Having starred in films like Man of Steel, Stardust, and Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Henry Cavill is a Hollywood hotshot who’s hard not to love. In fact, no celebrity out there is quite like him. Handsome, charismatic and exceptionally nerdy, it really comes as no surprise why Cavill has amassed such a large and highly dedicated fanbase.
Henry Cavill is already a huge success in the world of fantasy and science fiction. However, Cavill’s fans would rather obsess over his authentic personality and interests than his various successful roles. Because the truth is when Cavill isn’t starring as Superman in Man of Steel or as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher, he’s just a regular guy interested in all things geeky.
From growing up gaming with his brothers to secretly being obsessed with his costume on The Witcher, here are 13 fascinating reasons that make Henry Cavill even more dashing and charming than he already was.
1. Casually Building A Computer For Fun
Photo: henrycavill / Instagram
Every PC gamer knows that you haven’t really gamed until you’ve built your own computer. Cavill’s a busy guy, with Witcher on Netflix and the fact that he absolutely owns the big red S on his chest, he doesn’t have time to order a bunch of stuff from Alienware.
Cavill told NME that he likes using custom gaming setups and planned to build his own PC when he had enough time to do so. In July 2020, he must have had time, because he posted a video on Instagram showing him building a PC; the 5.5-minute video is set to the music of Barry White.
2. Always Gaming With His Brothers
Photo: Laura Mowry / Edwards Air Force Base
It’s hard to remember that Cavill is a real guy, especially when he plays super hunk after super hunk, but something that grounds him is the fact that he comes from a big family full of boys that play together.
A young Cavill once gathered around the kitchen table with his brothers and played Delta Force and Half-Life.
3. Gaming Is Seriously His Passion
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
Cavill doesn’t just play The Witcher because he’s the star of the show, he sees gaming as escapism from the rest of the world.
He’s stated that while he has trouble going into the outside world, he can just stay in and have a great time. He told GQ:
At home, I get to sit playing games for ridiculous amounts of hours and escape there, because going outside has the opposite effect.
His love of gaming means that sometimes he misses out on important calls, like when Zach Snyder called him about starring in Superman – Cavill was in the middle of playing World of Warcraft.
4. Struggling With His Body Image
Photo: Man of Steel / Warner Bros.
In 2016, Cavill spoke about his fluctuating weight and how hard it is to keep in shape. He said:
I was very fit, then I was not very fit, then I was very fit again, then I was not very fit. Now that I’m fit again, I think I’ve found a comfortable balance, which is enjoyable because we all like to go out for drinks and have pizza and have dinners and all the nice things in life, and not being a complete gym psycho.
5. He’s Actually A Huge Fan Of ‘The Witcher’
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
Anyone who’s a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy knows what it’s like when they see an adaptation and it’s not up to snuff. Like you, Henry Cavill has had his heart broken, which is why he wants The Witcher to be good.
He first got his start with the project as a fan of the games, but when he found out that the game was adapted from a book series, he realized there was real lore attached to the project. When he took on the role, he knew that he wanted the project to be as close to the source material as possible. In 2019, he explained:
I want to do it as true to the lore as possible. For me it was about bringing my love for the character to the show, as a fan – I want to protect it. It would’ve hurt my heart to hear there was a show that I didn’t jump on, [especially] if someone else had a unique and perhaps even brilliant interpretation of Geralt, but one not who I, as a fan, sees.
6. He Dealt With Bullying As A Kid
Photo: Man of Steel / Warner Bros.
For Cavill, boarding school meant tears. He hated being away from home and spent a lot of time on the phone with his mom.
I bawled on the phone to my mom four times a day. I became an easy target.
Cavill was also overweight as a child, which, sadly, led people to make fun of him. He says that he used this very low time in his life to inform his characterization of Superman.
7. Lounging Around In His Costume From ‘The Witcher’
Photo: The Witcher / Netflix
If your heart isn’t leaping out of your chest at the thought of Henry Cavill eating his morning oatmeal while dressed as Geralt, then you may need to consult a cardiologist.
