Henry Cavill went through a grueling workout routine to transform his mortal body to play Superman in Man Of Steel and as he gets ready to reprise the superhero in Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman, we take a look at how that happened.
The British actor had a secret weapon called Mark Twight — who trained the crew of 300 — in his transformation, to fit into that newly designed Superman suit the costume designers had created for the revamped version of the classic comic book hero.
As a young kid, Henry attended the prestigious St. Michael’s Preparatory School in Jersey, England, and contrary to what most would believe, his peers gave him the nickname “fat Cavill.”
The 31-year-old shared his memories with Details magazine in an interview, published leading up to the release of Man Of Steel last summer:
“I was fat, I was Fat Cavill. I bawled on the phone to my mom four times a day. I became an easy target.”
At the age of 17, that all changed when he was cast in the movie The Count Of Montecristo and shed some of that baby weight, 21 pounds to be exact. “I wasn’t Fat Cavill anymore,” he told the magazine.
For Man Of Steel and now Batman vs. Superman , Henry had to go to a completely different place, somewhere he had never been before, but he had a strong partner in Twight, who is a former climber-turned-fitness-trainer to the stars; Twight talked to Bodybuilding.com about what it was like to transform Cavill for the role:
“Working with Henry (Cavill) was completely unique, because his condition had to be held for six months from the start of shooting. I think it was a 122-day shoot, and so he had to look the same on February 3, which is the last day of shooting, as he did on August 1.”
Twight says it’s easy to prepare someone for an event, such as a contest or shirtless scene, however, it’s a completely different story to keep someone in shape for months:
“On the movie project, we have control of the diet, because if we don’t, then the training doesn’t matter. It’s that simple. If a guy is training with us in the gym five times a week for 2 hours, that leaves 158 hours for him to f*** everything up if left to his own devices.”
Not an easy proposition, especially for Henry, who is not “ripped” so to speak , or wasn’t before taking on Superman. Twight says this project was different from 300 in that Cavill needed to bulk up and gain lots of muscle.
Another consideration for Twight and Henry was that the Brit was just coming off Immortals , about Greek mythology, for which he had to be slim, while building an eight pack, a true transformation.
They used a complex routine of not only brutal workouts, but a comprehensive diet including supplements, administered specifically to reach Henry’s goals.
“…it all came down to a basic multivitamin, a lot of essential fatty acids—he was going through the Udo’s Oil in liter volume—a probiotic to help digest that fat intake that he had, and magnesium. The magnesium, a product called Calm, he would drink at night to coast into sleep.”
“But that’s it. I know a lot of people believe in a pre-workout formula, but if we’re asking a guy to sleep 9-10 hours per night, then stimulants that keep him hopped up for 8 hours aren’t the way.”
In the end, a combination of Henry Cavill’s workout routine and his determination to transform his body for Superman, with Twight’s help, was what made this, one of the most physically fit actors to ever play the role.
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