Sam Witwer recounts an incident when he was forced to shave his chest for a shirtless scene in Smallville season 8. Kicking off on The WB in 2001, Smallville followed the adventures of Clark Kent (Tom Welling) before he truly became Superman. Unlike the many superhero shows on TV today, Smallville never had Welling fully suit up as Superman - just a brief tease of the costume in the series finale. Still, the show did feature many of Superman's friends and foes from the DC comics, including Doomsday in season 8.

Witwer joined Smallville in the season 8 premiere as Davis Bloome, a paramedic in Metropolis who is revealed to be the human alter ego of the the villain Doomsday. However, Davis wasn't aware of his Doomsday persona at first and in one particular season 8 episode, "Prey," he returns to his human form, covered in blood. It's only when Davis is showering off the blood that he realizes none of it's his own, leaving him to deal with the ramifications that he hurt others. Though the shower scene is a relatively short moment in the episode, it's key to Davis' journey to becoming Doomsday - and it turns out there was some disagreement between Witwer and the producers over whether the actor would have to shave his chest for the scene.

Related: Smallville's One Main Villain Clark Never Actually Met Onscreen

During the Smallville 20 Years of Fandom, Friendship & Flying panel at New York Comic Con, Witwer shared a story from his time filming that particular shower scene. According to the actor, producers asked him if he'd consider shaving his chest for the scene, to which he said, "Well, we can talk about it. … There’s not a lot of chest hair, but I don’t want to." Since the producers didn't have another conversation with him about it, Witwer didn't shave his chest. On the day of filming that scene, with Witwer "naked" on set, multiple producers looked at his chest, commenting he didn't have "too much chest hair." However, one particular producer did take issue with Witwer not having shaved his chest. As the actor explained:

And then a producer that shall remain unnamed - but we named him today already - comes in and goes, “I was told you were gonna have your chest shaved.” Like that, he says it like that. I’m like, “What?” He’s like, “You said you were gonna shave your chest.” I’m like, “I never said I was gonna shave my chest.” And I’m naked, standing there with the crew and he’s talking to me this way and I’m like, “Um, no I never said I would.” “Yeah, well someone said they talked to you.” I’m like, “No, no someone said they were going to talk to me, I said you’re welcome to try to convince me. We never had that conversation.” “Well you need to shave your chest, cause there’s a rule on this show you shave your chest.” And I’m like, “I’m shooting a scene naked and you’re berating me. You think I’m gonna do a good performance? I have an idea: How about you apologize to me in front of these people and I’ll shave my chest. How ’bout that? How about we do it that way.” And then he did, and then I shaved my chest. So he won - I guess.

Witwer's story during the Smallville NYCC panel was met by support from his fellow castmates - Welling, Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) and Laura Vandervoort (Kara aka Supergirl) - and moderator Garrett Wang, who praised the actor for standing up for himself. Rosenbaum commiserated that "we've all" been berated by the Smallville producer to which Witwer referred. However, the story may be shocking to panel viewers or fans of the show as the producer's treatment of Witwer seems particularly unprofessional. Of course, anyone who didn't work on Smallville, with that producer or wasn't there at the time may not know the whole story, but Witwer's retelling does seem to indicate he's still annoyed with the situation that occurred.

Based on the cast's reaction and even Witwer's recounting of the incident, it seems par for the course on Smallville, but in recent years, those within and without Hollywood have begun to take a hard look at exactly what kinds of behavior are excused in the industry - and whether they should continue to be excused. Earlier this year on Rosenbaum's podcast, fellow Smallville alum James Marsters detailed an incident on Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Joss Whedon yelled at the actor for his character, Spike's, popularity, despite it not being his fault. These kinds of incidents may have been excused as simply part of the filmmaking process at the time, but as Witwer pointed out even then, they actually hinder an actor's ability to do their best work. While the Smallville producer in question may have felt the scene would work best if Witwer's chest was shaved, there must have been a better way to communicate that between the producers and actor so that Witwer didn't have to be "berated" while naked on set. Hopefully Hollywood can learn from Witwer telling this story and work to ensure something like this doesn't happen again on any set.

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Source: New York Comic Con