Smallville: Eric Martsolf talks to Dayplayer Dish
Eric Martsolf, who plays Booster Gold in Smallville 10x18, Booster, worked on the soap Passions with Justin and Lindsay Hartley, and later on DOOL with Lindsay. Eric was also in Justin's web series, Brawn and Glamour. Yesterday he talked to Dayplayer Dish about his varied career, and I transcribed what he shared about Smallville.
I've seen spoilers that suggest that Oliver doesn't return until 10x19, Dominion, Justin's Smallville directorial debut, but Eric said Justin was on set and in the makeup trailer during the filming of Booster, which I assume means he was in the episode. Have we had official confirmation either way?
[ETA: Reading what Eric said again, I think he meant that he and Tom were cracking jokes about Justin in his absence, while THEY were in the makeup trailer together. I don't think Oliver is in Booster.]
You can hear the entire interview at Blog Talk Radio HERE, or download it free from iTunes HERE.
On his friendship with Lindsay Hartley:
We're very good friends, and I'm very good friends with her husband, Justin, as well. We've never really lost that brotherly element that we had on Passions. We keep in touch, absolutely. And I was up in his area of the woods doing his show, for God's sake, a couple of weeks ago.
On playing Booster Gold:
This is pretty exciting, man. I'll tell you, my kids think I'm just the biggest deal in the world, because now Dad's a superhero... I got the call to audition for this character, and honestly, I had never heard of Booster Gold. Never heard of him, but apparently he's very much an established member of the Justice League historically in the comic books. He is in there. He arrived in the 80's, and he's been around ever since. And there's fan clubs out there. I mean, I let my fingers do the walking online, and yeah, he's got a whole entourage out there.
This episode is awesome as well, by the way. It ventures into the friendship between Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. They had this historic relationship, and the whole episode solidifies that whole thing. Plus I get to call Clark Kent out on his crap, too. I basically tell him, "You know what, you gotta stop with this Blur stuff. Stop hiding in the shadows when you save people, put on something bright, and start making some noise, man, because you gotta brand this thing, okay? You gotta call it something super, you know? You know what I mean?" So it's pretty funny.
On working with Tom Welling:
What a cool dude. I'll tell you, my first day, Vancouver is typically very cloudy, and the sun hardly ever comes out, at least around the time I was there, in February, and we drove to this very remote location, and I got out of the car, and the first person I see is Tom. He's got his umbrella, and his raincoat, he comes up, you know, "What's up, dude?! How you doin', man?!" He just couldn't have been more friendly. We started cracking up and making fun of Justin in the makeup trailer, having some good laughs at his expense.
It was like two kids in a candy store just having fun, because he loves the whole genre, too. Tom loves superheroes, and the reason why they are who they are, and he loves the methodology behind the superheroes. So it was really cool, because Booster has a lot of baggage, and he has a lot of interesting issues, which I won't really tell you about, but the episode dives into it.
We clicked, we totally clicked. He's a very good guy, and a talented director, too. He actually directed the episode that I was in. So he really cared about this one. He was like, "This one's gonna be great, dude. I'm just letting you know in advance, it's gonna be awesome."
On playing a character on DOOL who has some very human flaws:
It's fun to be the hero, trust me. I mean, I got my chance on Smallville to be that guy in every aspect of the word... But that's not what people really relate to, people also want heroes to be relatable. They want them to be people. I think Clark Kent is just as much of a hero as Superman is...
People are flawed, people make mistakes, and I think it's much more interesting to see someone doing good [when] the reason they're doing good is because they've seen the bad. They've gone down the bad path and they get it and they understand that that's not the right way to go. As opposed to someone who just sits on top of their almighty mountain and says, "I know what right is because that's all I've ever done." You can't know right if you haven't played a little wrong.
On the demands of being a series regular on a daytime soap:
It was a miracle I got to do Smallville. That was a two-week shoot, and I just happened to be off those two weeks, which hasn't happened since I started being Brady [on DOOL, in November 2008]. So it really has to, all the ducks have to line up in a row.
When I did Smallville, we did 1-1/2 pages a day, and that took about 10 to 12 hours to do 1-1/2 pages. We do about 130 a day over at Days, so it's completely different. It's nuts.
I love what Eric said about Tom. ♥
I know that what he said about Booster and Clark sounds like someone is telling Clark how to be Superman again, but I really don't think that's what he meant. I'm no expert on Booster Gold, but I have read the two TPBs by Geoff Johns, and Booster is all about self-promotion and personal gain (in the beginning, anyway). My take on Eric's quote is that Booster tells Clark he should capitalize on his powers to get wealth and fame, something Clark would never do. My hope is that we'll see Clark be a part of why Booster decides to discard his selfish motives for purely altruistic ones, but all I can do is wait and see what happens when the episode airs.
Here's a pic of Eric that was taken around the time that he was filming Smallville. I wonder if this was what his hair looked like as Booster (it is more blond than usual).
Follow Eric on Twitter at @ericmartsolf, and visit his official web site at ericmartsolf.com.
ETA2: Rich Sands from TV Guide gives us a Booster sneak peek, with quotes from Eric Martsolf and writer Geoff Johns, and an exclusive pic. Read all about it HERE.