Henry Cavill and Luke Evans discuss their roles as some of the most well-known and beloved characters of both ancient and contemporary mythology, in films like Superman and ‘The Hobbit’.
Henry Cavill has gone through intense physical training for his role as the man-in-blue in Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, Man of Steel.
This Superman, by all accounts, not only carries the extraordinary gifts of his predecessors but is also one of raw, physical, brute strength and power. At the Los Angeles press event for director Tarsem Singh’s upcoming fantasy-adventure, Immortals, Cavill about how his experience with what the cast jokingly referred to as the “Immortals diet” and workout regime mentally prepared him for the rigorous work he would endure for Superman.
“Any experience on an acting job is good experience because you can take it to the next [job]. The physical experience (on “Immortals”) was obviously wonderful because it’s prepped me for this (“Superman”) physical experience. I’ve learned that when you go to this kind of level, it’s no longer about the physical, it’s more about the mental. It’s about the will power to push yourself into that very dark place. You’re standing next to the precipice, and you’ve got that weight on your shoulders, and you’re only halfway through the workout and you need to push yourself off and just go into that big f**k-off black hole and keep on pushing. “Immortals” prepped me for that emotionally and mentally…in the physical sense, if that makes sense. So, I’m very grateful for that.”
When he and his Immortals co-star, Luke Evans, were asked how they wrap their minds around the scale of archetypal characters such as Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit (Evans) and Superman, they indicated that to think of the largeness of the characters in either the mythological sense – or as it relates to the level of public interest surrounding the projects – would be crippling to their work.
Luke Evans: “It’s just a role at the end of the day. It’s what we do for a living. When you see it on the screen you’re like, ‘Wow.’ You’re overwhelmed by the role that you’ve played. But at the end of the day it’s a role and you approach it as a new challenge, as a new role.”
Henry Cavill: “You can’t look at it from the external viewpoint because it can be crushing.”
Luke Evans: “Daunting as well.”
Henry Cavill: “You’ve got to go, ‘Okay, I’m playing a role.’ And if you approach it any differently from playing any other role — and I’m talking from the place of we approach any role with the same kind of dedication no matter what — if you approach it any differently than any other role then you’re not going to do a good enough job. Because you’ll be worried about what everyone is thinking as opposed to just acting. Which is what it is.”
When Cavil was asked to elaborate on his experience with Snyder’s Superman, he would only say:
“It’s been wonderful. Very hard work, exciting and fun, all of those things. I can’t really say any more.”