Superman. Geralt of Rivia. Sherlock Holmes. The guy with the great moustache who actually reloads his arms in that bathroom scene in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Henry Cavill has some iconic characters under his belt, and is set to return as the silver-haired monster hunter Geralt in the second season of The Witcher on Netflix this week.
A renowned lover of all things fantasy, Cavill is showing no signs of slowing down when it comes to bringing the stories he loves to life. In the latest episode of the Pilot TV podcast – available now on your podcast app of choice – we sat down with him to talk about the physical nature of the roles he takes on, what his dream projects would be, and, of course, his incredible canine companion Kal. Hear the full interview on the podcast now, or have a read below.
PILOT TV: I am here now with Henry Cavill. And more importantly, with Kal the enormous dog. Does Kal come to all of your junkets?
HENRY CAVILL: Kal comes to all of them, yeah. As long as he can travel with me to the place, then he'll come.
So he comes on sets with you? He goes everywhere?
HC: Absolutely. Yes. He's often in my trailer. He’s on set less so, just because when he does bark, it will pull the air out of your lungs. I wouldn't want a take to be busted because of him, so he'll often sit in a trailer and relax there.
Let's talk about The Witcher. In your career, you've probably got more wish fulfillment in your back catalogue than most actors. Is this something you set out to do? Or is it a happy coincidence?
HC: Oh, that's a tough one. Is it something I set out to do? Probably. Yes, they're definitely the things I've pursued. Whether it be fantasy genre or large IP, it's the kind of stuff I've always been interested in, the fantasy genre in particular. And so the idea of being able to play the Witcher, and even being in a position now where I can start speaking to these authors, and saying, you know, hey, are the rights still yours? And if not, when will they be available? Would you like to have a discussion with me about us making a TV show or a series of movies together? That, for me, is incredibly exciting. That is the 'dream come true' scenario.
Was there a moment when you realised that had happened? When it was like, ‘I am not just Henry Cavill, actor – but I am Henry Cavill, who can make things happen’?
HC: Not a particular moment. But definitely this past year, and the year before, I started to realize that there's actually a lot that I can do. That I need to get out there and go get it and pursue it. Because these things don't come to us. We have to go get them. The same happened for Witcher. The same will happen, I'm sure, for the next things that I do.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie talks about your work ethic – you've talked about going into the Royal Marines in the past, but he said you almost apply that regimented attitude to your acting career.
HC: Yes. I think it does require discipline. Physically, because I happen to do a lot of training for the roles that I play. The roles that I play, they're either stunt orientated or just physically very tough, and you're working 16-hour-plus days. It does require discipline, otherwise you start to flag. You start to fall to bits. And when you're working 16 hours a day, six days a week, it does get very, very hard. If you don't have that discipline, then not only do you ruin your day, but you're probably ruining a whole bunch of other people's days as well. For me, it's important not to do that.
Your career has been very physical, with a lot of action. Then you had an injury while shooting this season of The Witcher — a nearly detached hamstring — which could have ended up being career-altering if not career-ending. When that was healing, did you do some soul searching where you were like, ‘Okay, I might have to recalibrate’?
HC: No. I did not. I was determined to make sure it healed. And I had a great physiotherapist in Freddie Murray. He took really good care of me. The trickiest thing was the demands from the show. We were very lucky – if I can say that – that I tore my hamstring before Christmas. I mean, Christmas was a write off, and it's very difficult to cook on crutches, for sure, but I had more time to heal. Then we got back into shooting. We were doing most of the stuff from episode eight, which is lots of dashing around backwards and forwards, and doctor's orders were – five hours on your feet, and no more.
So we had that agreement, but they needed more of me. They needed me to be there for longer hours. It became a discussion, but there's only so much you can say no when they keep on asking. And so eventually you go, alright, yes, and it ended up being six hours, and then six and a half, and then seven hours, and so on. It's a really fine line, because you want to do really well, but at the same time, you do have to be selfish and say – I need to stop today and rest, so I can keep on doing it, because I love doing it. I love doing the physical roles and there's so many more I want to play across various fantasy and sci-fi genres. If I'm the guy with the torn broken hamstring, then it's going to restrict things. And I don't want that to happen.
If we're talking about fantasy series – do you read a lot of fantasy books, or is it mainly a case of absorbing through other mediums?
HC: I read. A lot.
What would be your go-to fantasy series? Because obviously there are no fantasy books. There are only fantasy series. We don't do standalones.
HC: Yeah, do they even exist?
Why would you read one book, when you can read 15?
HC: It's very difficult to have a go-to fantasy series, because they're all great. They're all different in their own ways. Raymond E. Feist is a brilliant author. Riftwar, all of them. They're all fantastic. And I would do any one of those. And Brandon Sanderson has done absolutely brilliant work.
