Smallville 5.7 Splinter DVD Commentary (W/ James )

[Spaced Out Looney]

Smallville 5.7 Splinter DVD Commentary (W/ James Marsters)

Transcript originally written up by the lovely deborahw37. I've just copied it for easy reference.

Be sure to inform her if you with to copy it or provide the links anywhere else.

Her original posts are here:
*Part 1
*Part 2
*Part 3
*Part 4
*Part 5
*Part 6

[Spaced Out Looney]

Part 1

Steven S De Knight (SdK) James Marsters (JM) and James Marshall (JMs)



JMs: Hello I’m James Marshall, I’m Co-executive producer and the director of this episode.

SdK: I’m Steve De Knight, I’m Co-executive producer and the writer of this episode.

JM: I’m James Marsters, I play Milton Fine.

SdK: James, you and I worked way back when, in fact one of us is stalking the other .

JM: (Giggles)

SdK: … because this is the third show we’ve worked on together, the third series.

JM: I thought you put in a good word for me man…

SdK : Of course, I always put in a good word for you.

JM: You could have played that! I would have thought that I owed you a favour. (giggles)

SdK : (Laughs) And I might add this is the third series that has gone past a hundred episodes, I think it’s because of you and me!

JM: Yeah I think it is!

SdK: We’re like rabbits feet.

JM: (laughs) I think.. We’re just that little extra nudge of quality…

SdK: We certainly are

JM: That takes a good show and makes it great!

SdK: So, this episode is “ Splinter”, the way we came about this episode in the writer’s room is (um) you know, we always love a good personality change, it’s our old standby, but we wanted to do something a little different and also work in Fine into this episode, and we came up with silver Kryptonite, which basically turns Clark paranoid, and here the mysterious package comes in, Clark picks it up, he pricks his finger, very unusual for Superman, and that starts off the story.

JMs: I remember the whole silver Kryptonite thing, well how can it penetrate him? And erm, we always fall back on, “Well it’s Kryptonite” that always gets us through.

SdK: This next scene coming up, I had a friend who’s recently been hired on this show and she was watching all of these episodes back to back and one thing she commented on and James, I attributed this to you Marshall was that we do the best car wrecks on television

JMs (laughs)

SdK: And I totally agree.

JMs: This wreck that’s coming up. I remember the stunt coordinator and the effects guys said “How many times do you want the truck to roll?” and I said “four, I think four would be good” and erm you know you get into it and you have to find a road that doesn’t have ditches and telephone poles and that allow you to do it and that’s not necessarily easy. We did find a road, it had one very large ditch on one side.

(car swerves)

SdK: That was a great shot right there Marshall, coming around the corner.

JMs: I loved doing action, it was a lot of fun.

(The black truck starts to force Clark off the road)

JMs: We got some great weather for this gag as well.

SdK: I think this is one of the best car wrecks I’ve seen on the show.

Jms: We shot a lot of this off with an insert car, which is a truck where you put your cameras on it and it and sort of a shooting platform (Clark’s truck rolls ) There it is, and they rolled it four times and they put it within six feet, we put a dollar on the ground and we put t within six feet of where they said it would stop

SdK + JM agree in the background that this is amazing

SdK: So that rolled four times because of the different camera set ups?

JMs: It rolled four times and we had like seven different cameras on it

SdK: It looks like it rolls twelve times! Awesome!

JMs: Yeah, and we put the um, we had one camera on the back of the insert car and we were following it when it exploded and that was, ah, I think that I actually stopped breathing the whole time, a car exploding behind you! And we were sort of decelerating a little bit too because we didn’t want to outstrip the car, we thought it would slow down, so we’ll just lay off the gas a little bit, but it didn’t look like it slowed down at all, it was coming right on us.

(All laugh)

Opening Credits Roll.

