Interview: Henry Cavill and Luke Evans talk “IMMORTALS” – Gods, Superheros and hobbits
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Written by: Ryan Rojas Tonight At The Movies
Starring in an action movie called Immortals seems like a daunting task. Even more daunting is to star in a movie called Immortals that is being publicized as being “from the producers of ‘300′” — one of the most beloved and high intensity action films in recent times. Even more daunting is to do all of that while executing fight sequences half naked. But all of these worries go unnoticed, forgotten even, when watching the larger than life movie. And that’s because Henry Cavill and Luke Evans are up to the challenge of commanding the screen. Cavill as Theseus, a peasant called upon to lead an army of men, and Evans as Zeus, the god who calls upon Theseus, show why they are currently two of the industry’s most in-demand-talents. Tonight at the Movies sat down with them both at the recent press day in LA at a round-table interview, catching up on their hometowns (both international), training regimes, as well as talking about two little films each are slated to star in. One called Superman: Man of Steel, the other The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Read on to find out what they had to say.
TATM: Henry, I hear you were doing push ups all the time between shooting during “Immortals”?
Henry Cavill: Yeah, it was a physically taxing job, that’s for sure.
TATM: Are you keeping up? You guys still look quite fit.
HC: On the present job, yes, I’m keeping up and doing more. On Immortals, it was very much a body weight sort of training regime, and now on this next job, it’s even more than body weight and lifting weights.
TATM: For “Superman”?
HC: Yes, a very different type of thing.
Luke Evans: Is that what you’re doing? [Laughter]
HC: Someone told me that, anyways.
TATM: How did you handle your fight scenes for “Immortals?”
HC: When it comes to fight scenes, there’s a certain delicate balance you have to have. You have to have the intensity of a real fight…and also an extraordinary amount of control because if you’re going to be fighting for three days doing the same stuff over and over, you’ll be exhausted by the end of it if you’re doing it for real, so you need to conserve your energy and you need to pull your punches and you need to just make it look real as opposed to do it for real.
LE: It’s a rehearsed technique
HC: Yeah, it’s a dance. It’s why they call it fight choreography.
TATM: Both of you have high-profile projects coming up; are you both ready for stardom?
HC: I don’t think anyone’s ready.
LE: It is what it is, isn’t it? It’s sort of, you just train, keep it real, and keep going to the pub…I mean that’s what it’s about. You can’t get too wrapped up in all that.
HC: Exactly- take your time. Continue doing what you’re doing.
LE: I’m in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand, so it’s great, and completely in this little bubble of Peter [Jackson] and the dwarves.
TATM: Luke, I wasn’t expecting Zeus to look so young. What did you want to bring to your character in this version?
LE: It was a very different take on the king of the Gods, cause we’re all very used to seeing the movie history of when Zeus has been portrayed he’s been portrayed by Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson, quite recently- I played his son, a bit odd. So Tarsem had to convince me and gave me the idea, he sold it to me, he said, ‘If you were a God, why on Earth would you want to be old, wrinkly, slightly achy, sit in a big throne and do very little?’ He said, ‘You choose to be young, verile, fit, and if you need to pick up a sword and fight you could.’ And so it was a mental challenge for me to think of myself as being the father of Isabel Lucas and Daniel Sherman, that was a very weird thing. But I just thought of my granddad basically, I just thought, ‘Well, how did he talk to me when I was a kid?” And I just sort of imbued my granddad.
TATM: What did you feel was the contrast in terms of having played another god, Apollo, in “The Clash of the Titans,” in a movie so completely different in style?
LE: Completely different. At the end of the day, I’m an actor playing a role…The roles are so different- in this one Zeus is so hands on, he’s a badass, will fight with anything, and he’s got a lot to do.
HC: He’s a honey badger [Laughter].
TATM: What was your experience like working with Tarsem Singh?
