How ‘Smallville’ Changed Tom Welling Forever

Buzzfeed

Over the course of its 10-year run, Smallville — The WB, and later The CW, drama about a young Clark Kent — produced more than 200 emotion- and action-packed episodes. The series introduced the world to stars Tom Welling (who played Clark Kent), Kristin Kreuk (who played Lana Lang), Michael Rosenbaum (who played Lex Luthor), and Allison Mack (who played Chloe Sullivan). And it also served as early exposure for guest stars Amy Adams, Ian Somerhalder, Lizzy Caplan, Cory Monteith, Cobie Smulders, and Tyler Posey.

Welling, however, is the only actor to have appeared in every single episode of the show — a Herculean task given the grueling production that often included groundbreaking and, therefore, labor-intensive visual effects. But Welling’s job was made infinitely harder by the fact that it was also his first of that magnitude.