The following is an excerpt from that interview. For the full conversation, check out the new issue of SciFi Now magazine, which is also currently available for downloading on the iPad.
ED GROSS:
The roles of Theseus and Superman have required you to transform physically, and I wonder what the transformative result of that is on you emotionally or psychologically when you walk on a set.
HENRY CAVILL:
That’s a very good question…. The mindset when you change your body physically, and your ability physically, there’s more of a self-belief. There is more of a security in yourself. It’s quite a unique feeling when you have a moment and you’re rested, and you’re not exhausted and everything else, you think, “I can do this stuff; I’m probably in the top 10 of physically fit people in this room,” and that’s a very good feeling. Of course, someone like me I always keep myself in check, because it means I’m going to continue to push hard. I never allow myself to spread into an arrogance, because that, I believe, and there are people who say otherwise, will hold me back as opposed to help me advance. When it comes to playing a role like Theseus or the other role [laughs], it does help an awful lot, because the environment around you behaves differently. The people perceive you differently, and that helps you be the character which you’re trying to be. We are indeed a product of those around us, because we often behave in response to the way we’re treated. When people are looking at you in that sort of way and going, “Whoa! He looks kind of dangerous” or “That guy looks like he can protect me,” it gives you that extra bit of something that helps you play a character in a more realistic, effective way.
ED GROSS:
I remember reading that when Christopher Reeve played that other character -- I’ll play along – when he came on set, after having packed on the muscle and putting on the costume – he conveyed the sense that he was that person. It sounds like a bit of that in what you’re saying.
HENRY CAVILL:
I agree, although I think that comes down to the performer as well. There’s more than just the physicality to roles like Theseus or playing Supes. There’s something far deeper. Anyone who is willing to put the work in and have that willpower can be in that kind of physical shape, but the question is do they give off that something else that makes them different or special? That’s up to a performer to work out how to give people that impression. That’s something different. Physicality helps, but there’s something else; there’s a way that you make people feel that physicality can enhance but not necessarily be the cause of.
Check out SciFi Now for more.