The Witcher star Henry Cavill gives Pinoys a fan meet to remember
MANILA, Philippines — The hot topic among reporters on the second day (Dec. 13) of Netflix’s The Witcher tour in Manila was how the lead star Henry Cavill gave Pinoys a fan meet they wouldn’t forget.
The meet and greet with the 36-year-old British actor, together with showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, took place in the afternoon of Dec. 12 at Ayala Malls Manila Bay, after an event for the press from across Asia Pacific early that same day at the Conrad Hotel. Fans and media were also treated to a special screening of the first of the eight-episode series set to world-premiere on Dec. 20. Netflix’s The Witcher is based on the Polish novels and short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski.
This writer did not attend the jam-packed fan meet but based on the accounts of some media who were there, Henry spent about two hours accommodating requests to sign posters and other merchandise, and posing for selfies with attendees.
When told of the observation during a roundtable interview on Dec. 13 by media, especially those who experienced overseas press junkets, that they hadn’t seen a celebrity who signed as much as he did, even asking for their full names before doing so, Henry found it hard to believe.
“I mean, actually, I’m sort of sure some like Tom Cruise had done that. I’m sure he has, because whenever we were on the Mission Impossible press tour, he was always... we were normally hitting the carpet at the same time, I’m just… like swapping over.”
Nevertheless, he did what he did because it’s important for him to afford fans that experience. “It’s important to people like myself and Tom that audiences get to have that, because everyone has so much passion and love, and you hear all the people being there since one in the morning and they brought their kids along and stuff. It’s no bother for me to spend my time giving the time back, and I appreciate the fans, I appreciate everyone who makes all that effort, and who watches movies and TV shows and stuff. So, for me, it is a pleasure to be doing that kind of thing.”
Henry certainly knows a thing or two about being a hardcore fan. For one, he’s been a huge admirer of The Witcher book series, as well as the video game. So huge that despite his stature in the industry, and track record as a leading man — foremost of which, as everyone knows, his being Superman — he didn’t mind at all auditioning for and fighting over the role of the main character, Geralt of Rivia, against over 200 other hopefuls.
In the series, Geralt is a witcher, or a superhuman monster-slayer for hire. Henry felt he was long prepared to take on this kind of role, thanks to his father who would read to him fantasy books even before he learned how to read.
When the actor began playing the video game version, which he initially thought came before the books, it also crossed his mind how The Witcher could be turned into a movie or show. It was after he met Lauren Hissrich, that he started reading books. The rest of history.
Being a certified fan most definitely informed him in approaching his character the best way he could.
“I am a fan of the books, a fan of the games, a fan of the fantasy genre in general. That’s the stuff I do in my free time. Absolutely, it did inform my performance — in lots of different ways. I couldn’t say any particular way because it’s not like... Because I am a fan so it’s all about my own passions and inspirations which I draw from all of the materials, rather than it be a conscious recognition of things like, oh, the fans love this therefore I’m going to try and give them that.”
Asked where Geralt operates in the spectrum of hero (like Superman, his best-known character to date) and villain (as the fan-favorite bad guy August Walker to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hawke in the 2018 Mission Impossible), Henry said, “I think Geralt exists adjacent to that spectrum. He is not obviously a hero. He wants to be a hero. His passion and his desire are very much to be a white knight, but unfortunately in the world that Sapkowski created for him, it’s impossible to do that without committing dark acts, and therefore you can’t be a white knight.”
He added, “The wonderful thing about Sapkowski’s writing is that everyone is the hero of their own story, it’s about how you meet them. And so in their mind, they’re a hero and if you’re trying to stop them, you’re a villain. So there’s nothing quite so clean-cut as heroes and villains. And as far as which do I prefer playing, I really enjoy playing Geralt, because it’s not clean-cut. It’s not obvious, as I get to play both sides of that fence.”
For the action scenes in The Witcher, the actor eschewed a stunt double, ergo, he trained hard to achieve the athleticism required for Geralt’s fighting style, which he described as “a lot of pirouettes, a lot of explosive movement and a lot of uneven ground.”
Henry had a lengthy reply when explaining the importance of having to execute all his stunts. “It’s very important that the character exists within the action, and for audience immersion it’s important that they know that I’m there doing the same thing. Like, if I have a crime scene, and for whatever reason I’m having a bad day and I can’t cry, I don’t get another actor in to come cry for me. So for the action, if I’m going to take on a physical role, which has a lot of athleticism to it or whatever it may be, I’m going to bring myself up to that level so I can perform that role to the fullest.
“It’s important to me that the audience knows this and they see the character at all times. They see all the work that I put into designing this character in every single move, look, glance, shrug, walk, step.
“For the long shots, they were saying, we’re gonna save time because we don’t need you in the shot because it’s just so far away and I said well, has the person who you’re going to have double me studied the way I move as Geralt? And they were like, he’s your double, and this is so far away, it doesn’t matter, and I say, it does matter because that informs the audience about this character.
“What we, as human beings do, is we study people’s movement without even knowing it. We’re watching how humans interact with the world, how they interact with other people. We then make a decision upon them, whether it be minor or major decisions, it doesn’t matter. So watching Geralt, even from a distance, was very, very important to me and so with the action, it’s even more important.”
The filming locations for the series added challenge to the action-packed scenes. The conditions on set varied, he noted, with a lot of winter work in Hungary and then mountainous areas and woodlands in Canary Islands where it was “incredibly wet and rainy”.
“That happened to be during the period of time where I was sleeping in my trailer. And it was a bit like trailer park teenage scene and we had Kal (my dog) jumping about the place at night and the girls were having barbecue and stuff, and I was on my special diet so I couldn’t have barbecue. It was a bit torturous, but it did lend a little bit of romance to the rain, having a little camp there at night. The topography changed quite a lot, but it did tend to be a little bit cold at that time. Every single job I’ve had dealt with the cold in one way, shape or form (laughs). But it was beautiful.”
As for his co-actors, particularly the two female leads Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan who play the powerful sorceress Yennefer and the princess Ciri, respectively, he was all praises.
“Didn’t they do an amazing job?” Henry asked reporters who were able to watch some of the advance screeners. (Sorry, no spoilers here!) “I am so, so impressed by those ladies. They did extraordinarily well.”
The British actresses, who are relative newcomers in the showbiz industry, also gushed about Henry in a phone interview with the Philippine media a week before. They shared how he gave them some pointers on handling pressure and expectations of starring in a show that’s touted to be the next big action-fantasy series, post-Game of Thrones.
When pressed what he told Anya and Freya, Henry said, “For me, it was just supporting them. It’s the most important thing. To step out into the public eye and this be your first dance is huge! There’s a massive following, and this tour is not a small tour, I’ve done, huge movies and the tours have been of a similar size. For this to be their first experience, I can imagine this is somewhat terrifying. And so, it’s just about trying to provide support.
“If they need me, they can text me. We have a little WhatsApp group. If they need to lean on me for anything, then I’m available to them, but they are on their own incredibly formidable people. I don’t think they need me. But I want them to know that in case they’re having a moment, they could say (to me), ‘Okay, what do I do now, like this is terrifying?’ because I’ve been there.”
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