a tough situation for the sake of his family.

We also dive into Tom's memorable experience working with the legendary Christopher Reeve and his journey through the Lucifer series, where he played the intriguing character Marcus, also known as the Sinner Man and Cain.

Plus, we touch on Tom's love for animals and his life on a horse ranch. Don't miss this engaging conversation filled with behind-the-scenes stories, inspiration, and a few laughs!

-------------------

Stay tuned for more celebrity interviews, positive vibes of pop culture, people to know, and pets on the KJ Today Show. Remember to like, rate, review, and subscribe to stay updated on all the latest episodes. Let's keep spreading positivity together! 🎉

🌟Become a patron and help KJ TODAY spread more positive vibes while getting behind the scenes fun and perks! https://kindanerdynetwork.com

Like to read up on the latest in pop culture? Check out Geek Vibes Nation where you'll find my celebrity interviews and pop culture news: https://geekvibesnation.com

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to Tom Welling

00:17 - Overview of Mafia Wars

02:11 - Preparing for action scenes

03:20 - Working with Christopher Reeve

05:41 - Insights on Lucifer

07:11 - Tom's love for animals and adventures with cats

Transcript
1
00:00:00,528 --> 00:00:03,791
Oh, are we geeking out today? Tom Welling, you

2
00:00:03,831 --> 00:00:07,253
know him from Smallville, Supernatural, and also

3
00:00:07,333 --> 00:00:10,735
Lucifer. And he's got a new movie out called Mafia Wars.

4
00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:20,682
Good morning. Welcome to the KJ Today show.

5
00:00:20,742 --> 00:00:23,895
Tom Welling. I

6
00:00:23,935 --> 00:00:27,278
have to tell you, we have this barrier because you can't see me right now,

7
00:00:27,358 --> 00:00:31,562
but we have worked together through Celeb

8
00:00:31,602 --> 00:00:35,064
Photo Ops for many years. I have been ushering fans in

9
00:00:35,125 --> 00:00:38,427
and out of your photo booth and giving them their photo

10
00:00:38,487 --> 00:00:41,670
opportunity to meet you. I had to wrap my brain around the

11
00:00:41,710 --> 00:00:45,233
fact that we could actually have a conversation today because we never have.

12
00:00:47,085 --> 00:00:50,227
There's no, there's no time. There's no time. Those photo ops

13
00:00:50,307 --> 00:00:53,670
are crazy. I mean, they're crazy fun, but they're crazy. Thank you.

14
00:00:53,690 --> 00:00:57,072
Um, you know, I can't do those photo ops without people

15
00:00:59,141 --> 00:01:02,444
Oh, yeah, it's so much fun, because I get to sit there

16
00:01:02,504 --> 00:01:06,607
and watch thousands of people have their most amazing moment meeting

17
00:01:06,647 --> 00:01:09,789
you. So thank you, because it's always a

18
00:01:09,829 --> 00:01:13,092
blast to work with you. And I'm a fan of your work

19
00:01:13,152 --> 00:01:16,274
as well. So let's start off, Tom, because today's a

20
00:01:16,294 --> 00:01:19,857
big day. It's kind of like a New Year's Eve

21
00:01:19,877 --> 00:01:23,159
or a Christmas Eve when you have a new project that's about to come out.

22
00:01:27,616 --> 00:01:31,479
Yeah, Mafia Wars, I'm really proud of this. You

23
00:01:31,499 --> 00:01:34,642
know, we shot in Rome. Scott, who directed and

24
00:01:34,682 --> 00:01:38,124
wrote it, with the first conversation I had with him, one of the first things he said was, I'm

25
00:01:38,144 --> 00:01:41,787
not doing this movie unless we shoot in Rome. And I was like,

26
00:01:42,548 --> 00:01:46,171
I'm in. Because it becomes a character of the film itself.

27
00:01:46,271 --> 00:01:49,593
And it was so magical to shoot there. It's

28
00:01:49,633 --> 00:01:53,797
really helpful as an actor to be on location

29
00:01:53,817 --> 00:01:57,220
when you're shooting and being immersed in it. And Terry is a guy who's He's

30
00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:01,123
a good guy who got caught for doing bad things. He's

31
00:02:01,203 --> 00:02:04,766
in a bad situation, but for good reasons. He's

32
00:02:04,786 --> 00:02:08,109
really trying to help his family. So it's an action film with

33
00:02:11,072 --> 00:02:15,574
What is it like for you when you're going into knowing

34
00:02:15,614 --> 00:02:18,955
there's going to be a lot of action? You obviously have

35
00:02:18,975 --> 00:02:22,717
a lot of depth to your character with it being a good guy in

36
00:02:22,737 --> 00:02:25,878
a bad situation, but did you have to prepare a little bit

37
00:02:25,938 --> 00:02:29,320
differently to know you were going to be doing so much action in this film?

