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He's dragged up for the camera (twice), he's played gay, he's played transvestite, but Michael Rosenbaum always knew he'd get away from that typecasting thing. Now aged twenty-nine, he's finally done it. Pity he had to shave his head and act opposite a guy who wears his undies on the outside to do it. More! Met up with Michael (already boasting one days' head-stubble) at Los Angeles' pretty-damn-swanky Westwood Hotel to find out how Smallville's Lex Luthor became one of TV's unlikeliest lust-objects.

So Michael. Couldn't you have just gone for a skin-cap instead of the shaving?

Sadly not. When I was offered the audition for Lex, I was on the phone to my manager saying Jeff, I do not want to do this - I'm not the most attractive man with hair, and if I shave it off it's not going to be any prettier. I don't know what's under there, and I don't think I want to find out.

It sounds like Jeff didn't pay much attention to your concerns.

[laughs] Well no, he didn't. Actually, we tried out with the bald cap first and it just looked terrible. Made my head look a few inches longer, something it really doesn't need. So I took the plunge. You have to. They got these big barber's clippers - the kind that make the whole building vibrate - and just went "Zhooozh" all over my head. Fortunately it didn't look too bad - if I'd had big dents in my head, who knows, I really don't think I'd have got the part.

So how does losing all his hair affect a man?

You know, when they asked me to go bald I was really scared - I thought I'd lose my confidence. But I haven't. And I don't have to worry about how I look in the morning either. That said, it's painful - I have to shave every day and with the razor bumps and everything…

Is there an 'up' side to the chrome-dome look? It certainly seems to work for a lot of the female viewers…

Ah yes. That's nice. It's very exciting. I mean, I wasn't doing too badly before, I'm not going to lie about that, but now I would say it's even better.

Any sign of it catching on as a fashion statement?

Hmm, I'm not so sure about that. Actually I'm trying to get my buddy, Dave, to shave his head at the moment, and I keep saying "Just do it - look at me, it's not too bad." And then the other day we were driving down Sunset Boulevard, we got to a stop sign, and there's two girls in a Jeep alongside us. I look over at these two women, just a friendly smile, you know, and this girl looks at me, looks back to her friend and says "Euch, a bald guy is looking at me". And I so wanted to come back with something really smart… But I just couldn't. "Dave," I said, "that kind of response rarely happens, I swear." He's like, "I'm not getting my head shaved - that's ridiculous what happened there."

We're as guilty as anyone else, but does it bother you that all this attention is being focused on your hair?

Nah. I mean, right now it's early days for Smallville, and like they say, any press is always good press. But yes, sometimes I do get tired about the hair questions and say 'Come on, let's talk about me, not my hair'. But don't forget, I can grow this back. I'm actually having a wig made as we speak.

Really?

No word of a lie. The lady making it said 'What do you want it to look like?' I just said ' Whatever Brad Pitt's doing these days. And if Brad's doing a mullet, so be it'. [laughs]

You're now part of that great tradition, the 'Sexy villain'. Are you in competition with Tom Welling (Clark Kent) in the fanmail stakes?

Oh please, you put Tom in a chair next to me and… well, come on, the guy's gorgeous. And he's a wonderful guy as well. I don't know how he does it actually - if I were him, if I were Superman, I'd be flying all over this country, you know what I mean? But Tom's got a good head on his shoulders - he's always positive, and there's no ego on the Smallville set. I've been on sets where they had problems with that, but not here, not with any of the cast.

Yes but the fact remains, you are an official sex-symbol now.

[squirms] Ah, well… You know, I just like to have as much fun as I can possibly have. They're calling me Sexy Lexy on the Internet, and you have to laugh at that. If you take it seriously, you're through. My friends, if they saw it happen with me, they would kick the shit out of me. My Dad keeps me in my place as well. I called him once and said 'Dad, Vanity Fair said that I'm the most ambiguous character on any primetime series! How cool is that?' He's like 'Yeah? What's ambiguous supposed to mean?' He just sounded so unimpressed. I said, 'Dad, I think it's good.'

How have your friends reacted to your becoming a celebrity then?

They think it's funny. And it is. There's a Smallville Lex Luthor doll that's coming out soon, and I just know that one day I will walk into a room, all my friends will be there laughing, I'll turn around and one of them will have Lex Luther's head stuffed up his ass. I'm certain that's gonna happen. And to me, that's comedy - it keeps everything in check. All that sex-symbol stuff? Well I'm not the ugliest guy in the world, and I'm not the best-looking either, : and if I wasn't Lex Luthor right now, I wouldn't be sexy would I? I know what it's about, and I'm not stupid. But I'm certainly going to take advantage of it. [grins]

You've done a lot of, well, gender-bender type roles in the past.

Yep. Actually, I'm in a film Sorority Boys that just came out. I'm in drag in that. But it wasn't my first time for cross-dressing, oh no - the first time being when my mother dressed me up as [80s rock-chic] Pat Benatar in 5th Grade for a lip-synching contest.

Excuse me?

True. It was Indiana, bible-belt area, and our teachers said we could get an extra credit if we entered this talent show. So I thought 'OK, I'm going to mime along to a song.' I'm going to sing Shadows Of The Night by Pat Benatar. I tell my Mum this, and she says 'You know what Michael, we're going to go the extra yard on this. We're going to give you breasts. Eye-shadow. High heels…' I walked into that school auditorium and I swear to God it was the worst reaction you could possibly have feared. I just died up there.

But it obviously didn't put you off these kind of roles.

Hell no! I've played a gay guy, I've played a transvestite, I've done drag, I've even appeared pregnant in a mock-up photo… there's a lot of typecasting going on there, so Lex Luthor was a good change. He's pretty much the antithesis of a drag queen, wouldn't you say?

True. It must be nice to be wearing trousers at last. And successful ones at that.

Absolutely. I've done an awful lot of films, short features, tv shows that have failed tragically, and now at the age of 29 I'm finally getting recognition. I was hoping it would happen and it's nice to be recognised. But I'd never have predicted in a million years that it would be down to Superman.

Kristin Keuk (Lana Lang) is on record as saying that in real life she'd probably have a thing for Lex rather than Clark.

I love that - look at her, she's gorgeous. I love hearing that, it's very flattering. The thing with Lex is he's the mysterious guy, the dark guy… and he's also incredibly rich, let's face it.

So, if it came to a fight between Clark and Lex and Clark didn't have his superpowers, do you think you could have him?

Yeah, no problem - I'd just have him killed. I'm Lex Luthor: I hire people to do my dirty work for me. Does that sound fair enough?

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