Michael Rosenbaum made a rare comment about Smallville costar Tom Welling choosing to negotiate his contract separately.
During the Tuesday, November 25, episode of the “Inside of You” podcast, Rosenbaum, 53, asked guest Brian Austin Green about his experience asking for a raise between seasons on Beverly Hills, 90210.
“Our contract was only for either five or seven seasons. We had to renegotiate. No [we didn’t negotiate as a cast] F***, I so wish [we had],” Green, 52, admitted. “I watched what the Friends cast did [with their joint negotiation], and it’s like, ‘If we had done that and if we had all come together and been like, ‘It’s all or nothing.’ We could have done so f***ing well. Never had to work again a day in our lives.”
Rosenbaum recalled a similar experience while working on Smallville.
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“I know. Tom wouldn’t do it with me either. We had to do it separate and I had to wait until he was done,” Rosenbaum shared while clarifying that he understood Welling’s perspective. “I remember going, ‘All right, it’s me, Tom and Kristin [Kreuk]. No, it’s not. Then I thought me and Tom? No. It should have been.”
Smallville premiered in 2001 and ran for 10 seasons on the WB and later the CW. The show followed a teenage Clark Kent (Welling) in his early days as a kid living on a farm with his adoptive parents, Martha (Annette O’Toole) and Jonathan Kent (John Schneider). His friendship with future nemesis Lex Luthor (Rosenbaum) also played a role throughout the show’s long run.
Green, who appeared on three episodes of Smallville, noted that he wanted to do things differently after signing onto the BH90210 series where he was a main cast member and executive producer.
“When the top runs the show and it’s every man for himself, you’re not going to get as much as you would. You’re just f***ing hanging on at the end. You’re like, ‘How much is left? I really want this.’ And they’re like, ‘No, we can’t make this show if we’re paying you that,’” he continued. “Everyone did it separately but when we went back and did a reboot, I very much in my mind was like, ‘Listen, we’re going to go in to this with favored nations all across the board.’”
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Green made sure everyone got “the same” paycheck, adding, “Because I know now what my quote is. I had worked nonstop since 90210 and my quote is really good. So people that haven’t worked so much, I’m going to bring them up to my level. Let’s do this and let’s go for it. But it’s still a bit of that every man for himself mentality — unfortunately — with our cast.”
He concluded: “We had our own story lines [on the show though]. I had no idea what was going on with other people on the show. But because it was different, I don’t think it bred that same sense of, ‘We’re all one unit. We’re all working towards something. So let’s band together and be friends through all of it.’”
