Michael Rosenbaum talks about fan reaction to his Lex Luther on Smallville

Michael Rosenbaum is “honored” to be called the best Lex Luther more than twenty years later Smallville premiered.

“For a long time I wasn’t aware that people thought or felt that way,” Rosenbaum, 52, said. We weekly exclusively while promoting his new book The talented farter. “It was only in the last five or ten years that I started to feel it. People would have top ten lists, and I just didn’t believe it for so long.

Rosenbaum made his debut as Lex Luther in season 1 of Smallvillewhich aired in 2001. He left the show after the seventh season in 2007, but returned for the 2011 series finale.

“It’s been a lot of years. I think when you do it, you want people to appreciate what you’ve done,” Rosenbaum said of the show. “There [are] so many Lex Luthers in the past, and I wanted people to be happy with what I was doing. I was happy.”

Social media didn’t really exist back then SmallvilleIt was at its peak, so Rosenbaum didn’t get an “immediate response” from fans. “It was a bit of a mess,” he admitted.

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Rosenbaum said Us that he is truly “humiliated” by the continued response from Smallville fans.

“I’m proud of it. It’s amazing how many new people are watching Smallvilleand their children are now watching it. A new generation,” he added. “We all started it. Before us there was none Flash And Arrow And Superman and Lois And Gotham.”

He went on to call Smallville a “well-made” and “great show,” crediting the writing, acting and cinematography.

“I think that’s why it’s so much [superhero] shows now, and even more movies,” Rosenbaum said. “I think Smallville was an important reason for that.”

Smallville also created something “beautiful” for Rosenbaum off-screen. The actor’s friendship with former costar Tom Welling – who played Clark Kent on the WB series – has largely transformed over the years, thanks in part to the show’s continued success.

“We were friends, but we didn’t really hang out because we worked all the time,” Rosenbaum recalls. “It wasn’t until after the show ended that I got Tom to sign autographs. We have a rewatch podcast called ‘TalkVille’ and we do something called Smallville Nights where they do little events at these cons. We just got closer.”

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Now Rosenbaum and Welling are ‘trying’ to sell a show together. “We are like brothers,” he added.

Welling and his five-year-old son Thompson even showed strong support for Rosenbaum’s recent children’s book, The talented farter.

“He and [wife] Jess [Lee] I read the book and they sent me a video today,” Rosenbaum said Us before sharing that the book is about a little boy whose “only ability is to make his farts sound like things you hear every day.”

The actor said the book “adds humor to life” and he is super proud to have written it. (Yes, all included fart sounds are Rosenbaum’s own.)

“Everyone gets a kick out of it. I mean, farts are funny. They are part of the norm. People do it. I don’t care,” he said. ‘You never know what you’ll get with a fart. It could be the weirdest sound you’ve ever heard.”

The talented farter is out now.