Annette O’Toole

Martha Kent in Smallville

Having played Clark Kent’s

teenage love interest Lana Lang in 1983’ s Superman III it wouldn’t have crossed veteran actress Annette O’Toole’s mind that almost two decades later she’d be portraying his adopted mother Martha in Supes coming of age TV series Smallville. We spoke to O’Toole about being maternal to the man in blue.

Would you like to play martha kent again?

No, after doing it for six years straight and then a few episodes I feel like I’ve kind of covered it.

What’s the strangest request you’ve had from a fan?

I guess a lip print but that’s not even strange. I don’t get strange requests usually.

Would any of martha’s skills or attributes be useful i n real life?

I like the way in Smallville Martha Kent was a daughter of a lawyer and was going to be a lawyer herself and that after Jonathan’s death she starts going back into politics because Clark is growing up and she knows he doesn’t need her so she starts pursuing that.

I s there anything you think was unfinished about martha’s story?

I felt there were things that were unexplored about her throughout. But I understand why we didn’t go there because it became a show much more about the kids – that was the audience for it and that was a much more interesting story for them than Martha Kent, so I totally get it.

Did you get any souvenirs from the set?

They gave me the back of my director’s chair with my name on it in Smallville, which they framed and presented to me – that was nice. I’ve got it out in our little pool house.

i s there Anything from the show you wish was real?

Flying! I would love to be able to fly. We recently took a trip on a catamaran in Hawaii. I stood up at the very front of the boat and leaned forward and I couldn’t see anything but water and I felt for the first time that feeling of flying and I thought about Smallville and how great that was.

What would i t say on martha’s gravestone?

She was a good mother.