Mickey Rourke as King Hyperion in Immortals.
Photograph by: Alliance Films, .
LOS ANGELES - Henry Cavill and Freida Pinto are enjoying the best of times right now.
After separately struggling to make names for themselves in the film industry, they share a new movie and higher profiles in Hollywood.
Cavill, 28, and Pinto, 27, are co-stars in the 3-D epic fantasy, Immortals, which opens in theatres Nov. 11.
Add to Cavill's resume the Superman part in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, currently filming in Vancouver. Pinto, who had her break out in 2008's Slumdog Millionaire, was featured in the box-office hit, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this past summer.
In Immortals, the Tarsem Singh-directed R-rated gods-and-monsters film shot in Montreal last year, Cavill plays Theseus. He's the mortal chosen by Zeus (Luke Evans) to fight for Greece against warrior king, Hyperion (Mickey Rourke). The nasty ruler leads his army on a rampage in search of the virgin oracle priestess (Pinto) and the whereabouts of a magical weapon.
Massive battles and major sword fights highlight the production, which also includes an intimate lovemaking sequence between Cavill's Theseus and Pinto's priestess.
"He was an absolute gentleman, and those are the kinds of actors that you want to work with," said Pinto, who joined Cavill to promote the movie at a Beverly Hills hotel recently.
In fact, the sex scene was the least of Cavill's concerns. He needed to stay in shape, and hit the training room as much as he prepared his Immortals lines.
"I trained for six months before we even started shooting," Cavill recalled. "I was on The Tudors (TV series), getting up at 4 a.m., doing a basic martial-arts routine and sword stuff, just to get ready for Immortals."
Indeed, the tone of the mythological world was easier to tap into for Cavill. "Before we even started filming (in Montreal), Tarsem (Singh) did this wonderful thing of building Immortals mini-sets and creating a story board, and he talked us through the entire movie."
That didn't necessarily help Pinto prepare to play a virgin priestess, but she's fine with that, too.
"As an actor, you live to be in an imaginary world," she said. "So when I was finally asked to play the oracle, I decided to feel like I was born to do that."
Not quite. Raised in Mumbai, India, Pinto was a successful model when she decided to give acting a try in 2004. She had smaller parts in low-profile shows before her Latika role in 2008's Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire catapulted her into international stardom.
"I guess the biggest struggle is getting your foot in the door," she said. "Once you get there, then you have to be brave enough to embrace all the challenges that come your way, and make it happen for yourself. I guess the one thing that keeps you going is the belief that it will happen."
Cavill, from the island of Jersey off the coast of England, believed. He made his movie debut in 2002's The Count of Monte Cristo. Assorted TV projects followed and a few more films, some as divergent as 2005's Hellraiser: Hellworld and 2006's Tristan & Isolde.
In 2007, he started to turns heads with his Duke of Suffolk in the acclaimed cable series, The Tudors, but he points out he still has to aggressively audition for parts despite his higher profile.
"It's quite funny when people assume I am picking things from a well of jobs," Cavill said. "It's not that way."
Pinto understands how he feels. She refuses to take things for granted, and says she's lucky to do independent films and special-effects blockbusters such as Immortals and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
"I've done three very good independent films, and I had a lot of fun working on those," she said of Slumdog Millionaire and the upcoming Trishna and Black Gold. .
"I wanted to try something different. And I watch big-budget films, and I'm completely enthralled and entertained by them. So why not be a part of them, as well?"
Certainly, Cavill's Clark Kent/Superman role should vault him into the A-list, when the reboot of the superhero franchise gets its much anticipated release in 2013.
And, just maybe, the actor will land a post-Superman role that doesn't involve cardio and weight training.
Apparently, his Man of Steel workouts are even more intense than the Immortals regimen.
"Every day (in Vancouver), it is 3 a.m. to train and 5 a.m. to go to work," he said.
Veteran Mickey Rourke chuckled when his Immortals co-star's single-minded enthusiasm comes up.
"I tell people that it was so nice to be on set and see a young actor (Cavill) doing his pushups and jumping around," said Rourke. "I remember when I used to get that excited, but it was nice to see that every day Henry couldn't wait to go to work.
"I couldn't wait to get off work," he added. "Fifteen years from now, Henry is going to understand how I feel."