SdK: Now there was a moment there where Clark looks at his finger and he sees a little cut, um, originally in the script there’s this big visual effect, where you zoom in to the cut and you see the sliver of Kryptonite burrowing into his skin, um, we actually cut that for two reasons, one, the always big reason! Budget. And two, we thought it might give away a little bit too much, that he was under the influence of this Kryptonite.

JMs: Yeah it would tattle tail it and actually in the case of whether it’s finances or not I always thought that that played better

SdK; Oh so do I. I know it’s much better

JMs : Not just seeing the cut and letting it play

SdK : Yeah just that little cut was all you really needed. We also at the end of that sequence had originally planned “I know who you are” was going to be in fiery letters on the road

JMs : That’s right, that’s right

SdK: I think we simplified that.

JMs: Yeah that’s right and it became the telephone call.

James Marster’s Credit rolls on screen :

I’d have to say that, James, Your addition and what you brought to it totally elevated our series, it was just a pleasure having you on board, I know you and Steve have worked together three times, I hope I get another kick at the can.

JM: (quietly) Right on

SdK: You do, James has always been one of my favourite people to work with as a writer and as a director and ( laughs) James was with me back in the old days of Angel when we went through one very hellacious episode (JM chuckles) when I’ve never on a…

JM: No!!!

SdK : … constant basis been yelled at so many times.

JM: That was one of my favourite experiences on that entire season and man that was a hard season but no! I thought that we were like sluggin’ out through it. I thought that you and I were like in the ditch trying to dig ourselves out and figuring out that you can’t dig yourself out of a hole.

(much giggling)

SdK: No , but we got into an episode and figured out that we had devised a way to shoot an episode that would double the set ups needed for television.

JM: Yeah, yeah.

SdK: And we did it. Well I didn’t do it I stood on a tape , but you did it.

JM: Yeah and I took a beating every day for it.

SdK: Yeah, you really did… it was a great episode.

Lecture Room scene.

JM: This is a great classroom.

JMs : Remember this classroom, it looks great but it was a bear to shoot, there was no place to put lights and there was no real way to do a block.

JM: It had some nice circles.

JMs : And then James had that great idea.

JM: And I got the only good background in the whole room, I got a great background behind me and everyone else got the same circle.

JMs: (laughs).

JM: and a little tiny UN thing. I felt like Sean Penn (I don’t look like Sean Penn) I was kinda thinking that maybe Nicole Kidman would stop by.

SdK: The set definitely looks great.

JM: Yeah.

JMs: I think Berry Dunleavy (sp?) was the Director, uh, the DP, the cinematographer on the show and he did an awesome job.

SdK: Really outstanding.

[Spaced Out Looney]

Part 2

Steven S De Knight ( SdK) James Marsters (JM ) and James Marshall (JMs)





JMs: That scene with Allison Mack there, I think that she has just ripped it up this year

SdK: She’s been amazing

JMs: She, everything about her this year she really ah, she’s always been terrific but this year she just stretched and um I think she had just a terrific year

SdK: She really did ….The music here is also really fantastic, it’s got that old kind of Bernard Hermann kind of feel, really adds to it.

JM: Allison too is a really, I’ve never shot a scene with her but I always run into her on the set and she’s always got this same kind of energy.

SdK: Yep.

JM: You know which I have to know because the hours are long and somewhat upfront but it’s such a good set and it really helps to have fun.

JMs: I think she’s been acting since, I think she was three years old and wonderful to bring that kind of craft and just great enthusiasm.

SdK: I think for the writing side it was great to bring in a villain that could one up Lex. Um, early on, with their first run ins there was a scene with them around a pool table where Marsters runs the table on him and basically throws his game back in his face. And you get the feeling that this is the one guy that can beat Lex at his own game, which was great cos it also brings up Lex’s game, and it’s always good to have a foil that powerful.

JM: Yeah, but I think it’s really important that Lex remains that he is the villain of this story

SdK: Absolutely right!

