Jeff East: The First Clark Kent of Smallville
By Kryppy

This interview is not to be reprinted in any form without the permission of KryptonSite. This interview was done on Saturday, April 26th, 2003 at the Chiller Theatre convention in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Kryppy : What was your knowledge of Superman prior to playing him?

Jeff East : I read the comic book when I was a kid, and of course I was a huge fan of the George Reeves Superman serial on TV, the series. Loved it, it was my favorite show. Superman was my most favorite cartoon character when I was a kid. Cause Superman could fly! You know, and he could do all these great things. I never really thought about the Clark Kent as a young man, I didn't really read that many Superboy comics, I saw a cartoon show called Superboy when I was a kid. When I got asked to play the part of young Superman, it was neat cause I didn't have to wear a costume, it was just basically based on the human side of Clark Kent. So I was excited about that. When I met with Richard Donner and I flew over to London in 1977 to start the shooting of the film, it was this whole transition, this change. They put a wig on me, and a false nose to make me look more like Christopher Reeve, and then I got to get involved with the character and find out about the character. Chris and I worked together for many months on how I would portray him, and it was fun. And Dick Donner and I worked together pretty closely.

For about a year I worked on the film, and then I was sort of done with it, I didn't really want to do anymore Superman type films or anything. I said this will be my one Superman thing, and that'll be it. I was happy to be just part of that film and it's nice that that part of the movie turned out so well. And it's interesting, it's exciting to see this new series called Smallville that they've come out with on Warner Brothers TV. It's phenomenal, and I'm sure it's based on a lot of the stuff that we did in the original film. And it makes me feel proud, and good. But I'm sort of like, hey, I'd like to be part of that! It would have been fun to be invited to come join the cast, you know, the really really fine cast and good actors, good writers. Good show. Maybe someday they'll have me back as ... I don't know, Superman's brother, or Uncle Clark, or something funny like that. I'd be more than happy to be invited on.

I think the portrayal of Clark Kent in the movie, you know I did my own thing, and I could have brought a lot of Jeff East in the character, but I stuck with the main line of the cartoon that they wanted. And it was easy for me to relate to a lot of the stuff, because that year I did that film I just left home myself to go out to Hollywood to become an actor, so I could sort of relate to the scene with Ma Kent, saying good bye to Ma. And I lost my brother about a year before that as well, so the death scene I could relate to. There was a lot of stuff that touched home with me on that. And ah the Smallville stuff, I think Tommy does a really good job bringing the innocence, yet the human side, the frustration of being a young Superman and being a Clark Kent. It's really neat the way they handled it, and I was very impressed with what's going on. I think Superman will live forever in people's hearts that have seen the film. It's just one of those movies that just kind of makes an impact on a lot of people in a lot of ways. Happy to be a part of it.

Kryppy : What other projects have you done, or have coming up?

East : Well, Pumpkinhead, of course I'm pretty proud of. The Day After, for ABC. I did a series on HBO called First of Ten, I was a Mormon quarter-back. I did a film for Jack Nicholson just last year called Blue Champaign, which I wrote, and produced and starred in with Jonathan Silverman. It's about two guys going through a divorce, it's a black comedy, that Jack produced. I've got two films that I've sold to Warner Brothers in the bag, so I'm just waiting. One's called Fear of Fish, that's a story about a young Mexican girl growing up in Los Angeles. Latino girl, her struggles with her identity as a Latino. It's an interesting soul searching piece that I worked on, and I sold. We're working on trying to get it produced for theaters in the next year or so. And I've got a deal with Paramount that I'm working on, a TV series, trying to put something together. So I've got a lot of things in the cooker, and going out on a lot of auditions and commercials, and I've got a real estate company. I've been real busy. It's great.

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Special thanks to Kryppy for conducting this interview!