HC: I think the great thing about Tarsem is the fact that he was so visual. One would assume that that may cause difficulties when shooting, but it’s quite the opposite, because the prep was so extraordinary, and he had all the artwork, and all the sets built in miniature, so we had an exact idea of which environment we were going to end up in, and what world we were therefore living in. And when it came to shooting, we knew exactly where we were. And his visuals don’t get in the way of our performance at all- he would let us do our thing, and he did his thing very much behind the scenes, and didn’t allow that to affect our work in any way whatsoever. So hugley beneficial working with a director like Tarsem.
LE: He has an incredible enthusiasm too, which I’ve never experienced in a human being…he’d deliver one hundred and fifty percent every single day and you just felt like you had to try and match it. And that’s a great thing, this energy you bring to set, you just always felt like you owed it to him to come to the table with as much passion and energy as he did.
TATM: So, where are you both from?
LE: I’m Welsh.
HC: I’m from a very small island called Jersey, right between England and France, I consider myself British.
TATM: Do you both still live there?
HC: I live in London, wherever I’m working
LE: Me too.
TATM: What was it like to grow up in Jersey?
HC: It is a very small island, nine miles by five (laughter). When I was thirteen I was very eager to get off the island and go to boarding school, as much as I was very homesick as soon as I left home, I was keen to get off the island. Beautiful place, absolutely stunning, and a wonderful place to go visit, but growing up there, very small. I will always have a base there, because Jersey is a wonderful place. I think I’ll probably, I might raise my kids there, one day.
TATM: After doing a role like this, and Superman now, is there any different way of preparing for the role and getting into that mindset??
HC: With something as epic as Superman is, you can only go straight to source material , and you just read that ‘til you’re blue in the face, or in the suit (laughter) and you take as much as you possibly can from that. With things like Theseus, it’s all there in the stories…it’s things I read as a boy growing up, and so I’ve always had that sort of fantasy world in my head, and it was quite simple to make that transition from it being in my head to making it real, or at least dramatically real.
TATM: Any worries on taking on such a beloved American roles?
HC: Well he’s an American icon, whether it’s an American role or not I can’t be sure. Superman is a universal image, and what he stands for is something very universal. He was certainly raised in America, but he himself is not necessarily an American, because he’s come from a place very far away and very different and he is very different, and therefore all the more beautiful when he tries to do so much for all of us, who are so different from him.
LE: “Planet Jersey” [Laughter].
TATM: How did you respond to being featured onscreen with, really, hardly any clothes?
LE: When you take on a role, a job like this, you know what you’re letting yourself in for, and we had to trust Tarsem and believe that he was gonna make us look right, and on the right side of what you just said, and I think he managed to do it. I mean it’s quite a feat wearing a gold skirt and a gold cape and not feeling absolutely ridiculous in it, but I think Tarsem knew he could achieve the right effect if we just let him do it, and I think he did. I watched it a couple days ago and I was pleasantly surprised — and slightly relieved.
HC: Just plain faith in the director. He will let you do what you do and it’s just a trust in him to put the best of what you’ve done together.
TATM: So you didn’t feel objectified at all? There was that one crotch shot...
LE: There were a few [Laughter].
HC: It’s not really something I think about. I’m playing a role, I’m in the role, and hopefully whatever messages people will make are there own-
LE: -I need to get to the gym! [Laughter].
HC: I certainly don’t worry about it.
TATM: Luke, can you talk at all about ‘The Hobbit’?
LE: I can, yes. I can’t talk a lot about it otherwise I’d be strung-up. Yeah, I’ve been in New Zealand, I’ve done eight weeks of shooting, and I’ve had a break to do press for this and (The Three Muskateers) and then I go back in three weeks time and carry on. It’s an extraordinary experience, I feel like I’m part of a family there.
TATM: Was making this film the first time you both had met?
HC: We initially met on a photo shoot, very briefly-
LE: In London.
HC: And it was just, ‘Hey how you doin,’ had a chat, got on, and knew some of the same people, but that was it really, and then we saw each other on Immortals and it was like, ‘How the fuck are you doing!’ [Laugher]
LE: It was great wasn’t it? I turned up several weeks before we started shooting, and went straight into training and jumped in with Henry and sixteen stuntmen and basically we just sort of trained together, ate together, drank together, went out together, you know, we did everything.
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