That man is so prolific. He'll do The Stormlight Archive, and in between volumes, he'll churn out a Mistborn here and something else there.
HC: I don't know how he does it. Those books are massive. I love those books. Those are brilliant. They've got such wonderful messages in them, for anyone who's reading them. I'm a big fan of those. Then there's [David] Gemmell, an old school legend. I mean, there's awards named after him. I think [Andrzej] Sapkowski won the Gemmell Award?
Yeah. Shaped like an axe, I think it is. Do you love the fact that we can have this conversation now? And nobody's scrunching their nose up or looking askance at us, because things like Lord Of The Rings and Game Of Thrones have made this stuff cool? Or at least acceptable?
HC: First of all, it is cool. Always has been, always will be. And one thing I've found is that there's always going to be someone who's gonna scrunch their nose up at you. I love fantasy. I've always been a big supporter of it and reader of it. And it's only going to get cooler, as long as there are good executions of it. As long as we have stuff of Lord Of The Rings' quality out there, then it's going to continue growing.
Do you think technology's helped? If you'd made Lord Of The Rings 10 years earlier, or with The Witcher, if you go back 20 years, you've got a very different proposition there.
HC: Technology has helped. But it's also not helped. I don't know how much of Lord Of The Rings was CGI – a decent amount, you've got Gollum. But a lot of it is scenery as well, and it's using scenery to its maximum effect. The Uruk-hai, that's practical. When one leans too heavily on VFX, then the audience knows. Even if they don't point it out while watching it, subconsciously, they know. And so then their suspension of disbelief is cancelled. It's like with Mission: Impossible – we could have done all of that with CGI. We could have, but we did it for real.
I mean, if you can throw Tom Cruise off a cliff on a bike, that's what you do.
HC: Exactly. You do all that, and you see it, and it makes a huge difference. Because yes, you can do that in VFX, and yes, you could make it look real. But part of the brain might recognise it, and it's also going to cost a lot of money. And so I'm a huge supporter of doing things practically and on location rather than getting too stuck into the VFX world, because otherwise it's like, 'yeah I'm watching a VFX show now', rather than 'wow, that's terrifying'.
The best stuff is the elements that you don't even know are CGI. Take the Blaviken fights in The Witcher Season 1, and the fact that it's shot with half a sword. That's cool, because it lets you go mad with the thing, knowing you're not putting anyone in danger.
HC: Absolutely. And that is the key stuff. I think that's where VFX is brilliant. And of course, the skill of these people and the way they create sceneries and monsters and all sorts is absolutely spectacular. I do love the more simplified stuff, like a half sword as you say, because it allows us to do more practically and then you fill in the rest of it and it looks spectacular. Or you take a beautiful location, and you chuck a dragon in there. And it's not that you're on a green screen, and not only is the dragon fake, but all of the rest of it's fake too. As a viewer, you kind of pick up on that.
You did your PC-building video, which set the internet on fire. But you also shared a picture of you painting a Warhammer helmet?
HC: The Adeptus Custodes.
That's the one. Why has there never been a decent adaptation of Warhammer 40K? It has some of the most iconic, incredible looking stuff. Why haven't we had that yet?
HC: I think because, and quite rightly so, Games Workshop have been very protective of their IP. I think that's a great decision, and very wise. And obviously, that'd be something I'd be very excited to do.
Henry Cavill is Eisenhorn!
HC: I mean, I don't know about Eisenhorn necessarily, when you've got Valdor and Primarchs out there. It just seems a shame to be a mere Inquisitor. I would absolutely leap at that opportunity, and it's something I'd be very, very excited to do. But I'm glad they have protected their IP, and there haven't been just loads of TV shows and movies and stuff done poorly. It needs to be handled perfectly. It needs to be handled to a Lord Of The Rings level. And if it's not, I'll be massively disappointed.
You do not want to be the guy who ruined Warhammer.
HC: Absolutely. We'll see, maybe I could be the guy who does a Lord Of The Rings for Warhammer 40K, or 30K, I don't know.
Just 40K or Warhammer Fantasy as well?
HC: Warhammer Fantasy I also enjoy, because of the Total War games. I was that guy who bought all of the Warhammer fantasy armies books and all of the codexes, and would just read them and fantasy list-build. I never had a chance to actually play with anyone. But I would list-build in my head; I would get all the lore in there and learn all the rules. I loved that. And the Sigmar storyline is fantastic as well. I haven't played Age of Sigmar, haven't got into that, but the books written about Sigmar were brilliant. I enjoyed those. And so there's potential for a storyline there as well. There is so much stuff. That world is so rich, and that universe is so exciting. That is the true dream job opportunity. If I were to have the opportunity to show that as live action, then I would be ecstatic.
Season 2 of The Witcher is streaming on Netflix from Friday 17 December.