When Henry Cavill bagged the role that any actor would have given an arm and a leg for, there was much speculation. Was he the right choice? Would he be able to live up to a character like Clark Kent/ Kal-El in 'The Man of Steel' — Superman? But the British actor, who also starred in the TV Show 'Tudors', says that he was ‘surprised because he expected a no’ when he heard that he had bagged the role.
An intense period of training followed, which gave way to a goÂrÂÂgeously ripped body that was amply shown off in the movie. Now, with the release of the 'Man of Steel' on Blu Ray by Home Entertainment Services by Sony DADC, Cavill is back in the news again. Here are exÂcÂeÂrÂpts from an exclusive interview:
Bagging the role
My first thought when I found out that I got the role, was surprise. I was prepared for ‘no’ because ‘no’ is what I’ve always been used to. I was used to striving very hard for the big role, getting very close and then not getting it. And then as soon as ‘yes’ happened, I didn’t quite know how to react. It was a very private moment of joy and it took hours and hours for it finally to come out and become a very real external sense of joy.
A hero is only as good as the villain
Working with Michael ShannÂon (who essays Zod in the film) was a pleasure. If you ask me whether we pushed each other as actors, I would say, I don’t think there was never any real intention to do so... I find actors — goÂod actors — feed off each other as opposed to push each other.
An actor prepares
Mark White and Mike Blevins from Gym Jones are the guys who put me through a process of foundation work, so I could understand and get used to the workload. And then we went through a very technical phase so that I could get all the very difficult movements down.
After the technical phase, I went onto a mass building phase. Mass building is doing the really big heavy lifting and a very, very high caloric intake. After that, you tend to be a little chubby because you’re getting so many calories in.
Then, we did a leaning process before we started shooting. Throughout shooting we had sculpting and just fine tuning here and there. It was six weeks of hard work, cardio, leaning and then afterwards just maintenance.
A superpower just for Cavill
I think flight would be the most useful. I think we could probably all agree on that — no waiting in security lines, no taking shoes and belt off at the airport all the time and you can go see loved ones whenever you want.