38
00:02:33,022 --> 00:02:36,951
I love the action. Those are my favorite days

39
00:02:36,971 --> 00:02:40,431
is when we have action. Because we're on a tight schedule

40
00:02:40,451 --> 00:02:44,272
and it was a very challenging shoot. And actually, I want to give some props to

41
00:02:45,833 --> 00:02:49,174
the director because he really navigated day to day and moment to

42
00:02:49,194 --> 00:02:52,635
moment, sort of all the challenging things we had going for us. But a lot of the action

43
00:02:52,675 --> 00:02:58,236
we had, we had like maybe five, 10 minutes to get ready for. And

44
00:02:58,596 --> 00:03:01,737
thankfully, Cam, who plays the psychopath in the film, who is great to

45
00:03:01,777 --> 00:03:04,846
work with, it came to him very easily as well. So

46
00:03:04,926 --> 00:03:08,889
we were able to kind of figure it out quickly based on

47
00:03:08,929 --> 00:03:12,131
both of our experiences. So listen, it would have been nice

48
00:03:12,151 --> 00:03:15,813
to have like a John Wick six months getting ready for all the action, but

49
00:03:20,104 --> 00:03:23,226
Mafia Wars is the new movie. It is available on

50
00:03:23,286 --> 00:03:26,449
digital and on demand October 11th,

51
00:03:26,489 --> 00:03:29,811
which is tomorrow. Tom, I always like

52
00:03:29,851 --> 00:03:33,213
to go to our fans here

53
00:03:33,453 --> 00:03:37,456
and there are, it's so interesting. You've

54
00:03:37,496 --> 00:03:42,179
been a part of two really big fandoms between Superman,

55
00:03:42,219 --> 00:03:45,682
Smallville, and then with Lucifer. So I

56
00:03:45,882 --> 00:03:49,264
do wanna start off Devin asked me

57
00:03:49,284 --> 00:03:52,645
to bring up, and I had forgotten about this. You had

58
00:03:52,685 --> 00:03:56,187
this amazing moment through Smallville where

59
00:03:56,327 --> 00:04:00,209
you got to work with Christopher Reeve. And we've got the Superman Christopher

60
00:04:00,249 --> 00:04:03,690
Reeve story out now. Would you be willing to

61
00:04:06,251 --> 00:04:09,353
Absolutely. It was one

62
00:04:09,373 --> 00:04:12,494
of the most wonderful things I've ever experienced. I mean, we flew to New

63
00:04:12,514 --> 00:04:15,695
York from Vancouver to work with him. And he was only supposed to

64
00:04:15,715 --> 00:04:19,268
be there for about two or three hours. because we were going to shoot all

65
00:04:19,308 --> 00:04:22,349
his dialogue and then we were going to, you know, he was going to leave and then we

66
00:04:22,369 --> 00:04:25,670
would shoot all my dialogue and he wouldn't leave. And to be

67
00:04:25,690 --> 00:04:29,270
honest, it got to the point, I think six and a half hours in, his nurse said

68
00:04:29,330 --> 00:04:32,411
to him, if you don't come with me right now, I'm going to call the

69
00:04:32,451 --> 00:04:35,712
police because she had probably the attorney over him or more or

70
00:04:35,752 --> 00:04:39,513
less. And he just sort of laughed and he looked at me and he said, they're

71
00:04:39,533 --> 00:04:42,743
always telling me what to do. Like, he was so funny, and he didn't

72
00:04:42,763 --> 00:04:45,924
let you feel sorry for him. It was very inspirational, is what

73
00:04:45,964 --> 00:04:49,486
I take it. And every time I think about it, I get I get the chills because, you

74
00:04:49,506 --> 00:04:53,408
know, it was really, it just, it really,

75
00:04:58,610 --> 00:05:01,911
So are you telling me originally, you didn't think you were actually going to be

76
00:05:06,373 --> 00:05:09,475
Oh, no, I'm sorry. I knew I was going to be in the room with him. I knew I was going to do

77
00:05:10,153 --> 00:05:13,494
the dialogue with him. It's just the way you shoot a scene. One

78
00:05:13,514 --> 00:05:16,635
person's on one side, one person's on the other. And we were told we

79
00:05:16,675 --> 00:05:19,977
only had three hours with him. So we were going to film his side

80
00:05:22,198 --> 00:05:26,099
That's amazing. Have you had a chance? I know you're busy doing

81
00:05:26,159 --> 00:05:29,640
all of your press for the new movie, but have you had a chance to

82
00:05:33,422 --> 00:05:36,723
I have not. And I mean to see it very soon because

83
00:05:37,207 --> 00:05:40,308
I think, again, I'm going to come away with even more inspiration, I believe it.

84
00:05:41,809 --> 00:05:45,050
All right, moving over to Lucifer. Shannon is

85
00:05:45,090 --> 00:05:48,751
a huge fan, and she wanted me to ask you, Tom, did you know from

86
00:05:48,791 --> 00:05:52,813
the beginning that your character Marcus would be revealed as

87
00:05:52,893 --> 00:05:56,934
the Sinner Man and then also be Cain?

