Henry Cavill On Training For ‘Superman: Man Of Steel’

Zack Snyder clailms that anything Superman does, action-wise, needs to be a visual effect. Does this mean we’ll be seeing lots of CG Henry Cavill in ‘Superman: Man of Steel’?



Detractors of Zack Snyder’s most CGI-saturated films – for example, Sucker Punch – will no doubt be wondering how the man plans to handle the more unreal elements in Superman: Man of Steel (and more specifically, the gravity-defying, super strong, nigh-on invulnerable character of Superman).

Because Sucker Punch was just released, Zack Snyder has been talking left and right about the forthcoming Man of Steel and what he plans to do with it, going so far as to call it his “most realistic film” yet. Recently, Snyder discussed how he plans to handle the man of steel himself with regard to visual effects.

Cinema Spy asked Snyder -- perhaps due to the revelation that Man of Steel would be “realistic” -- if the film would be more character-driven than special-effects driven, to which Snyder said:

“Let me just say one thing about Superman – he can’t do anything that’s not a visual effect. He can walk around and talk, but if he’s going to do something physical, that’s a visual effect, because he’s Superman.”

Snyder then compared his Superman to previous franchise outings:

“I think in the past people have tried to figure out how to do that with strings and putting cars on hydraulics and having him stand under it, but we’re really trying to work on a way of doing this [with visual effects] that really makes that feel real. [We're] trying to understand the actual physics of what would have to happen for those things to happen. It just brings reality to that whole concept of picking up a car or whatever. That’s gotta be completely based on reality.”

Obviously, a film like Superman: Man of Steel can’t be made without visual effects, but I think the question is – does Superman himself have to be CGI? And if that answer is yes, then the question becomes – how much of Superman has to be CGI? How often throughout the film does the man himself (his head, his arms, his skin, his eyes, et cetera) have to be CGI?

I’ll never forget how The Matrix Reloaded burly brawl devolved into a CGI-fest with pure videogame physics. Seriously, there was CG Neo, there were CG Agent Smiths — even the cinematography was CGI. Suddenly, any and all consequence was jettisoned from the film. Instead of being impressed by the stunt work and choreography of the fight, all I could think was, “Wow, those animators sure did a … sub-par job, didn’t they?”

Check out the burly brawl (which starts out pretty swimmingly!) below:



The worry – or at least mine – is that this sort of thing could happen to Superman. I’m fine with whatever Superman is interacting with being entirely CGI -- go ahead and computer-generate some cars for him to throw, or some monsters for him to punch, or some gigantic buildings for him to crash into. But I would like to see as much of the actual, real-life Henry Cavill as is possible, because I’ve yet to see an animator convincingly replicate a human being’s physical movements (let alone their eyeballs).

That said, as much as I was disappointed by Watchmen, the special effects were pretty convincing, so maybe Zack Snyder has it in him to do the same with Man of Steel.

Superman: Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill and Amy Adams hits theaters December 2012.

Henry Cavill talks body-building and training for ‘Superman: Man Of Steel,’ as well as the appeal of fulfilling a boy-hood fantasy with his portrayal of the iconic role.



Henry Cavill, the Man of Steel himself was at WonderCon in San Francisco this weekend to promote his upcoming visually epic adventure, Immortals — stay tuned for our coverage of that film in the coming days. While there, a few wily fans and journalists were able to get some questions in about his role in Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman: Man of Steel.

One of the main topics of conversation was how the actor is preparing for the more traditionally buff look of the Kryptonian hero that Snyder is hoping to achieve for his iteration of the Superman franchise.


As we were able to report in our earlier interview with director Zack Snyder, the Man of Steel will indeed be facing a fearsome workout routine. “Henry’s gonna be hitting the iron pretty hard,” laughed Snyder in response. Snyder’s wife, Deborah, explains that he’s already started and that on day one of signing him, Cavill had to meet with the trainer and fight choreographer of 300..

“They’ve put him on a plan. He’s started in England and as of April 1st we have him full time with us for all that training.”

We we able to follow up with Cavill during our participation in a select press event for Immortals. When asked if Superman going to be more of a combative/hand-to-hand Superman than we’ve seen to date, given the level of the training he is engaging in for the role, the actor cautiously responded:

“I’ve only started the aesthetic part of the training so far, as far as all of the fight stuff goes, there’s only so much I can say… and I don’t know how much I can say… so I’ll have to go with nothing (laughing).”

In a separate interview with Movieline, the actor elaborated on the physical look they are working to achieve for his portrayal of Superman.

“I’m not quite in Immortals shape like I was, but I’ve got the base there again. When you see the Immortals shape you’ll see what I mean. We obviously haven’t had the final brief yet [on 'Superman shape'], it’s going to adapt and change as [my trainer] sees my body adapting to the training. He’ll go, ‘Okay, Henry can do this,’ or, ‘His body will look better like that.’ It’ll be fine-tuned and tweaked as we go along. But I think it’s going to be a different sort of shape from Immortals.”

Given what they Snyder’s had to say about Cavill beginning to train with their fight coordinators, the “buff” build the actor is working to achieve for the role, the scope of the director’s previous work (which includes expansive and elaborate fight/action sequences), and the planned reboot of this character — we continue to maintain the strong possibility that this Superman will take on a more active, physical fighting role. How this will play out in terms of the hero’s nearly omnipotent combat abilities, remains to be seen.

In terms of the appeal of playing iconic, larger than life, characters such as Superman or Theseus in Immortals Cavill said:

“I think in us, when you’re a boy you want to be the hero, the one that’s killing all the ‘baddies.’ I think as an adult, you leave that behind in your childhood and so yes, there is an enormous fun in doing this and being the hero. I suppose that’s the appeal, the only appeal. It’s just escapism and fun to be one of the players in the stories that you read as a kid.”

esperemos que el resultado de su duro entrenamiento sea el que todos esperamos