What would you say if Ashton Kutcher was cast as the new James Bond?! Well spare a thought for our cousins across the pond, because little-known English actor Henry Cavill has followed in the footsteps of Andrew Garfield and become the latest Brit to land a role as one of America’s most iconic comic-strip superheroes. The 27 year-old has been confirmed as the new Clark Kent in Zack Snyder’s revamp of the Superman franchise. You may not be too familiar with Cavill, but this isn’t the first time he’s tried his hand at the superhero game. Apparently he was on the brink of being cast as the man of steel in Bryan Singer’s 2006 remake before they plumped for Brandon Routh. He was also considered in the new Batman series before Christian Bale got the nod and to make it a hat-trick of near misses, he was in the final three candidates to be the next 007 with Sam Worthington and Daniel Craig back in 2005..
Cavill’s debut came in Laguna (not the car..) which also starred Joe Mantegna and Emmanuelle Seigner…
It was less than 12 months before he cracked the big-time and he had a central role opposite Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce in this retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ novel.
The highlight of his career came a few months later when he scored a one-off role in British television institution, Midsomer Murders. Incidentally, he could have shared many more scenes with David Bradley, who plays Mr Filch in the Harry Potter series, as Cavill was favourite for the role of Cedric Diggory until the part went to Robert Pattinson (3 years his junior). Cavill was also Stephanie Meyer’s original choice to play frigid vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight Saga. He was widely considered to be too old for both parts, but this scene certainly won’t have helped…
His next role was ‘Hunter’ in this rather strange American musical.
This one went straight to DVD in 2005. Enough said..
It is Cavill’s work as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk in Showtime’s The Tudors (shown on BBC2 in the UK) which will be most recognisable to British audiences. Brandon was one of Henry’s closest friends and most stalwart supporters through his reign, from his controversial divorce from Catherine of Aragon to his decision to bring down his Chancellor, Wolsey. Cavill admits that his character “can’t really keep his dick in his pants..” though. We’re noticing a pattern here.
Cavill had small parts in Stardust and Tristan & Isolde before he played a main supporting role in Woody Allen’s comedy. He is also due to make his lead debut in Immortals (formerly War of the Gods) in November. The big time awaits..
