…”It’s the human outlook on Superman,” says Cavill, “and that is why such a major thing happens.” And no matter how many Bat-toys a billionaire industrialist can buy, this isn’t a fair fight right?
“It’s not about one on one,” says Cavill, who points out that, if it was, then “of course Superman is going to win. But it’s deeper than that. It’s more that these two great powers exist and are actually trying to achieve the same thing, but in such different ways…” They are going to learn that the Super-hard way.
The world may have changed and the challenges intensified, but it’s clear that whoever else is going to get suited and rebooted for DC’s expansion, Superman is still very much the same guy we saw in Man of Steel: he is Henry Cavill. As much as Zack Snyder, he provides a crucial continuity from that movie – there is a good reason they didn’t recast the role entirely and start from scratch. The part has become his entirely, and that’s as much down to his focus and commitment as his physique.
Since Christopher Reeve’s sky-blue champion, a lasting Superman had eluded Hollywood. Brandon Routh and Bryan Singer did a credible version, Donner’s Superman II didn’t compute (Superman Returns is arguably the most forgotten superhero movie of recent times). Tim Burton’s ambitious reimagination of the interplanetary boy scout with Superman Lives foundered in a miasma of studio indecision. Then, 2001, Wolfgang Petersen was actually developing World’s Finest: Batman Vs Superman, with Jude Law, Joseph Hartnett or Matt Damon due to be the noble side of the contretemps kicked off by the murder of Bruce Wayne’s wife. But that was pre-Marvel, when battling superheroes felt excessive.
Now the timing is right for this showdown, and Cavill remains that best (Super) man for the job. Even between takes. On set, Empire is told that whenever he and Snyder disagree over matters of Superman’s psychology, they do push-ups until one gives in. “I don’t do push-ups,” snorts Cavill, who prefers three hours a day in the on-site gym to maintain his Super-physique. “Zack does lots of push-ups on set, though. He’s started a push-up cult.”
It’s a sign of the times that even the director resembles a superhero, but for Cavill staying in shape is a point of professional necessity. Working out, he says, has become a lifestyle choice. He’s put on 30lbs of muscle for this movie, and will calm it down to 10lbs between films. To play Superman every two years he maintains a base level of extremely fit before ramping it up too ridiculously cut, edging closer to DC’s Olympian ideal first set down by school friend Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1933.
“It’s not as if I am going to be able to play a POW and then Superman again,” says Cavill. “My commitment lies with the first.” You can’t blame the man for his dedication: the 32 year-old British actor had been up for Batman, Bond and Superman Returns only to narrowly miss out on all of them. Finally, he got to help reinvent the Man Of Tomorrow for today, both awesome and troubled, and he wants to make sure the credibility never slips.
“He’s always in there,” he says, pointing to his titanic chest. Out there in the real world, fans want to meet Superman not Henry Cavill, and that requires a certain bearing in every quarter. “It sits there simmering at ten percent all the time,” he says, “and then when it comes to acting you just crank it up to 100 percent.”
Very much in the public eye now himself, Superman does get to be a bit more, well, Superman this time around. He’s no longer in the shadows. Quite the opposite. “There are hero moments where it looks like a hero moment,” Cavill says proudly. “It doesn’t look like a bum saving a bunch of people then disappearing in the shadows. We’re introducing a potential long-term villain (Lex Luthor), we’re introducing Batman, and we’re introducing Wonder Woman. This is the Dawn of Justice.”
As he says, this isn’t so much the “second” Superman movie as the ‘first’ in a new series that will see him be teamed up with Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Affleck’s Batman. Although, it seems, the Justice League is still a high-high concept Cavill can’t entirely get his head around. “It’s a bunch of people who are all used to getting their own way, so we’ll see how they interact,” he smiles, “And the guy who can kick anyone’s ass is the nice one.” Well, depending on your point of view.