JM: And that is the, that’s the relationship that will have resonance for the lead er a robot is not gonna get you, you know in a way I think that it imperils Lex in a nice way… Continues speaking behind SdK (I think I become a new, a villain)

SdK: Absolutely. I think especially as you work towards the end of the season and find out just how much of a threat Brainiac becomes to Lex becomes more apparent.

JM: Yeah, and you know I didn’t know what I was doing to Lex (laughs) no one told me until I was actually injecting his arm with the serum (all laugh) and then Mike says “oh, you know what you’re doing to me?” and then he explained it all and I’m like oh “*that’s* what I’ve been doing for the past three episodes”

SdK: *that’s* what you’ve been doing, yes.

SdK: This was actually one of my favourite scenes to write (JK and LL in the barn) and I thought everybody did a great job, John Schneider, John Glover, and of course the amazing James Marshall on tuning it.

JM: I had a conversation with Glover and it turns out we knew a lot of the same people back in New York in theatre, except I all hated them because they were my teachers and they were his good friends and we just saw them in a completely different light, and I realized that I had a rather infantile perspective

(laughs) “She was mean to me in school”.

SdK: One of the reasons for this scene is that with paranoid Clark we really want to hit on his worst fears, and erm, being turned over to Lionel Luthor was always a big one and we also hit something else here is his deep seated feeling that, as much as he loves his parents that he is different, that he s the alien. And it’s that adopted child syndrome where even though you love your parents you still feel like you’re not a part of them, and this is really for me where the intense paranoia starts in the episode.

JMs: Tom had a lot of ideas, he did a lot of script analysis and came very well prepared for what he wanted to do with this particular role and I thought that he, that it, was very, very good it was very nuanced he, it was a nice, proper, slow build to it, and when you shoot out of sequence sometimes that’s difficult, you know sometimes you’re shooting scene twenty eight before you’ve thought about scene four and he did a lot of homework and tracked it very well.

SdK: And it really shows, I think it’s some of Tom’s best work.

JM: I was watching that scene where he had Lana up against the wall and he was choking her out and I just thought that that was such good acting man, so specific moment to moment and just letting you in on what his problem , his brain process is and how the paranoid brain process was working and it was so clear. Tom's GOOD! And you know he’s playing and you know he admits this, he’s playing a character who is not intellectually based, he says “ I am based in the heart”, well not *I* am, not Tom but Clark and it would be so easy to bland that out and erm not… but he approaches it, a character that’s not intellectual, in an intellectual way.

JMs: And also he’s not an adult and so a lot of it he’s still coming of age,

JM: well that’s the whole..

JMs: So a lot of times that’s how he approaches things in that way and that’s also something you constantly have to remind yourself of you know.

JM: That’s what I really like about the whole series (erm what’s that?)

JMs: oh no no, but he’s like 19 yeah….. Oh, this is our sixty foot spaceship.

SdK : What was that actually built out of?

JMs: It’s built out of aluminum and I remember the first time we talked about it “yeah we need a spaceship” , well it was like “Well how big should the spaceship be?” “Well I think it should be sixty feet” Like “we’re going to build a sixty feet spaceship?” “yup” and then Robbie Mayer and his department and the art department came up with this. It’s built out of aluminum and then the underside is all tube framed and it comes apart in sections and has to be hauled on the back of trailers, so wherever we take that spaceship, whenever anybody sees it, it’s like a circus act! (laughter) It’s like a spaceship going down the road and then you’re driving along and like “oh! There goes a spaceship!”

SdK : Here come the freaks. Well I think you got the size just right!

JMs: Yeah I love it.

JM: I couldn’t believe it was metal, that was just amazing. I really thought it was painted wood and I was like “that’s a great paint job” And then I went and touched it.

JMs : We did a ride, I took my ten year old and six year old nephews I said “ Hey I heard a spaceship crashed out and landed, you guy’s wanna go look for it?” So we took em out and we found this spaceship out in the middle of a field and it was like how often do you get to do something like that? See their eyes... it was precious!

