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May 30, 2013: Charles Roven Talks "Man of Steel"

Producer Charles Rovan spoke with SFX Magazine about "Man of Steel", their approach to rebooting Superman and more. Here's an excerpt from the interview in which he discusses the casting process...

Can you talk about the casting process? Obviously there must have been a very vigorous selection procedure to get your Superman...

We took time and care to really make sure that we looked completely for the right actor to play Clark/Kal-El. But from early on the casting directors talked to us about Henry. Some of us knew Henry from The Tudors. I was fortunate to be able to look at some Immortals footage as a result of my relationship with Relativity. Henry actually tested for an earlier version of Superman that ultimately didn't get made - it was the script that was written by JJ Abrams and he was one of the finalists. Now obviously he was much younger and they were playing that Superman younger, but now he had become a more mature guy. Our Superman, once we come to present day, is a more mature adult. So he was always in the running. He gave a spectacular reading. He was really the only individual that we tested. We used the suit from the archives that Chris Reeve used in Superman, because we didn't have anything to put him in when we tested him. We couldn't just make a suit for that one test. And so when he came out of the trailer it was impressive. And he hadn't done any of the bodywork that he ended up doing once he'd got the role. He really turned his body into one where you go "Wow, that guy really is Superman!" But when he came out of the trailer and he was wearing that suit he was impressive. He definitely walked the walk. The character of Clark goes through an emotional journey throughout the film and as I said earlier the character's not black and white, he's got questions and he's searching. And so Henry needed to bring that to the table as well and not just be the chiselled guy. And he was able to do that, in a really great way.

Read the complete interview at the SFX website.