Arts & Entertainment

Henry Cavill on landing The Witcher role, his passion for video games

Madrid, Dec 10 (EFE).- Henry Cavill was first turned down for the role of Geralt de Rivia in Netflix series The Witcher, but he was determined to embody the iconic character and chased the show’s producers until he was finally considered for the part, the British actor told Efe ahead of the second season’s launch on Friday.

A lover of fantasy novels and video games, Cavill (Saint Helier, 1983) recounted how he pursued the role created by Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski before it became a Netflix show.

“I sought this out very, very hard, I chased this down before it was even a thing. I had heard whispers that Netflix had bought the IP and I then chased and chased and chased,” Cavill told Efe sitting behind a cozy fake fire at Madrid’s Four Seasons hotel.

“(At first) I didn’t get it but so much was my passion for this that even weeks later they contacted me and then said hey, do you want to audition for this and my agent said look you don’t have to audition, I said absolutely I will. This is something that I really, really want,” he added.

Cavill’s gateway to the world of the Witcher was the video games, but by reading the books he became aware of the rich nuances behind the Geralt character and one of his priorities was to ensure that fans of the books “felt heard and listened to.”

“Going into season two, there is the continued responsibility to represent the source material as loyal as possible to do justice to it and for me that was trying to bring as much of the book Geraldinto the show.”

The series tells the story of beast hunter Geralt, who becomes a witcher at an early age after developing supernatural powers. Geralt, although seemingly harsh, often finds humans to be crueler than the beast he fights.

“I campaigned very hard to have him be a bit more verbose and to represent the intellectual from the books, the man who is wise, the man who has a philosophical lean and the emotional depth to make him more of a three-dimensional character,” Cavill continued.

When asked how he felt becoming a custodian of much-loved characters like Superman or Geralt, Cavill said: “It is both a privilege and a responsibility, but a responsibility first.”

“It’s a privilege because I am a fan myself and the opportunity to wear their boots is very exciting.”EFE

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