An Interview with a Quarterback - Brad Flock - Clark's Nemesis

Researching people to discuss the making of these movies with ranges from the relatively easy to the almost impossible. Many of the actors from the Donner movies went on to continue with careers in the industry, other small parts went onto to establish careers for themselves and sometimes, well, sometimes people just disappeared.

In the Smallville set portion of 'Superman The Movie' a young Clark (played by Jeffrey East) is finishing tidying away the football uniforms when he shares a moment with the apple of his eye Lana when this is disturbed by Lana's boyfriend (and star quarterback) Brad.

Brad the Footballer, Clark's Nemesis

I always wondered what happened to the actor who played Brad as from what I could tell he never continued a career in the film industry. It was when researching that I came across a small lead, I followed it and it lead to correspondence with Brad Flock, the actor who agreed to sit and answer some questions about his time on the movie and his life after his Big Screen Adventure.

Without further ado, please enjoy a Superman35 exclusive interview with the coolest guy at Smallville High...

S35 - Thanks again for agreeing to answer some questions about your time on
Superman.

How did you come to be cast for the role?  Can you recall exactly where the football practice scene was shot and how long it took? 

BF - I was a young child actor in theatre, in Calgary productions of 'Life with Father' and 'Annie Get your Gun', 'Cat on a hot tin roof' etc. I also did modeling for the department store magazines and things like that. When 'Prime Cut' was shot in Calgary, I tried out and won a small speaking part in that appearing with Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, Sissy Spacek. During the shoot, Gene Hackman was talking about this interesting movie they just finished filming in Paris and he thought it might be good, a little movie called 'The Franch Connection'.

When Superman came along I was at University of Calgary, I heard they were looking for extras and I went to the modeling agency they were using. They asked me to come down to the Calgary Inn (now the Westin) to read lines. I did and about a week later they called me to tell me I got the part. Very exciting!

We were on set for several scenes, the one you mention at the school, was shot in a small town outside Lethbridge in Southern Alberta, Picture Butte, between Calgary and the Montana border. I remember they made the sign on the school say Smallville High. 

The shooting took a long time because it was raining and we mostly sat around and waited….so happy to do that as we were still being paid. I kept doing the rain dance actually. I was being paid very good money for a young student, having fun and wanted it to continue.

I was on the set for 3.5 weeks….for my small part. The car scenes were actually filmed several miles away. A lady named Alberta owned that car and she was not happy about the way I was driving it and she told me so. Very interesting old car that shifted gears with the gas pedal.

S35 - Was there a sense, at the time of shooting that this film would go on to be the huge success that it has, what you thoughts were on being cast and how you prepared to shoot the scenes? Were you provided with a copy of the script or just sides to work from?

BF - Yes, there was a sense of excitement that this was a big budget movie being shot in and around Calgary. I later learned that it was the most expensive movie ever made at the time. I thought it was very cool being cast and I tried as hard as I could. When you’re in the moment you are really just doing it and experiencing it, then after you realize wow that was cool – which is definitely what happened.

I worked with Jeff East and Richard Donner to prepare for my scenes. Richard says to me, ‘What’s your name kid?’ – I said Brad….so he yells out ‘OK we’ll call him Brad’. Then he made me get my hair cut shorter. I didn’t have much of a script but I had my section, my lines.

I also worked with my girlfriend at the time, or family that was on the set. My sister and mother came to the set one day and they were walking over, but unbeknownst to them they were in a scene and everyone yelled for them to duck down while they shot. At the wrap party Richard Donner pointed at me and said to the crowd – 'This one’s going to be a star'.

S35 - With a speaking role in one of the culturally largest films of all time you must, at the time of release, had a great excitement to see yourself on the big screen cut into the flow of the story. Can you describe this experience and whether it ultimately led to any negativity from your peers? Was there a big local screening of the movie?

BF - GREAT excitement for sure. There was a big opening in Calgary and I was able to take several people to it. We had an opening night party at my house, then we all went to the film. It was surreal really, people were looking at me, whispering things, asking questions. No negativity at all; only positive from friends and peers and everyone. Some ribbing for sure about how I was the mean one to Superman Clark Kent…….’told ya he’s an oddball, let’s get outa here’. 

Most people in Calgary know I was that guy in that movie, anyone who knows me anyway, I have affiliated myself with this for years, ever since the film came out. I have dressed for Halloween as Superman almost every year since 1978 (well not exactly, but many many many times). I would go with my son as Superboy. Sometimes I go as Clark Kent, and I can take my hat, glasses, coat off and underneath is the full superman outfit. 

My 50^th birthday was a huge Superman themed party. A limo picked me up at my house and took me to the back parking lot in an industrial part of town, behind a Chinese laundry. The driver told me to go in. I go in and there are 2 young Chinese ladies working in the back, they cannot even speak English, one of them points to a briefcase and says 'bathroom'. I go into this sleazy dirty bathroom in this Chinese laundry place and open the briefcase inside is a Superman costume and a walkman cd player, I plug in the headphones and hit play and it starts out da da da-da  duh duh duh-duh  – the theme from Mission Impossible - and a voice says. "Mr Flock your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find 10 superhero women across Calgary tonight. You will be given clues as to who they are and where you can find them etc etc….then it goes into the first clue.  

