31 Fascinating Facts About The Fan Favorite Superman – Henry Cavill

Henry Cavill is synonymous in many people’s minds as Superman, with kids growing up wanting to be like him. Although in one of his latest roles, he is preparing to play Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher. There’s no doubt that people can picture him while playing the game or reading the novel. But more than his characters, as the man under the cape is even more interesting and intriguing. Here are a few things about him that will make you love him more:

1. He was dubbed to be “the most unlucky man in Hollywood” in December 2005, when he lost the role of James Bond in “Casino Royale” to Daniel Craig, and the role of Superman in 2006 “Superman Returns,” to Brandon Routh.
2. But he was very quick to turn the tables and is now dubbed as “one of the luckiest men in Hollywood” with his high-profile role of Superman in the DC Extended Universe of films.
3. He was offered the role of August Walker in the “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” publicly through his Instagram account by the director Christopher McQuarrie. He claimed that even being Superman didn’t prepare him for this role, as the training for the extreme stunts in this movie was totally different from the body-sculpting training for Superman.
4. Cavill reportedly declined to use stunt doubles for the action sequences in the upcoming TV series “The Witcher,” as he claimed it was important for him to have people know that the Geralt on screen is Cavill who can do all the Geralt stuff and not just the acting stuff.
5. The veteran stuntman and fight designer Vladimir Furdik, at the Eastern European Comic-con 2019, praised Cavill’s fighting skills and his quick learning skills, and claimed that the actor to be the best he had ever seen in his decades long career. He added that “Henry is excellent, without him they (Netflix) wouldn’t be able to do (the Witcher show), I can guarantee that. I don’t know any actors who are that good with a sword and fight scenes overall as Henry is.
6. It was reported that Tom Cruise was impressed with Cavill’s work in the “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” and wanted to work him. This made him propose the idea of having Henry Cavill as Agent Walker in the “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” to director Christopher McQuarrie.
7. In preparation for his role as Geralt of Rivia, he underwent extensive sword-training, and a rigorous bodybuilding regime, to get into the best shape of his life. He is said to have spent all his free time practicing, and when he was not on set, he had a sword in his hand to get used to the weight of it. He had three swords in his residence, and four at his work place.
8. His special gym training regime included strengthening his posterior to help with Geralt’s pirouette sword-fighting technique, in which he spins a lot. Cavill also developed his abs and obliques in order to allow for explosive movement.
9. Author Stephanie Meyer of the famous “Twilight” series claimed that she based the description of the lead character of Edward Cullen on Henry Cavill, and even lobbied for him to play the role. But he was considered too old to play a 17-year old, and Robert Pattinson was cast.
10. In the year 2013, he was ranked as the #1 “Sexiest Man” by Glamour magazine, as well as one of the “World’s Sexiest Men” in a poll by Attitude.
11. It was Cavill who kept on pursuing the role of Geralt in “The Witcher,” until he was offered. He had his agent repeatedly bother Netflix for a meeting, just as he got wind of the news of the show being made.
12. However, when the most awaited meeting happened, he was turned down by show-runner Lauren Schmidt, as she hadn’t written even a single word for the script and was not sure if he would be good for the role.
13. In the movie “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” his co-star Alec Baldwin found it particularly challenging to execute his fight scene with Henry Cavill, just because of Cavill’s sheer size and musculature. Baldwin commented that Cavill is really Superman and that his body is so big and is like it’s made of marble.
14. The glasses his character of Clark Kent wears in the movie “Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, were specifically made by British spectacle designer Tom Davies for Cavill, as he has a high bridge, and most glasses sat too high on his face.
15. He claimed that he was very relieved and glad to not have any shirtless scene in the movie “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” as he could focus on his performance for once and not his physique and that took enormous amount of work to present on screen.
16. Nearly after a period of four months, when the script of “The Witcher” was complete, show -runner Lauren Schmidt is said to have tested around 207 actors for Geralt, but was not satisfied with anyone. She claimed that she kept hearing Cavill’s voice speaking the lines of Geralt.
17. So she called Cavill again for audition and had him read the lines of Geralt in front of her. On hearing his deep voice live, she instantly knew Cavill was the best choice for the character.
18. Cavill, being a die-hard fan of “The Witcher,” has already played all the games and also has completely read all the Witcher novels. This made it really easy for him, as he was well-versed in the lore and also well-aware of the story and his character.
19. He claims the role of Geralt of Rivia, in “The Witcher,” to be his “Dream come true,” for him and that it was “an absolute honor to play Geralt” as the character is very close to his heart.
20. It was reported that, in the set of “Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice,” he performed the ALS ice bucket challenge, along with his co-star Amy Adam. However, it was said that even after the challenge, extra buckets of ice were thrown on him.
21. In “The Witcher” TV series, it was reported that Cavill’s performance was so on-point, conveying everything through his performance, that show-runner Lauren Schmidt did not require writing much dialog. They had shot the first episode with a lot of lines for Geralt, but in the final edit, most of the scenes were cut, as Henry was able to do so much better with Geralt, without words.
22. His character Napoleon Solo’s trick of removing a tablecloth from a table, without disturbing the objects on it, from the movie “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”, was not a visual effect and was in fact performed by Cavill himself. He trained with British variety star Mat Ricardo to learn the trick.
23. In preparation for his role as Superman in “Man of Steel” he refused to use any digital touch-ups or enhancements to his body for his shirtless scenes, as he felt it would be dishonest of him to use trickery while playing the Superhero, and that he wanted to push his body to the limits and develop a physique that was worthy of the character.
24. He began his intense training regimen for his role of Theseus in the movie “Immortals,” six months before the shooting started. He even paid for the trainers until the producers acquired funding and opted for the tabata-style training regiment, consisting of only body weight exercises, rather than any weight training.
25. The suits that his character of Napoleon Solo wears in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” were specifically tailored to fit him, by the renowned British tailor Timothy Everest.
26. During one of the costume fittings at the Timothy Everest’s shop, he broke the trailer room door accidentally of its hinges, which has been kept as a memento of them time when “Superman” broke their door.
27. He claimed that the most difficult part of shooting for the movie “Man of Steel” was the filming of shirtless scenes, as he went on an extremely difficult diet and training regimen, reducing his calorie intake to just fifteen hundred from five thousand.
28. He claimed that on the sets of “Immortals, there was a healthy competition among all of the male actors, to determine “who had the best abs.” His co-star Mickey Rourke who played the role of King Hyperion claimed that Cavill would do two thousand push-ups daily before he went in front of the camera.
29. But he had to lose all the muscle tone and mass that he gained over six months to get the body of a average ordinary man, for his character of Will in “The Cold Light of Day.” He just ate and drank a lot, without working out, to achieve an ordinary man’s physique.
30. In the movie “Man of Steel,” director Zack Snyder really wanted to have a shirtless scene of Cavill, as he wanted to show to the audience that it was in reality Cavill’s body in the form fitting body suit and not just some rubber muscles.
31. Henry Cavill Net Worth: $20 Million