and the director told me that, in the
film, Lois is grieving for him like the
director was for his daughter. “I did
not, but I noticed a softness in the four-
hour version that was more present
than previously.” When visitors to Cav-
ill’s house ask to watch a film he is in,
he has no qualms about offering up the
four-hour Justice League. He is proud.
Cavill is an anomaly — an actor who
seems to have no interest in anything
that’s not extremely popular. His low-
est-profile role was Napoleon Solo in
Guy Ritchie’s The Man from UNCLE.
“Absolutely!” he booms, when asked
if he is proud of his almost uniquely
mainstream job. “I enjoy the large IP.”
He means intellectual property, things
like Bond. “I enjoy a grand story. Espe-
cially when it’s popular.”
Does he plan to do smaller films? “It
all depends on how much time is left,”
he says. “You get a couple of franchises,
it takes you ten years. Then I’ll be
almost 50. Then who knows?”
Indeed. Much depends on next year,
when they announce who is replacing
Craig. You can understand why they
thought of Cavill for the role in 2006.
He is the classic Bond — white, male,
dark hair, tough, well-spoken, stoic.
The question is if that is how anyone
else thinks of Bond any more. cI
t has been a strange year for Henry
Cavill, one in which he has been
synonymous with a part he may
never get. As Daniel Craig bows out
of playing James Bond, Cavill’s odds
to replace him have, at last glance,
been slashed from 12/1 to 6/1. Cavill did
go for the role of Bond in 2006, only to
be told he should lose weight after a test
scene in which he walked out of a
shower. Fifteen years later, is Cavill, now
38, still keen? “Time will tell,” he says.
“You don’t know which direction they
want to take Bond in and so I like to say
that everything’s always on the table.”
As if in protest that he was not made
007, Jersey-born Cavill has taken on the
role of the fictional British spy Argylle
in a film by Matthew Vaughn. Vaughn
said: “I needed someone born to play
Bond — which Henry is — and then to
nick him before Bond did.”
What does he say to that? He laughs.
What, then, are the similarities between
Argylle and Bond? “It depends,” Cavill
says. “We could be talking about Dan-
iel’s Bond, or whoever the next Bond
is... They will probably be in their thir-
ties or forties — or early forties. Maybe
they’ll even go younger, like they were
considering with me when it was down
to me and Daniel.” Interesting that he
says early forties, given that is how oldhe would be if he were cast. Has he
seen No Time to Die? “Not yet,” he says.
“I’ve had no time.. .”
In person, Cavill is tall, all chiselled,
polished and still. He sits in front of me,
dwarfing a decently sized chair while his
massive dog wanders around. The dog
is named Kal after the Kryptonian
name of Superman, whom Cavill
played in three films. Cavill is a careful,
hedge-betting, polite speaker, while Kal
only barks once. He is polite too.
Back to 007. Rather than what Bond
would do for Cavill, the question is,
really, what Cavill would do for Bond.
He certainly has a broad reach. We
have met because the second series of
his hugely successful fantasy show The
Witcher has just come out on Netflix.
The first series was watched in
76 million households, dwarfing Bond’s
scope. It also appeals to the youthful
demographic that the 007 franchise
has to aim for. Cavill plays Geralt,
a monster hunter with magi-He failed a 2006 audition
for being out of shape.
But now The Witcher
star tells Jonathan Dean
never say never to 007
cal powers, who has to protect those
he loves.
“A lot is political, but Geralt is apo-
litical. He maintains neutrality.” Essen-
tially, Cavill is playing Switzerland.
We discuss whether the success of
Game of Thrones has paved the way for
serious actors to take roles in fantasy.
“I can’t speak for serious actors,” Cavill
says with a grin. “But I’ve read fantasy
since I was a boy and learnt more from
it than from my own life. Sure, [some
fantasy has] been executed poorly on
screen, so people go, ‘Well it’s fantasy
— it’s what nerds do.’ And yes, it is. And
that’s what I do.”
Speaking of nerds, this year Cavill’s
Superman appeared for one last time
in Zack Snyder’s four-hour redoing of
his superhero mash-up Justice League.
It was a making-of story worth a
film — how, in 2017, Snyder
had to leave the set when
his daughter took her own
life. His film was then
ruined by Joss Whedon, so
the original director’s edit
was an operatic triumph.
Did he talk to Snyder
about grief? Superman is deadI like to say that
everything’s
always on the table
Hero material Henry Cavill has played
Superman and a monster hunterWILL
HENRY
CAVILL
BE THE
NEXT
BOND?
James Norton
Odds were slashed
on Norton, 36,
becoming Bond
after McMafia in- There was
Bond-like brooding
on his haunted past
and he was even
offered a martini at a party. Next up,
one that’s shaken, not stirred?
Regé-Jean Page
Page, 33, was
dashing as
Bridgerton’s^
Duke, all 007-like
seduction and
nudity. He’s a
shoo-in if the next
Bond needs to be
towel-clad like Sean Connery in
From Russia with Love.Henry Golding
The Malaysian-born
actor, 34, would be
the first Asian Bond.
An impressive
range in previous
roles, including in
gangster romp The
Gentlemen, could
mean he’s next to drive the
Aston Martin.Jake Helm3 RIVALS HE MUST BEAT
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ, ALAMYFILM /STREAMING
The Witcher
is available to
stream on Netflix.
No Time to Die is
available to rent on
Apple TV, Amazon
and Sky Store19 December 2021 15