Why Hollywood Won't Cast Tom Welling Anymore

After Smallville, he wanted to take some time off

Smallville was so much work for Welling that afterwards, he took a self-imposed six-month hiatus.

"I needed a break," he told BuzzFeed. "I needed to figure out what was going on in my head a little bit. There was some adjusting that I needed to get back into real life and to make up for lost time as well. I was like, 'Guys, I'm out of here.' The two months that you spend at the beach loses some of its intrinsic value when you don't have anything you're running away from or have to go back to. I felt like I was basically retired and it sort of woke me up. But it needed to happen."

When he did decide to get back into acting, he decided he wanted to be more selective about his roles.

"I wanted to play a human and I wanted to be a part of a film whose theme was bigger than whatever character I was playing," he continued. "By being on Smallville for 10 years, I was able to make some really fantastic choices with that character, but now I'm drawn to real people trying to live real lives."

He didn't have the time to take on many other roles while filming Smallville

There are many actors who started out with easily identifiable early roles on huge, long-running TV shows, but they were able to still jumpstart their career in other directions by appearing in films while the show was in progress. However, the innovative visual effects that Smallville demanded meant that Welling was on set more than other actors, giving him less time for other projects.

The roles he did appear in include the ill-received horror film The Fog with Maggie Grace and Selma Blair, and, most notably, the role of Charlie Baker in the Cheaper by the Dozen series. Welling wasn't called upon to carry a lot of dramatic weight in any of the roles; coming out of Smallville, the TV series remained the most impressive thing on his résumé.

He had very limited acting experience before appearing on Smallville

Welling was new to Hollywood when he booked a six-episode arc on the CW's Judging Amy, which led to his starring role on Smallville. His lack of experience was pretty obvious in some of the earlier episodes, and it also meant that Clark Kent became Welling's most immediately identifiable role, making it even harder for him to break out into other parts later.

He wants to spend more time behind the scenes

elling launched Tom Welling Productions towards the end of Smallville's run with the goal of spending more time behind the camera. Welling, who began executive producing during the later episodes of Smallville, served as an executive producer on the CW's cheerleader dramedy Hellcats in 2011, and was attached to serve as an executive producer on a potential TV show project in 2015 (more on that later).

Welling also directed a few episodes of Smallville over the years, and told the L.A. Times after the show ended that directing was a new ambition. It's possible that his acting career lost some momentum because he's focused on pursuing other opportunities behind the camera.

The roles he's chosen haven't been very well received

It's not always the actor's fault when a film doesn't do well, but it can definitely affect their potential for future success. Welling's pickiness makes it even more important that the films chooses make an impact; unfortunately, none of the films he's appeared in have resonated with critics or audiences.

2013's Parkland earned a 50 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but even worse was the fact that it only made $1.4 million at the box office against a $10 million budget. 2014's Draft Day did slightly better, earning a 60 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and bringing in a box office haul of $29.5 million against a budget of $25 million.

2016's The Choice did the worst of all three with critics, earning only a 12 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It wasn't a total box office failure, though, grossing just over $23 million worldwide against an approximately $10 million budget.

None of the three were impressive enough to stand out and prove Welling's star power outside of Smallville, which could make studios nervous to cast him in big-budget films.

He decided he didn't want to do television anymore

As we've already mentioned, for Welling, Smallville was more than just a full time job. The actor spent hours on set every day, filming in Vancouver, far away from his New York-based family. This was very difficult for the young star, who felt lonely and isolated at times.

"I spent 10 years where my life was 6AM to 1AM on set," he told BuzzFeed. "From an emotional standpoint, I was basically cut off from everyone I just put my head in a hole and I basically blocked everybody and everything out."

Because of this, Welling decided that, after Smallville, he didn't want to do another TV show for awhile. Movies, which take less time to film and offer more of a break, were more in the lane of what he was looking for, but it can be very hard for a TV actor to make the jump to film. Welling's aversion to TV may have led to him turning down potentially lucrative and popular roles after Smallville.

He seems to be enjoying his time off

Welling may not be returning to acting simply because he doesn't want to right now. The actor's social media accounts show that he seems to be having a pretty good time out of the spotlight, taking vacations (including some with past costars), seeing concerts, going to the beach, and more. Welling could just be having so much fun in his time off that he isn't in a rush to get back on set.

His TV pilot did not get ordered to series

When Welling did decide in 2015 that he was finally ready to return to television, the project ended up not working out. Arguably his highest-profile project since Smallville, Section 13 was set to follow Welling as a CIA black ops officer who becomes a private contractor in a covert organization "devoted to carrying out the most difficult and dangerous high-stakes assignments."

The project, from Tom Welling Productions, would also be executive-produced by the actor, allowing him to fulfill his onscreen and behind-the-camera goals. However, the season was crowded for CBS that year, and the pilot was not ordered to series.