88
00:05:56,954 --> 00:06:00,155
It's a good question, and

89
00:06:00,195 --> 00:06:04,014
I also want to add a third to what you said. You said Superman,

90
00:06:04,034 --> 00:06:07,296
Lucifer. I'm also part of the supernatural world because I

91
00:06:10,139 --> 00:06:13,541
Yeah. And but to

92
00:06:13,561 --> 00:06:17,064
the question, the answer is no, because

93
00:06:17,084 --> 00:06:20,627
what I did is I met with I've met with the creators and

94
00:06:20,667 --> 00:06:24,310
they started telling me about the character. We got as far as Sinner Man and

95
00:06:24,330 --> 00:06:28,313
he and literally he said, you want to know more? And I said, you know what? I don't. And

96
00:06:28,353 --> 00:06:32,416
so when he turns into Kane, I didn't know that even the first day of shooting. I

97
00:06:32,496 --> 00:06:36,457
just played it as the Sinner Man. And so I was able to, because sometimes, I

98
00:06:36,497 --> 00:06:40,219
mean, for me as an actor, sometimes you don't, you want the information you

99
00:06:40,259 --> 00:06:43,700
need to be utilizing right now.

100
00:06:45,500 --> 00:06:48,701
You know, unless you really need to know, if you know what

101
00:06:48,721 --> 00:06:51,982
I mean. But we were both on the same page about,

102
00:06:52,682 --> 00:06:55,883
let's just figure out the Sinner Man, and then we move forward through there. So that's just

103
00:06:55,923 --> 00:06:59,144
a little thing that I do. It's sort of like with Smallville, I didn't

104
00:06:59,224 --> 00:07:02,760
play him that he knew he was gonna be Superman. You know, he

105
00:07:02,780 --> 00:07:07,149
doesn't know that information. So all that stuff that ended up happening was

106
00:07:11,274 --> 00:07:14,775
All right, and I cannot let you go, Tom, without bringing

107
00:07:14,875 --> 00:07:18,236
up the fact that Nikki, who's listening right

108
00:07:18,276 --> 00:07:21,357
now, put it on my radar that your wife is a

109
00:07:21,497 --> 00:07:24,938
huge animal lover. I'm the kitty correspondent for

110
00:07:24,998 --> 00:07:29,279
Pet Pals TV as well. So we got to talk about these pets. It's

111
00:07:34,741 --> 00:07:37,822
We did. They both disappeared in the

112
00:07:37,862 --> 00:07:42,621
last six months. They were outdoor cats that we loved. Yeah,

113
00:07:42,681 --> 00:07:45,883
I know. It's sad. It's sad. But I guess I never

114
00:07:45,923 --> 00:07:49,165
had cats before. And when I talk to people who've had cats, they're

115
00:07:49,205 --> 00:07:52,387
like, that's the cat life. You know, it's like, and we

116
00:07:52,427 --> 00:07:56,029
live on a horse ranch in the middle of nowhere. So we've, we've got, we've

117
00:07:56,049 --> 00:07:59,271
got coyotes and owls and eagles and

118
00:07:59,391 --> 00:08:02,774
hawks. So, you know, it's a, it's tough being an outdoor

119
00:08:04,367 --> 00:08:08,230
It is, but like you said, that's the life and respecting that.

120
00:08:08,811 --> 00:08:12,073
Some cats want to be, it's what we call working cats, right? They

121
00:08:12,113 --> 00:08:15,236
want to be outside. They don't want to be trapped under the roof. They want to

122
00:08:15,276 --> 00:08:19,099
be doing that job for you.

123
00:08:19,119 --> 00:08:22,742
I'll tell you a quick story. One

124
00:08:22,782 --> 00:08:26,024
of the cats we had, his name was Biggie. My son named

125
00:08:26,064 --> 00:08:29,527
him Biggie when we got him. And he was sort of like

126
00:08:29,747 --> 00:08:33,113
the hunter. And I remember a couple of months in, we started thinking,

127
00:08:33,333 --> 00:08:36,756
oh, what if they wander? And I put a collar on him that had a little bell

128
00:08:36,837 --> 00:08:41,021
on it. And he looked at me like, bro, you

129
00:08:41,121 --> 00:08:44,464
are totally screwed on my vibe here. I'm a hunter. I'm not

130
00:08:44,484 --> 00:08:47,827
going to catch anything. And I remember him looking at me like that. And I was like, all

131
00:08:53,219 --> 00:08:56,683
Tom, I wish we had a little more time together, but

132
00:08:57,323 --> 00:09:00,867
it's been wonderful to have more time than we usually have in photo ops.

133
00:09:01,548 --> 00:09:04,731
Yeah, my pleasure. I'll see you down

134
00:09:05,775 --> 00:09:09,538
Thanks for joining me for another celebrity interview. KJ Today,

135
00:09:09,598 --> 00:09:12,720
where you'll find the positive vibes of pop culture, people to

136
00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:16,062
know, and pets. If you like this interview, please make sure

137
00:09:16,142 --> 00:09:19,504
you give it a like, rate, review, and subscribe, and join

138
00:09:19,584 --> 00:09:23,447
us on YouTube the first Wednesday of every month for

139
00:09:23,487 --> 00:09:26,669
the full KJ Today show, where we play trivia, bring you

140
00:09:26,709 --> 00:09:30,271
more celebrity guests, and even a pet of the week to keep you feeling