Exclusive: "Smallville"s Sam Witwer teases out Davis Bloome/Doomsday
October 23, 2008 by Grace
“For Davis Bloome, it’s nature verses nurture… I want to see him fight against his nature. He’s ultimately going to lose, but I want to see what that fight looks like.”
That was just one of many interesting eye-openers I heard from Sam Witwer when I interviewed him for “Smallville” yesterday. I was especially interested in knowing more about tonight’s episode, as “Prey” alludes to the character of Davis Bloome turning into a monstrous Doomsday.
Sam Witwer is the actor behind Davis Bloome, who is the alter-ego of the creature Doomsday. Sam has done a great job making us warm up to this quiet paramedic who genuinely wants to help people. But in tonight’s episode, we we will learn a little bit more about Bloome’s past. I asked Sam if Doomsday was behind the gory, bloodied sneak peek.
“That may be the assumption, as far as where the episode goes, but it may surprise a few people.” Witwer filled in that Davis has no clue what happens during these episodes that have been happening all his life. So, how does Davis deal with it after he wakes up?
“When he wakes up, he makes himself some coffee. He puts on Laverne and Shirley and kind of just relaxes a little bit and just kind of, you know, he stretches out a little bit.”
Kidding! You got me there.
“No, in all seriousness, he is horrified by them. He has been curious about them, but they happened infrequently enough, when he was younger that he could sort of ignore them. But it did cause him to sort of separate from other people, because there were parts of his life he didn’t understand.”
There is one person that Davis has learned to trust – Chloe Sullivan. How does she react when he tells her about his suspicions?
Image: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved
“Chloe can sense this is a really good guy. Chloe doesn’t really doubt that, at least initially. Chloe being Chloe, she wants to sort of immediately set out to prove the opposite. That there isn’t really anything horrible happening. She’d like to get to the bottom, as much as Davis would like to. She wants to help. That’s her initial reaction. To jump to his defense and help.”
Now that these blackouts and killings happen more frequently, Sam divulged that Davis has been taking a proactive role, gathering a lot of information and investigating himself. And that’s when Clark Kent gets hold of the photographs and confronts Davis. I asked Sam how that scene unfolds.
“Clark is trying to get to the bottom of all these murders and disappearances that are happening and again, so is Davis from the opposite angle.” And just to bait us again, Sam adds, “Basically, as for where that specifically leads to, we’re going to have to watch and find out. But as I said, it’s not as straight forward as everyone thinks it is.”
We all know Davis Bloome is Doomsday (at least in Smallville-verse). But for Sam Witwer, this is where the role gets really fun and interesting, when Davis has to struggle with “nature versus nurture”.
“Davis has, throughout his life, made himself into the man that he wants to be”, Witwer begins. “I think that that man is a very honorable and moral guy. The unfortunate thing is that there a nature issue.”
So which one wins out? Nature or nurture?
“Maybe he wasn’t made to be the nicest guy. He wasn’t designed to be this nurturing, incredible, cool human being. That’s why I’m here, basically. One of the producers hired me to create this character, hopefully, that is somewhat likable and have a lot of vulnerability and humanity to him. Then as the season wears on, we’ll just go and drag him through mud and sort of take him apart piece by piece. We hope that will be somewhat of an interesting and a pleasant process for the audience to watch.”
I was hooked, so I waited for Sam to continue.
“With Davis it’s a horrifying thing. For that reason, I wanted to portray him in this episode (”Prey“) as very tired, worn down, worried and stressed out beyond belief. One of the things I asked the make-up ladies was to put very subtle rings under my eyes. I’m like this guy isn’t sleeping. If this was happening to me, I wouldn’t be sleeping. This guy is going through hell, the worst hell anyone could ever imagine, that he doesn’t necessarily have control over his own actions. That there’s a whole other life that he’s not aware of, beyond his consciousness.”
Well Davis Bloome has my sympathy now. After hearing that, do we really want to see this poor soul turn evil?
“We do want to create a great amount of sympathy for his situation. Hopefully, this is someone we don’t want to see turn into Doomsday. But unfortunately we all know where it’s going. That inevitability is kind of dreadful. Also, for me I want to see the fight. I want to see him fight against his nature. He’s ultimately going to lose, but I want to see what that fight looks like.”
And fight he will. Does Davis Bloome become Doomsday tonight? Sam leaves this mysterious comment – “He may, he may not. You never know”.
So, tune in tonight at Smallville, season 8 episode 6 is “Prey“. Davis Bloome may be fighting for his right to exist.
(I asked Sam Witwer one last question, but I can’t reveal his answer to you, until the episode is over. So stay around and find out tonight.)
Images: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Sweet interview Grace!
Interesting read! I find it fascinating that we can be drawn into these characters even though we know where they’re going. . . or do we? Would the show be bold enough to change comic book history?
Sam’s doing a good job building a likeable character, a real David Banner who wants to help people when he isn’t hulking out!
good one, sis!
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He’s a great actor! Sam Witwer would be the best choice by far to play The Green Lantern. Yeah, I know many of you people think that I must be insane. Being a Samllville fan I see him every week doing a great job acting like Doomsday and I always said that he’d be the perfect superhero, but which one I couldn’t figure out. My boyfriend (whom I introduced to Samllville and also became a big fan) came to me one day and suggested that he would be the perfect GL. I thought he was crazy! But then he showed me some pictures and he was right!!
Here are some reasons why he’d be perfect for the role:
1. He has the same face as the illustrations of Green Lantern, he has the jaw muscles, the nose, and even the same hairline.
2. He has the same build, he’ll just need to put on a few more pounds of muscle.
3. Grow out his hair, dye it brown, put the suit and mask on him and you will see the real life version of the Green Lantern.
4. He acts pretty good for a t.v. actor.
5. WB will not have to pay him that much because he is seen as an unknown in the eyes of many, therefore people will only see him as The Green Lantern / Hal Jordan as opposed to having Chris Pine play the role when everyone already knows him as Captain Kirk, and that goes with any other established actor that they decide to go for.
6. He is also around the same age that they are looking for and looks the perfect age that the Green Lantern would be. He looks pretty young, but also a man.
I have many other reasons why I believe why he should be the Green Lantern. I believe in this so much that I have even created a petition. Read it and you will be convinced of this idea. Here is the link, please sign it after you finish reading it:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Sam-Witwer-the-perfect-green-lantern
I absolutely love Davis! His character grew on me so I was crushed when he died… I hope they bring Sam back for season 9!