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

Oh, are we geeking out today? Tom Welling, you know him from Smallville, Supernatural, and also Lucifer. And he's got a new movie out called Mafia Wars.

Good morning. Welcome to the KJ Today show. Tom Welling. I have to tell you, we have this barrier because you can't see me right now, but we have worked together through Celeb Photo Ops for many years. I have been ushering fans in and out of your photo booth and giving them their photo opportunity to meet you. I had to wrap my brain around the fact that we could actually have a conversation today because we never have. There's no, there's no time. There's no time. Those photo ops

are crazy. I mean, they're crazy fun, but they're crazy. Thank you. Um, you know, I can't do those photo ops without people Oh, yeah, it's so much fun, because I get to sit there and watch thousands of people have their most amazing moment meeting you. So thank you, because it's always a blast to work with you. And I'm a fan of your work as well. So let's start off, Tom, because today's a

big day. It's kind of like a New Year's Eve or a Christmas Eve when you have a new project that's about to come out. Yeah, Mafia Wars, I'm really proud of this. You know, we shot in Rome. Scott, who directed and wrote it, with the first conversation I had with him, one of the first things he said was, I'm not doing this movie unless we shoot in Rome. And I was like, I'm in. Because it becomes a character of the film itself.

And it was so magical to shoot there. It's really helpful as an actor to be on location when you're shooting and being immersed in it. And Terry is a guy who's He's a good guy who got caught for doing bad things. He's in a bad situation, but for good reasons. He's really trying to help his family. So it's an action film with

What is it like for you when you're going into knowing there's going to be a lot of action? You obviously have a lot of depth to your character with it being a good guy in a bad situation, but did you have to prepare a little bit differently to know you were going to be doing so much action in this film? I love the action. Those are my favorite days is when we have action. Because we're on a tight schedule

and it was a very challenging shoot. And actually, I want to give some props to the director because he really navigated day to day and moment to moment, sort of all the challenging things we had going for us. But a lot of the action we had, we had like maybe five, 10 minutes to get ready for. And thankfully, Cam, who plays the psychopath in the film, who is great to work with, it came to him very easily as well. So we were able to kind of figure it out quickly based on

both of our experiences. So listen, it would have been nice to have like a John Wick six months getting ready for all the action, but

Mafia Wars is the new movie. It is available on digital and on demand October 11th, which is tomorrow. Tom, I always like to go to our fans here and there are, it's so interesting. You've been a part of two really big fandoms between Superman, Smallville, and then with Lucifer. So I do wanna start off Devin asked me to bring up, and I had forgotten about this. You had this amazing moment through Smallville where you got to work with Christopher Reeve. And we've got the Superman Christopher

Reeve story out now. Would you be willing to Absolutely. It was one of the most wonderful things I've ever experienced. I mean, we flew to New York from Vancouver to work with him. And he was only supposed to be there for about two or three hours. because we were going to shoot all his dialogue and then we were going to, you know, he was going to leave and then we

would shoot all my dialogue and he wouldn't leave. And to be honest, it got to the point, I think six and a half hours in, his nurse said to him, if you don't come with me right now, I'm going to call the police because she had probably the attorney over him or more or less. And he just sort of laughed and he looked at me and he said, they're always telling me what to do. Like, he was so funny, and he didn't let you feel sorry for him. It was very inspirational, is what

I take it. And every time I think about it, I get I get the chills because, you know, it was really, it just, it really, So are you telling me originally, you didn't think you were actually going to be Oh, no, I'm sorry. I knew I was going to be in the room with him. I knew I was going to do the dialogue with him. It's just the way you shoot a scene. One person's on one side, one person's on the other. And we were told we only had three hours with him. So we were going to film his side

That's amazing. Have you had a chance? I know you're busy doing all of your press for the new movie, but have you had a chance to I have not. And I mean to see it very soon because I think, again, I'm going to come away with even more inspiration, I believe it.

All right, moving over to Lucifer. Shannon is a huge fan, and she wanted me to ask you, Tom, did you know from the beginning that your character Marcus would be revealed as the Sinner Man and then also be Cain? It's a good question, and I also want to add a third to what you said. You said Superman, Lucifer. I'm also part of the supernatural world because I Yeah. And but to the question, the answer is no, because what I did is I met with I've met with the creators and

they started telling me about the character. We got as far as Sinner Man and he and literally he said, you want to know more? And I said, you know what? I don't. And so when he turns into Kane, I didn't know that even the first day of shooting. I just played it as the Sinner Man. And so I was able to, because sometimes, I mean, for me as an actor, sometimes you don't, you want the information you need to be utilizing right now. You know, unless you really need to know, if you know what

I mean. But we were both on the same page about, let's just figure out the Sinner Man, and then we move forward through there. So that's just a little thing that I do. It's sort of like with Smallville, I didn't play him that he knew he was gonna be Superman. You know, he doesn't know that information. So all that stuff that ended up happening was

All right, and I cannot let you go, Tom, without bringing up the fact that Nikki, who's listening right now, put it on my radar that your wife is a huge animal lover. I'm the kitty correspondent for Pet Pals TV as well. So we got to talk about these pets. It's We did. They both disappeared in the last six months. They were outdoor cats that we loved. Yeah, I know. It's sad. It's sad. But I guess I never had cats before. And when I talk to people who've had cats, they're

like, that's the cat life. You know, it's like, and we live on a horse ranch in the middle of nowhere. So we've, we've got, we've got coyotes and owls and eagles and hawks. So, you know, it's a, it's tough being an outdoor It is, but like you said, that's the life and respecting that. Some cats want to be, it's what we call working cats, right? They want to be outside. They don't want to be trapped under the roof. They want to be doing that job for you. I'll tell you a quick story. One

of the cats we had, his name was Biggie. My son named him Biggie when we got him. And he was sort of like the hunter. And I remember a couple of months in, we started thinking, oh, what if they wander? And I put a collar on him that had a little bell on it. And he looked at me like, bro, you are totally screwed on my vibe here. I'm a hunter. I'm not

going to catch anything. And I remember him looking at me like that. And I was like, all Tom, I wish we had a little more time together, but it's been wonderful to have more time than we usually have in photo ops. Yeah, my pleasure. I'll see you down Thanks for joining me for another celebrity interview. KJ Today, where you'll find the positive vibes of pop culture, people to

know, and pets. If you like this interview, please make sure you give it a like, rate, review, and subscribe, and join us on YouTube the first Wednesday of every month for the full KJ Today show, where we play trivia, bring you more celebrity guests, and even a pet of the week to keep you feeling