Star steeled himself for Superman role

He’s been saving the world for 75 years but the latest Superman film definitely brings the Man of Steel into the 21st century.

And undergoing a similar transformation is the man entrusted with playing him.

Channel Islands-born Henry Cavill is most famous for playing Charles Brandon in four series of The Tudors.

He’s also donned period costume for film roles in Tristan + Isolde, Immortals and fantasy adventure Stardust.

But to fill out the famous blue and red suit given a silvery sheen in the new film 30-year-old Henry had to go on strict diet and training regime to build himself up.

“Physical training for the role was extraordinarily intense,” says the actor.

“And the eating! We started off at about 3,000 a day plus shake. That’s about 3,500.

“But when we were doing two hours of training, I moved up to 4,000 and then up to 5,000 calories.

“When we dropped back down to an hour’s training (when Henry was shooting the movie) we dropped back down to 3,500 calories because if I kept that high calorie intake, I’d start putting on fat weight, but if I dropped too low, I’d start losing all the new muscle I’d gained.

“As for the suit, my first reaction to seeing it was that I thought it was really cool.

“There’s something about the suit which you don’t know what to expect. You come onto a project like this and you hear about modernisation and you hear about bringing everything forward to today.

“All you can do is hope that it’s going to look cool and different from anything else you’ve seen before. I’m pretty sure it does.”

Despite his background in period drama, Henry was first in line for an audition when word was put out that Warner Bros were thinking of relaunching the Superman franchise after a failed attempt in 2006 with Brandon Routh in the starring role.

In fact, it was the second time he’d gone after the role after a failed attempt in the mid-2000s for a movie that never got off the ground.

“I’d auditioned for the role before, it wasn’t Superman Returns, I don’t know what it was called,” said Henry.

“Then when Bryan (Singer) came on, he had his own script and his own idea and I wasn’t a part of that process.

“Naturally, screen testing for this was memorable.

“It was nerve-wracking. Am I doing it right? Am I going to get the role? How do I look? Is it OK? I haven’t prepared, I haven’t had a chance to prepare nearly enough for this all of those things.

“And as soon as it had finished, I forgot about it in case I didn’t get the role. You don’t want to be disappointed.”

Having been given the part, Henry got to throw himself off buildings with the support of wires, 3D cameras and CGI and it certainly seems cinema audiences are in for a treat.

l Superman is out on June 15.