I phone my son, who is actually in Los Angeles, in Acting School at the New York Film Academy, he doesn’t answer, I get his voicemail and I say – "Brandon I am in the bathroom in the back of a Chinese laundry place, mission impossible is playing on a tape and they want me to put on a superman costume….what should I do?"  *laughs*   Well I put on the suit, went back out to the limo and the first superhero woman was waiting in the limo for me. There was a song written for me on the CD, songs integrated into the clues – it was majorly well done. On we went to find Superwoman, Batwoman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Bradleys Angels (after Charlie's, as you know), the Bionic Woman, Pepe Le Pew (don’t ask) and Agent 99.

At the end of the hunt we ended up at a house party with a hundred or more people. I walk into the party all chatty and bouncy after having a super great time, and then I look across the room and there is my son Brandon, so that voicemail was wasted.... Well I stop talking to whoever and bound across the room to him for a hug. Later that night he performed a song he wrote for me – Secretly Aging Man. 

In the restaurant where I was to find Bradley’s Angels (they were hiding in the men’s bathroom, photo below)…a little boy at dinner with his parents says ‘Dad – it’s Superman” I picked the boy up and flew him around the restaurant.

May have been the greatest night of my life. 

S35 - The scenes were shot at a period in the making of the movie where stresses between Dick Donner and the Producers were beginning to show were you aware of any tension at all or was it simply a case of getting the shots in the can? Were your scenes directed by Dick himself or by his 2nd Unit?

BF - No, I didn't notice anything at all, no tension or anything. I read about all that much later and how they switched directors in the middle of Superman 2(which much was shot in tandem with 1) for Richard Lester.  My scenes were directed by Richard Donner, and I didn’t know how big he was at the time either. He was the big booming voice in charge though. 

I do remember one incident actually, Richard Donner was getting a stack of cash from Petty Cash. I just remember him going up to a booth or a table and asking for some cash and they gave it to him….thought that was pretty cool.

One other scene – we had a cereal box of corn flakes on the breakfast table in the house…but in Canada the box label also has French on it. They literally had someone drive to Montana to get an American box of corn flakes.

S35 - Did you keep hold of any of the items from filming, your call sheets, letters from the office, script sides etc?

No – probably should have, would be nice to have, I definitely should have.

S35 - Did you watch the further movies in the franchise and notably Gavin O'Herlihy's performance as an older, drunken, dead beat Brad? Were you in someway a little disappointed that Brad ended up that way?

BF - Absolutely, yes. I did watch all the Superman movies… still do.  Much of Superman 3 was shot in Calgary again and I kind of tried to try out for the part again…I was older, he was older, but I guess it went to an established actor.

As far as how Brad ended up, well I guess that’s how the bad guy should end up in the movies... That’s what I get for being mean to Clark Kent. 

S35 - 35 years is a long time ago. Ultimately, to be in a film with Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford and Christopher Reeve is a heck of thing to have under your belt. Are you proud of your performance in the movie?

BF - ALL THAT AND MORE.  As I say just about everyone knows and it has been part of me and my persona since that day BUT I must say I don’t bring it up to people I haven’t met, and I don’t go out of my way to brag about it. Just over time basically everyone knows….and when it does come up to new people, it’s always fun. 

People have looked me up on IMDB. Actually once I was buying a house, the owner I was buying it from googled me and she said there is an actor going by the name of Brad Flock. I said "Really? I didn’t know that". It took about an hour, or maybe it was the next day, for me to realize it was me. When I explained it to her she was shocked. 

In Superman I had the second largest part played by a Canadian, second to Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane. 

S35 - I could sense an element of surprise in the original email response. Do you find it strange that over three decades later people from the other side of the world are contacting you to discuss the movie? Why do you think that this movie touched people in the way that it did?

BF - Yes I certainly was surprised and, as you noticed, I was even suspicious – like "what is this, where is this coming from?" , but as you say it is the 35^th anniversary.  

Why did it touch people? I think it had been a long time since Superman was majorly exposed. Now there's a new Superhero movie every couple of years but at the time I think it was a fresh new take on Superman. 

Christopher Reeve brought a fresh take, the whole cleanliness of it; 'Truth, Justice and the American Way'. Superman brings hope. And I think at a time when the public was ready for it….Vietnam just ended in 1975. Mario Puzo’s writing was super – it created an actual plot. It was also, after George Reeves and the TV episodes…now here he is...Superman. On the big screen with better special effects…..and as I say a fresh, clean, wholesome dude. 



S35 - Finally, what have you been up to the last 35 years, where does life find you now?

BF - I still live in Calgary, the city I was born in. People often asked me why didn’t I go to LA, to Hollywood – I really never gave it any thought…I was in university, and my plan was to graduate. I graduated from the University of Calgary, started my career in technology at IBM, married a beautiful girl and had a most beautiful son. 

I have travelled all over the world with my family, have been very successful in business and that allowed for the many great adventures I have enjoyed with my family.  We are writing a book about life, love, adventure and loss; which I think will make a fantastic movie.



I'd like to thank Brad for his time answering the questions for the project and for his memories that he's shared with us.

Hope you enjoyed.