SdK (laughs) they’ll be in therapy for years! First it was Santa Claus now it’s a space ship!

JMs : Amd this now Tom here when he breaks the table, you know a lot of times when we ask ( Clark hits Martha)

SdK : That’s a great scene

JM: Never hit Annette O Toole, Never, NEVER! hit Annette O Toole!!

JMs : I know… you know just breaking a table like that we bring Tom in and say “ now Tom, hit this as hard as you can” “ how do I know its gonna break?” "ah, we promise” and you know, a lot of times you know, even balsa wood, it can hurt.. and Tom hit that particular table and we did the take and I looked up and said “ ahh I don’t think there’ll be a take two” (all laugh) and that one I think ah I think that one stung a little bit.

[Spaced Out Looney]

Part 3

Steven S De Knight (SdK) James Marsters (JM) and James Marshall (JMs)

In this part, why JM thinks MR is a good ride and worth a bit of soreness



SdK: John Schneider just had a line where he says (that’s a cool great shot there by the way, that really worked well) There was a line where John Schneider says “you want the truth? You’re not my son, you’re just a thing I found in a cornfield” and we’d gone round and round about possibly taking that out but I thought that really got to the heart of what Clark fears that other people think about him… that he's just this thing.

JM: Yeah I love that line

SdK: That he’s not human.

JM: That he’s not human yeah.

JM: What I really like about the way this show’s set up and you guys may have talked about this in last year’s DVD is like when you write about Superman how do you get him vulnerable enough to have an adventure? And you can use Kryptonite and you do, but what’s also interesting is to have the character not yet be himself, to not yet be grown up and therefore vulnerable and I just think that’s brilliant

JMs : Right, there’s often a lot of emotional vulnerability in the character, just like any kid growing up.

JM: And he’s also open to getting his mind messed with by jerks like me

JMs: Right: He has a handicap. You know he’s not from around there, he’s an outsider so he gets into, you know, levels of acceptance, and this episode lays to that ‘tude you know he’s not from round there, it’s his fears and right here he wants to leave and just get away.

It’s always funny when you’re blocking a scene and you have a bunch of ideas when you come in as a director and then of course you start blocking it and you know Tom had all these wonderful ideas and I think it just fell together so perfectly, like basically in two shots.

SdK: Really great, I love that slightly sweaty look that he’s starting to get here.

JMs : Yeah

SdK: Starting with the writing side the plan was obviously to reveal him at the end of the first episode as “and now here’s the villain”. And it was great having James Marsters cos you know a lot of the fans immediately recognized him from the Buffy Angel days. We were trying to set him up as Clark’s friend, his confidante, his mentor, in a way, all leading to the fact that it was one big chess game to get Clark to release Zod from The Fortress, so almost all of their interaction is geared towards that, him gaining Clark’s confidence. And it’s really not until the episode after this one “Solitude” that they really come to blows where everything’s out on the table.

JM: Yeah I was kind of hoping that while the audience is watching it, yeah ,knowing that there’ll be a full week in between these episodes that I might be able to fool them into trusting me. Even though they’ve seen things that lead them to believe that I’m not trustable. That if I can be sincere enough in the scene that, for that time at least, they’ll believe me and then when they’re reminded

JMs: Like right here

JM: that I’ve been betraying them they’ll feel like they’ve been personally betrayed.

JMs: Yeah this is him right here.

JM: “I’m so disappointed in him, I expected so much more of you Clark”

JMs : yeah

JM: (chuckles) It’s actually really fun to play betraying people, It’s Richard The Third “I’m gonna get these guys you just watch”

SdK: That was a very nice camera move there.

JMs: Well, sometimes things come out of necessity, we were behind and James and Tom and we all decided we wanted to try to make it all work in one shot, which allowed for performance as well, where it was like you know, we could build a rhythm and that one rhythm is what’s going to stay in the show and so, and I know James also worked with Tom you know and it was a very collaborative effort that scene and I’m very proud of that one particular scene.

