Henry Cavill - 'Immortals' Flicks and Bits

Henry Cavill Interview For Tarsem Singh’s ‘Immortals’

Flicks and Bits

Visionary director Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) and producers Gianni Nunnari (300), Mark Canton (300) and Ryan Kavanaugh (The Fighter) unleash an epic tale of treachery, vengeance and destiny in ‘Immortals,’ a stylish and spectacular 3-D adventure. As a power-mad king razes ancient Greece in search of a legendary weapon, a heroic young villager rises up against him in a thrilling quest as timeless as it is powerful. The brutal and bloodthirsty King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his murderous Heraklion army are rampaging across Greece in search of the long lost Bow of Epirus. With the invincible Bow, the king will be able to overthrow the Gods of Olympus and become the undisputed master of his world. With ruthless efficiency, Hyperion and his legions destroy everything in their wake, and it seems nothing will stop the evil king’s mission. As village after village is obliterated, a stonemason named Theseus (Henry Cavill) vows to avenge the death of his mother in one of Hyperion’s raids. When Theseus meets the Sybelline Oracle, Phaedra (Freida Pinto), her disturbing visions of the young man’s future convince her that he is the key to stopping the destruction. With her help, Theseus assembles a small band of followers and embraces his destiny in a final desperate battle for the future of humanity. ‘Immortals’ is set for release November 11th 2011. Look out for a more in-depth interview with Henry Cavill and the rest of the cast closer to the films release date.

What was the appeal of this project?

Henry Cavill: Tarsem Singh, the way he described each individual piece, just his vision for the movie. Also, when you’re growing up as a boy, the idea of playing a sword-wielding hero, and beating up the bad guys is always a fun thing, and you get to play it in the big leagues, and for real, and get the real costumes on, and have all the special effects. But ultimately it was down to director Tarsem Singh. Reading the script, it had a few kinks in it initially, but Tarsem’s vision was the one thing that sold me on it, and his passion for it. Even if Tarsem came to me with a piece of wood and pretended it was a script and said, ‘No really, I’m really passionate about this,’ he would be able to sell me on it, and it would be an amazing piece of wood (laughs).


The world Tarsem creates in this film is striking…

Henry Cavill: The artistry that Tarsem has added to this, it makes it a different word. It is a different world, it’s not a world we would necessarily recognise, parts of it are, but it is straight out of Tarsem’s mind. It’s new, it’s stunning, it’s beautiful, it’s breathtaking. Yet it’s also dark, brutal and scary at the same time. It definitely provides a feast for the eyes, it really gets your adrenaline going as well.



This is a physical role, aesthetically to look the part and also with the fighting. How did you prepare to play Theseus?

Henry Cavill: We were given certain briefs that actually changed as we were training. They wanted photographic evidence of how I was doing so it was very difficult initially. Then when we finally got our groove, we finally got our brief on what they wanted me to look like, we just trained and trained and trained and trained and trained and trained…..it was 8 hours a day in the gym, 5 days a week – a crazy amount of training. We worked on my dynamic movement, so when it came to me learning the choreography, the stunts, it wasn’t as taxing as it could have been. The physical training was extensive and exhausting. I think I was doing 9 to 5 at one stage with the training.

That must have helped you get the ball rolling with the training for Superman?

Henry Cavill: Yeah, I certainly learnt a lot, just going through that process once. You learn how to do it more efficiently the second time. Although I’ve had a trainer both times, it’s a very different kind of thing for Superman. For example, I’m 25 pounds heavier now than I was in ‘Immortals.’ That is enough said really. It’s prepared me mentally. When you have that negotiation, when you’re training and you get to that rep which is difficult, and you know you’ve got 10 more reps to go in that 1 set, and another 5 sets after that, and you say, ‘I don’t really have to do this. I can do something else. If I just put the weights down, and have a bit more rest, it will be fine.’ It teaches you how to negotiate and win the negotiation, and how to notice the lie in your head, which is like, ‘Oh, it hurts, it’s dangerous,’ as opposed to, ‘Yeah, it hurts, but that’s good.’ As my new trainer says, ‘It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun.’ That’s very telling.

The fight with King Hyperion is vicious….

Henry Cavill: The fight with King Hyperion is a brutal, messy….it’s just two exhausted men who want to tear each others throats out, it’s non-stylised – it was a painful experience (laughs). It’s in a small space, they’re just throwing each other against the walls, hitting each other with anything that may kill them. This is the human representation of the conflict between the Gods and the Titans, these are the chosen champions on either side. And this is not sort of Wu Shu Martial Arts, or anything like that – there’s some Jiu Jitsu, there’s some grappling in there, but these guys…..they basically just kick the crap out of each other (laughs), that was fun.