They may not like Witchers in the Continent. However, for the actor who plays one in Netflix ‘s adaptation, it seems that Henry Cavill did whatever he could in order to secure the role.
As The Witcher gets set to drop to the streaming platform on Friday, Cavill, who plays lead character Geralt of Rivia, revealed during a recent press conference that he literally begged for the part.
“I called my agents and said, ‘Right, I want to at least get into the room as early as possible and see if I could get this. It’s really, really important to me,” Cavill revealed, according to News.com.au .
As he claimed, Cavill started begging for auditions as soon as he heard rumors of a TV adaptation. The Witcher was originally published as a series of books, the first of which was released 30 years ago. However, it was the video game adaptation in 2007 that really put the role in Cavill’s radar. As an avid gamer, playing the part of Geralt of Rivia is a dream come true for Cavill.
So, by the time pre-production finally got to the stage where The Witcher ‘s showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, was actually taking meetings regarding casting, they were warned that Cavill was likely to just turn up regardless of whether or not a meeting was arranged.
After that initial meeting, it was still another seven weeks before Cavill could even audition in proper. And when that audition call clashed with a vacation that the actor had scheduled, he did what any gaming fan would do faced with the dilemma — he canceled his trip and flew to New York instead. Luckily, it was a plan that worked out, as he secured the coveted role.
“It’s a dream come true. I consider myself very fortunate – I love acting anyway, but to be able to play a character who I play in my head anyway in my free time, whether it’s in the computer games or books, is a dream come true. I hope I’ve done it justice.”
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , The Witcher is already being compared to another epic fantasy series. With HBO ‘s Game of Thrones finishing earlier in the year, many fans of that series are now looking for something new to fill the void. And with only a few short days to wait, the verdict will soon be in regarding whether or not Netflix’s offering will be successful.
Season 1 of The Witcher will drop globally on Netflix on December 20.