SdK: That scene is great and it really highlights Tom’s acting and you also start to see him do the thing with his hands that you don’t often see.

JMs: That he never does. And when we did that James was a big part of helping Tom, that scene was sort of built one step at a time and everybody’s… it just got better and better and finally I think that was like take twelve and we went home.

JM: Yeah Tom’s really uh, you can rely on him you know when you start the take it’s gonna go to completion and that is such a good feeling, as an actor, just to know that when action gets called you’re gonna get it. A good try at it without mistakes. He’s so clean.

JMs: Here, you know Michael always has some ideas and

JM: (laughs) I’m sorry, Michael is a torrent one man hurricane of talent!

JMs : He is

JM: And if you’re willing to go along on that ride you’ll have a fun day, but you have to go along on the ride!

SdK : You certainly do

JM: You really do. But I always enjoy it man!

SdK: It’s a fun ride

JM: I don’t even need a cup of coffee just tell me what’s going on.

SdK: It’s like an old rollercoaster, you’re a little sore at the end but it’s a good ride

JM: Exactly!

[Spaced Out Looney]

Part 4

Steven S De Knight (SdK) James Marsters (JM) and James Marshall (JMs)

And this bit takes us to 27 minutes and 49 seconds in.



JM: That line always cracked me up

SdK: Which one?

JM: When she just burst in and he’s just sitting there, he just takes it in, you know it’s just the way you’d like to be with your wife you know (giggles) sort of let them hang themselves

SdK: Yeah he has that line where he says “is this the part where I say “ what are you talking about?"”

JM: Exactly!

SdK : Cos we do that on so many episodes, we have somebody like bursts in and he says “what are you talking about?”

JM : Yeah is this the part where I say (indistinguishable)

SdK: It’s a little wink

JM: It was fantastic; it made me laugh every time!

JMs: This here coming up Kristin is unbelievable in this scene, she’s terrific and um, there’s a point where it becomes Clark’s delusion, where the scene shifts, and Michael on the day said “what if she looked right at Tom” and I was like “ ah, we can’t break that wall, we can’t you know, and then I started thinking about it and I went “let’s try it” and then it was like *so* good and then Berry started working with the lighting and we got it down so you could just see the one eye and I think it’s one of the things you remember about the episode is when she looks right at Tom.

SdK: Definitely yeah.

JM: She actually looks right in the camera, which is a no no.

SdK: And it totally works as it’s from Clark’s point of view

JM: Yeah

SdK: And I remember they used that shot in the “coming attractions” for the end of the episode on the previous episode and it was really, really powerful.

Speaking of which I think the trailer they cut together for this episode

[bJM; Ah![/b]

SdK: Was like the best trailer I’ve seen for practically anything on TV. It was amazing

JMs: I think the trailers for Smallville are the best trailers period. I think that the gentleman that does our trailers and I’m sorry. It’s embarrassing; I can’t remember his name but Brilliant! The trailer for this I personally have kept I just loved it.

SdK: It was fantastic I’ve got to get a copy of that.

JM: Just by assuming that Milton Fine’s as good of an actor as I am, so I’m not this guy and he’s not this guy so we’re on the same grounds. I should just try to act as if I’m a trustable person, and use all of my weapons to that end you know, and not try and play a guy who’s lying, just play a guy who’s telling the truth. Cos that’s what we’re all, we’re all playing somebody who’s telling the truth when we’re lying. So don’t worry about the lie just play it as if you’re being honest and just assume that you are an older guy that really wants this guy to grow up to be a good guy. (laughs) It’s a bit repetitive but it works!

SdK: That’s pretty much the way we were writing it too.

JM: uh hmm

SdK: Marshall I’ve just got to say you know that the lighting in this particular sequence is just stunning, I think Berry really outdid himself.

