November 21, 2011: Henry Cavill Talks About His Favorite Comic Books

Man of Steel The LA Times has published a lengthy interview with Henry Cavill, conducted by Geoff Boucher last week during Henry's promotion of "Immortals". In the interview he talks about playing the dual roles of Clark Kent and Superman, the differences between playing Theseus and Superman, and what his favorite Superman comic stories are. Here's a portion of the interview...

    Henry Cavill: I really liked "Death of Superman" and "Return of Superman," those are my favorite ones, and "The New 52" is great stuff and "Earth One," although I know people think that is a mixed bag. With "Red Son," I thought it was interesting as a different perspective. It was out there and I like that. It was essential to my character research, too. When you've got two polar opposite viewpoints of the same character, you will see what the authors consider the important baseline trend. I got to see that and see the different ways he would have developed and that was very useful to me. And because we are retelling the story and we are doing our own reinvention and a modernization for the screen, I get the opportunity to add my own interpretation of how he developed. So that was cool to look at "Red Son" and see what changed, what didn't change and what that reveals about the baseline of Superman. You can find what is essential to Superman and what is nature vs. nurture by locating that baseline.

    GB: I always smile a bit when fans lash out and say some new interpretation of Superman is inaccurate because usually at the center of that criticism there's an unrecognized assumption that the "real" Superman was whatever version they read or watched when they were at a formative age. The character changes constantly according to the year and the medium. Even the most fixed parts of his mythology and visage have a wobble and blur if you step back and really look at it clinically.

    HC: Absolutely, and everyone will take what they want and everyone will have their favorites. And I think it's great that it does change. It should change and should evolve. I think "The New 52" stuff is fantastic because it is an evolution of the character. Initially, people will just rail against it and others will love it and they debate it. They care, which is great, but all of it is part of this evolution and in 30 years they will forget. In three decades when someone dares to put a pair of red underpants on the outside [of Superman's costume] again, someone will go crazy and say, 'What are you doing?! This isn't Superman anymore!' It's all mythology and people take what they want from it .... Superman is a bit more clear-cut than Theseus but people can still look into the character of Superman and have polar opposite opinions about what he is and who he is. That's the wonder of mythology. We make the interpretations and hear the messages we want to hear.

Read the entire interview at the LA Times website.


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