While speaking with NME, Cavill admitted that he just wore the costume home every day both because it took so long to take off at the end of the night and because he wanted it to feel lived in. He said:
I took it all home… It’s not so easy to put on. And it took two hours of hair and make-up every day, so that’s just sitting at home looking cool.
In a later interview, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said that she appreciated Cavill’s dedication to his character:
He wanted, for instance, for the armour to look like it had been worn for years and years. So he made breakfast in it and he would sleep in it. We were like ‘you don’t have to do that by the way,’ but he’s that invested in embodying his character.
8. A Total Pro At ‘Warhammer II’
Photo: The Witcher / Netflix
When is this admittedly very super man finding time to do all of this gaming? In 2019, he said that he’s played through Warhammer II six different times.
That much gameplay time is somewhere in the hundreds, which is absolutely mind-boggling. He admitted that each time he plays Warhammer, he does so with a different race and loves it each time.
9. Still An Avid Comic Book Reader
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
If you go to the comic book shop when you’ve got some extra cash on hand, then you’re just like Cavill. During a Men’s Health interview in 2019, he popped into a comic book shop and talked about some of his favorite titles.
Cavill told the journalist that he enjoys the Superman storylines Savage Dawn and H’el on Earth and that he loves Irish author Aaron Dembski-Bowden.
10. Forever Obsessed With Fantasy And Science Fiction
Photo: Stardust / Paramount Pictures
Among his many science fiction loves, Cavill loves video game music and dense fantasy novels. When Esquire asked his desert island album, he mentioned a collection of orchestral music that covers everything from Super Mario Bros. to BioShock:
The album is going to be a strange one: The Greatest Video Game Music by the London Philharmonic. It’s really cool.
While listening to his favorite tracks played by the London Philharmonic, he likes to read the Wheel of Time series, a collection of 18 books following a cast of magical characters who live in both the distant past and the far away future.
11. Sadly Missed Out On Some Dream Roles
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
Like the rest of the world, Cavill hasn’t been able to walk into every job interview and skip out of the room with a check in hand.
Even though he’s a hot commodity today, when he first began auditioning for roles, he was walking away with nothing. Not only was he not hired for the 007 role, but lost the role of Edward Cullen in Twilight spite of being the frontrunner in the eyes of Stephanie Meyers.
Obviously Cavill didn’t get the job, but he wasn’t broken up about the whole thing. More so than anything, he just wanted to hear from Meyers.
12. Never Quite Gets Bored Of ‘The Witcher 3‘
Photo: The Witcher / Netflix
The Witcher 3 takes a long time to finish, somewhere between 75 and 100 hours, although Forbes reports that a speed player beat it in 25. That being said, Henry Cavill doesn’t have the kind of schedule that allows him to train to be a speed player, and that’s not his deal anyway.
Over the course of his three plays, he’s played the game on different difficulty settings to try and find the right circumstances to play. Although, he admitted to GQ that when he pumped up the difficulty too much, he got stressed, which is something that we’ve all dealt with. He said:
It’s all well and good when you’re trying not to stress out but then I realized I wasn’t chilling out. I just ended up dying at the wrong points and thinking, ‘I should not have left the roads. I don’t know why I left the roads.’ I couldn’t run away fast enough or my attention span dropped for a second or I answered a text and now I’m dead and that’s six or seven hours of gameplay that I’ve just messed up.
13. Almost Cast As James Bond
Photo: The Man from U.N.C.L.E./Warner Bros.
When Cavill auditioned for the role of James Bond for Casino Royal, he didn’t get it because the director thought he needed to lose weight.
In his audition, Cavill had to wear a towel and deliver some dialogue from one of the Sean Connery films. The screen test didn’t go well. He told Men’s Health:
I probably could have prepared better. I remember the director, Martin Campbell, saying, ‘Looking a little chubby there, Henry.’ I didn’t know how to train or diet. And I’m glad Martin said something, because I respond well to truth. It helps me get better.