JMs : Yeah Berry just did an awesome job on this episode and we actually built a little “ T” onto that hallway, just a very little bit which totally changed our set which I thought was just a great ah

SdK ( as Clark appears) That’s such a great reveal there, he looks so creepy in this sequence

JM: You know he wanted to do a little “Twelve Monkeys” thing here, he wanted to use a little more of his hands, just snuck that in

SdK: And it really works, I also loved just in the background this huge hole in the wall that you know he just ripped open

JMs : Well the thing about this is that you have sparks and you have them close to actors and James can tell you, you know it’s always a .. it’s always difficult because you want your actors close to something but you don’t want anybody getting hurt. So you know we put Tom on that mark and set the sparks off and the first time it’s like there’s sparks going and it was like you could see it all like fell apart because he was like “ how close *are* those sparks ?”

JM: (giggles)

JM: I learned the hard way, I used to be insane man! I lit myself on fire over on Buffy

(Laughter)

SdK: (laughs) Those were the days weren’t they?

JM: yes they were.

SdK: When an actor would light himself on fire for the better of the episode.

JMs: You know James I wanna go back to when, to what you were saying about yourself and how you played Milton Fine being as good an actor as you are, I think that’s very interesting and the one thing about working with you is that you get there so fast, it’s almost taken for granted you know.

JM: uh huh

JMs : You know a lot of times you can be working on a performance and you’re take nine or take ten but with you there’s never any… take three we were out of it ... it’s er

JM: See I always think take one is the best one because it’s the one when you’re not really planning or trying you’re just kind of doing it and if you have your lines down well enough and if you can get a printable take on the first one it’s usually at least a piece of that that they’ll use.

JMs: Cos it’s something that’s fresh

JM: Yeah cos inevitably you know you have to have a director and you have to have notes and you have to move in a certain way, but that gets you more and more in your head and you fight that as an actor, and sometimes take four is the best but oftentimes for me I find I do like to try and get it on the first one. There’s just something a little more organic,

JMs: Well you, you get there faster than anybody and that was a pleasure

JM: Thanks

[Spaced Out Looney]

Part Five

Steven S De Knight (SdK) James Marsters (JM) and James Marshall (JMs)




JMs: This shot right here, where we wanted, the idea was to have the skeleton change right into her face and I thought Matt Beck(sp?) and John Wash did a great job

SdK: Great job, I went quiet through this whole sequence cos I got sucked in again

JM: (laughs)

SdK: It’s so well done

JM: This is that bit where you can see exactly what Clark *right there* (whispers) Right there and then that switch, fluid, subtle and very clear

SdK: Yeah Tom Welling did a great job

JM: (still whispering) yeah

SdK: It’s tricky

JMs: And Kristin’s always game to do her own action, and right here where we lift her up this is all like, she’s doing all this herself, you know, there’s nothing helping her we helped her with some boxes and she made it all look like he was really lifting her off the ground by the throat and she’s…

SdK (as Milton Fine enters) Ahhh finally the throw down... I’ve gotta tell you I was so thrilled to write this super powered exchange between these two characters, having worked with James before I just knew it would really come together. Cos we really always wanted Clark to just haul off and sucker punch somebody (JM giggles) and it’s… Oh Marshall the way you shot it just looks so cool!

JM: He’s still working the friendship anger er angle here

SdK: He’s trying

(Clark sends Fine flying, James laughs)

SdK : Oh that’s awesome

JM: And that was Doug Chapman who just did that gag, and he was supposed to just land on top of the thing and erm the wine case and then slowly go down, and he got sent straight through it. Oh my God that was such a nasty gag… but he was fine man, he’s a pro, he had the proper pads on him but my God that was a good gag..

JMs This scene was shot over three different days

SdK: Oh yeah?

JMs : Cos we had so much work to do.

SdK: Wow! It looks seamless

JMs : Ahh the egg beater, the egg beater prop!

