Dean Cain slams Superman co-star Teri Hatcher as ‘difficult’ years after rumors of on-set feud

Superman and Lois Lane are an iconic comic book duo – but rumors have long-swirled that the real-life actors had a less than compatible relationship.

Dean Cain, who played Clark Kent in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, recently shed some light on his sometimes fraught relationship with co-star Teri Hatcher.

While Cain, 58, called Hatcher, 60, ‘the best Lois Lane of all time’ – saying that sometimes working together with her was ‘the greatest thing in the world’ – he revealed that other times, it was ‘a lot more difficult.’

On a recent episode of the Inside of You podcast, Cain, who co-starred with Hatcher from 1993 to 1997, looked back at the their time on the show together.

Cain admitted he was taken aback the first time he met the actress, recalling an awkward interaction to host Michael Rosenbaum.

‘[After I was cast, we had a chemistry read]. The last one they said was Teri. They go, “Teri wants you to go and run lines with her,”‘ he explained.

‘No other girl had asked me to run lines,’ he continued. ‘She’s in this room and she goes, “You don’t like me, do you? We were at the network together. You never talked to me. You didn’t say hi to me.”‘

He said he shot back: ‘You didn’t say hi to me either. I was just trying to get a job. They never paired us up. I had no reason to talk to you.’

‘But that right there was the relationship between Lois and Clark,’ he pointed out. ‘Lois drove the series and that was her.’

Dean Cain, who played Clark Kent in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, recently shed some light on his sometimes fraught relationship with co-star Teri Hatcher 

While Cain revealed the Desperate Housewives alum didn’t speak to him for a ‘short’ time, he insists they ‘didn’t have a big [falling-out].’

He added they are ‘still very friendly’ to this day.

‘Overall, it was amazing. Incredible. What a way to start a career, what a way to learn what doing a one-hour series is like,’ the actor gushed.

The former Ripley’s Believe It or Not! host continued saying there were times where the pair had ‘great chemistry,’ and working together ‘was just the easiest thing in the world.’

‘Other times, I just wanted to finish and go home. I almost feel like she didn’t,’ he continued.

He explained he felt the Desperate Housewives alum would often focus on the wrong thing.

‘There were times where I felt like, “I don’t think she wants to go home because she’s worried about this one little thing that has nothing to do with what we’re doing. And that’s slowing us down for two-and-a-half hours,”‘ he complained.

He continued: ‘I’m a team guy. I’m real simple. Plug me in and let’s go. I’m here to get this done as fast as we can.’

While Cain, 58, called Hatcher, 60, ‘the best Lois Lane of all time’ – saying that sometimes working together with her was ‘the greatest thing in the world’ – he revealed that other times, it was ‘a lot more difficult’ 

While Cain revealed the Desperate Housewives alum didn’t speak to him for a ‘short’ time, he insists they ‘didn’t have a big [falling-out]’

Cain said that he and Hatcher (pictured in 2025)  are ‘still very friendly’ to this day

However, Cain said the actress ‘carried the show,’ and overall he enjoyed working with her.

‘I just got to react off her. It worked wonderfully. It was a great pairing,’ he gushed. ‘She’s an icon.’

Cain was set for a promising American football career before a knee injury forced him to change course – appearing in advertisements and in bit parts on TV shows.

He rose to real fame after his winning smile, good looks and chiseled frame won him the part of Clark Kent in The New Adventures of Superman. He later appeared in other comic book roles in Smallville and Supergirl.

Hatcher, who went on to star in Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997, admitted last year she didn’t get to fully ‘enjoy’ her time as a Bond girl. 

The actress explained she was pregnant with daughter Emmerson at the time if making the film, in which she starred opposite Pierce Brosnan.

She explained ‘being a mother’ was at the ‘forefront’ of her mind.

‘I do step back with a lot of gratitude. Tomorrow Never Dies was a very small role, perfect as I was secretly nine weeks pregnant. It was only two weeks, a couple of scenes, then I’d be too pregnant to keep working,’ she told the Guardian newspaper.

‘But the pregnancy got leaked and it was out of my control,’ she added.

‘I don’t think you’d get away with that anymore. Women’s rights are much stronger. You’re allowed to have privacy.’

Hatcher and her ex-husband, actor Jon Tenney, whom she shares her daughter with, divorced in 2003. 

Cain and Hatcher reunited in 2018 on a panel to discuss  Lois & Clark  at the Comic-Con panel in New York City