New Superman Henry Cavill reveals his delight at landing role in Man of Steel
Nov 10 2011 - Rick Fulton Daily Record
HE WAS labelled "the unluckiest man in Hollywood" but Henry Cavill has bounced back. In fact, his career is set to take off in one of cinema's most iconic roles - Superman.
The Channel Islander, 28, is filming Man of Steel - but it's taken him almost a decade of knockbacks to land his first starring role in a blockbuster.
He was due to play the superhero in director McG's 2004 film Superman: Flyby but McG pulled out of the project and Bryan Singer took over, recasting Brandon Routh in 2006's Superman Returns.
Fans wanted Cavill to play Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but the role went to Robert Pattinson.
Twilight series writer Stephenie Meyer also called Cavill the "perfect Edward". However, by the time production of the first film began, he was too old and, again, the role went to Pattinson.
The star was also on the final list to play James Bond in Casino Royale only for Daniel Craig to get the part.
Despite reports, he didn't audition for Batman in Batman Begins.
However, in December 2005, Empire magazine dubbed Cavill the "unluckiest man in Hollywood" for his near-misses.
Although he's turned it around big time, the critics who once felt sorry for him now have the knives out, saying a Brit shouldn't be playing the all-American Clark Kent and his stars and stripes hero alter-ego.
But Cavill is unfazed.
He said: "If we were really true to the story, I would be an invulnerable alien. But I'm not, I'm an actor. Superman is an American icon. Whether it's an American role or not, I can't be sure.
"Superman stands for 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.
"He is very different and therefore all the more beautiful when he tries to do so much for all of us, who are totally different from him."
It's a good body swerve from the flak and Cavill hopes the film will silence any doubters when it's released in 2013.
There are certainly grumbles already. Early photos had his Superman without the iconic red shorts, although other shots had him wearing them.
And it seems he also doesn't have the famous kiss curl.
Perhaps Americans are touchy because, as Superman, Cavill becomes the third British actor to play the lead role of a comic book superhero. Once again, Christian Bale is Batman and Andrew Garfield is the new Spider-Man.
He also becomes the first non-American to play Superman.
The first on television in 1948 was Kirk Alyn. George Reeves became the first in film, but Christopher Reeve in the 70s and 80s was the most popular in four movies.
In the 90s, Dean Cain took Superman back onto TV and, more recently, Tom Welling in Smallville played him as a young man.
And then Superman Returns. Routh thought he'd hit paydirt in a reboot of the franchise but he only made the one film.
Now, finally, Cavill has the role he Returns thought he had back in 2004.
And he admitted that when he was told, he was very un-Supermanlike in his reaction.
He laughed: "As soon as I hung up, I was leaping up and down and running up and down the stairs and roaring and shouting, and then trying to call everyone but no one was answering their phones. My smile was absolutely enormous."
Although he admits to dressing up as Superman when he was young, as did his brothers and his nephews, Cavill didn't go back over the old films and telly shows.
He admitted: "I didn't want them to influence my interpretation and my performance of the character.
"Where the character truly belongs and where the character truly comes from is not from the movies or the TV shows; it's from the comic books.
"So I went straight to the comic books and had stacks of them. I just read and read and read and read and read.
"I enjoyed so much learning about the character in such a dense manner. The comic books were my source of material; the TV shows and movies were someone else's interpretation."
It's a while before Man of Steel is released so, until then, he's showing off the body that will make the ladies drool in the new Greek mythology epic Immortals, which is released tomorrow. He plays Theseus, a mortal who joins forces with the gods to defeat the Titan Hyperion, played by Mickey Rourke.
Cavill won that role while still working on The Tudors, from 2007 to 2010, in which he played Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
He took the Immortals role, his first Hollywood movie, very seriously, doing push-ups to keep his body in tip-top shape during any time when he wasn't shooting.
For Superman, he's gone even further, knowing tight lycra is unforgiving and using the same trainer who got Gerard Butler in the shape of his life for Leonidas in 300.
He said: "When you're knackered and you're drained and you just don't want to go on any more, you're still doing it. On Immortals, it was very much a body weight sort of training regime, and now on Superman, it's more than body weight, as in lifting weights."
No doubt Cavill will become the next Hollywood action pin-up but he claims he's not thinking about that.
He said: "I'm playing a role, I'm in the role and hopefully whatever messages people will take are their own. People will interpret it however they want.
"I'm certainly not worried about being objectified."
When Cavill, who is engaged to showjumper Ellen Whitaker, was growing up in Jersey, he wished he could have been Superman and flown off the island.
He said: "It is a very small island - nine miles by five - and when I was 13, 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 away. It's a beautiful place, absolutely stunning, and a wonderful place to visit. But growing up there, it's very small. I will always have a base there, because Jersey is a wonderful place.
"I think I'll probably raise my kids there one day, we'll see."
Immortals is out tomorrow
Man of Steel is scheduled for 2013.
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