JM: here comes the shot that I’m most proud of, I think we took it like nineteen times cos I’m trying to get the silver splinter right (much laughter) alright here we go this is what is called good acting, that’s good television acting right there

SdK : (laughing) that’s awesome!

JM: seriously to be able to put that little thing up another inch.

Worth it though, it’s cool

SdK: James. When Clark slugs you and you land and you get up there’s this look on your face that I just always loved, it’s just like you’re gonna bring it

JM: I’m gonna get you now yeah.

SdK: It was awesome

JM: I think I’d finally figured out how to try to do the heat glare look.

SdK: You do a good heat glare

JM: I was trying to figure that out

JMs: That was awesome man.

SdK: And this also plays into another one of Clark’s greatest fears are that he will hurt Lana. And there’s the whole thing they haven’t been having... you know they had a physical relationship starting with episode two, and when he got his powers back he’s been afraid to er … go back to that place cos he thinks he’s gonna hurt her. So we did want him to, you know injure her when he went paranoid.

JMs : You know the franchise has always been Clark and Lana, and this scene here (hospital) after how ever many, episode, one hundred and how ever many episodes. These two have such a natural chemistry, it’s such a pleasure to work with them I mean it’s just so honest and so they just I don’t… no direction needed.

SdK: I absolutely agree, the series since the pilot, it is about Clark and Lana, it’s about the early days of Superman and how he becomes Superman, but on a deeper emotional level it’s about Clark and Lana, and even when they’re not together, even now when we’re moving Lana towards Lex, it’s still about Clark and Lana and personally I think it always will be until the end of the series no matter what happens that’s the emotional touchstone we come back to.

JM: What did Anthony Hopkins say when he was doing “Silence Of The Lambs?” He goes “well we kind of just did our homework so I just stood and talked and that’s the only memory that I really have and that’s so true, I’m not even really seeing the sound and you can just tell they’re relaxed.

JMs: Yeah I think good scenes you can watch with the sound off.

SdK: I love the make up he did on Kristin here, it really doesn’t soft sell the fact that’s he’s whacked her

JM: He hurt her. Yeah, you said this plays into the fear.

SdK: This is a really nice moment between these two, there’s such an emotional honesty with these two and there’s always that undercurrent that everybody knows Chloe, even though she says she doesn’t, she still has feelings for Clark

JMs: And you’re always saying “why don’t they just get together, she’s so great why don’t they just?”

SdK: Especially as she knows the secret now

JMs: Why can’t he just see what we all can see? And at the end of this she says you know “I would die for you”

SdK : She does that so well, and a lot of the fans thought that that was a hint that in the hundredth episode she was the one that was going to die… and they were outraged.. but we didn’t think about killing Chloe. It’s like how can you kill Chloe? Come on. (chuckles)

JM: She’s so good. Yeah you know and she’s able to play… it would be easy to get kind of lovelorn and weak playing a character that is unrequited, and she’s able to bring a dignity that I think even heightens the character a bit. I remember thinking about that when I was watching all the DVDs I got earlier in the season to kind of come up to speed.

SdK: This is really going into the end game, building up to the next episode where you find out what is his plan His plan is to convince Clark that Fine is on the good side, that Jor- El was a great evil who is, erm attacks Clark’s mother, attacks Martha and is bent on taking over the world, and the only way to prevent that is to release the great hero Zod. And Clark is the only one that can do this because since he activated The Fortress Of Solitude it’s tuned to him. And then you find out the whole thing is one big lie it’s actually the reverse, Zod is the great evil Jor-El is the hero and that’s the end game. And this is the final piece before he perpetrates the attack on Martha and makes it look like Jor-El.

JM: Yeah, at this point I’m getting him to shear away from all of the relationships that would help him out when I finally make my move. Get him isolated and err yep I just gain his trust and I don’t know, I can’t think of anything else to say about it because in a way it really is very simple, you just play it like .. You play it as f you really like and respect this guy, you really think he’s, you know, a great guy (giggles) and er, you don’t play the duality of it at all, until the last moment. Um and really it was fun to go fight Superman but not with fists, to go fight Superman on an intellectual level. Because quite frankly, being a super computer I’m gonna, I would outwit Einstein so it’s a really it’s the perfect meeting ground that I would want to fight this guy on.

SdK: And you come damned close.

[Spaced Out Looney]

Part 6

Steven S De Knight (SdK) James Marsters (JM) and James Marshall (JMs)


SdK: The scene that we just saw between Lionel and Lex I think is one of the best scenes I’ve seen with them, particularly because Lionel hits Lex exactly where he lives, he zeros in on what would hurt him most and says ''Lana Lang will never love you'. And the look on Michael’s face was just fantastic, and the great thing I love about Lex and Lana is it brings about vulnerability in Lex that you usually don’t see.

JMs: And that day not everything is hugs and kisses when you work fourteen hours a day with people, and on that particular day he was mad at me, Michael was. (JM giggles) and so I just kept sticking him and making him madder and madder cos I thought “It’s gonna work for the scene” (JM laughs)

JM: You’re a braver man than I am!

JMs: And you see at that fire, he’s just so mad when he’s digging in the fire and his dad walks in, and then afterwards we patched it up.

JM: Of course

JMs: I just thought “I’m just gonna let this go for a couple of hours and see what we get out of it".

JM: I think he instinctually finds a way never to let himself get into an idle or into first gear. I think he realizes that the camera needs fourth gear and nothing less, and he keeps the stakes up keeping it up all in between takes. See I tend to just drop at a cut I tend to go kinda just sit in a corner, but he keeps this high energy stakes situation going, which is not bad, but it, I always feel energized after I work with him, I feel more awake.

JMs: This scene that we’re looking at right now (Clark and Fine) I, James I gotta tell you, I mentioned this to you the other day. When we shot this scene and, you know, it, I knew that we had something very special with you joining our show. You did such an awesome job of, of, this is so multidimensional, who Fine is, how he’s leading Clark and when there’s that one line when you say, right here, you don’t see what’s special about humans and you know it was fantastic, It’s so honest, it’s so complacent.

JM: Well yeah it’s yes it’s the thing is it’s just pushing world weary one step beyond wisdom, it’s well you’re pretending that you’re world weary and you’ve seen so much of human kind but at the back you’re just *lying* and you know you’re lying.

SdK: And it’s also very smart because

JM: He did it, he lied so well

SdK: Yeah because Fine is still playing on the deep things that Clark probably may think in the back of his head but will never admit it, I mean Clark in the comics Superman is often referred to as a God among men, it’s the giant that walks the earth and er it’s hard when you are that powerful not to have a little thing tickling the back of your head and thinking “why am I putting up with all this?” “Wouldn’t it be better if I took control?” I know he’s never admit it I think it tickles him just enough.

JM: Exactly. I think that he is a good man so he would never act on it but the thoughts would have to come.

SdK : Yeah

Fine walks to the spaceship

SdK: Again the music here is just fantastic, it really adds to the episode

JMs: Mark did an amazing job scoring it

SdK: He really did

JMs: and you know there’s James!

SdK: I think we need anther hour to keep talking about it

JMs : Hey it’s over! So I’m James Marshall, I just want to say thank you very much to the fans for a great year, It’s been our best year since season two, thanks to all the new fans that joined us and here’s looking to an even better year next year.

SdK: This has been Steve De Knight, thanking you so much for watching, this was my second year of Smallville and it has definitely been my favorite. I think we have just advanced the characters and the story lines so far this year. It’s been a joy working on it, it’s been a joy working with James Marshall and it’s been an * absolute* pleasure working with James Masters once again

JM: This is James Marsters thanking everybody for tuning in, I had a really good year filming Smallville, met a lot of really good people and thanks for tuning in. Bye Bye.