Henry Cavill Proves That Even Superman Can Struggle With Body Image
Henry Cavill struggled with his body image at a young age.
"I was a chubby kid," he says in the new Men's Health cover story.
Even Superman—Superman!—can feel uncomfortable in his own skin sometimes.
Considering the fact that he's best known, literally, as the guy who plays Superman, you probably couldn't imagine someone like Henry Cavill struggling with body image. But as the December Men's Health cover details, sure, Cavill looks like Superman, but make no mistake: from nerding out on comics to struggling with his own appearance, he's just like everyone else.
“I was a chubby kid,” the star of Netflix's upcoming The Witcher says. “I could’ve very well gone down the route of just accepting my lot in life and being like, ‘I guess I’m not going to do anything.’"
The story notes that he was called "Fat Cavill" as a kid (very creative, assholes); eventually, he took up sports like rugby, which helped him to slim down. But he says he never felt comfortable in his own skin until he took the jump and started participating in—you guessed it—school stage productions. A thespian now, a thespian then.
“It actually helped me survive,” he told Men's Health. “Even the kids who were nasty to me at times and took pleasure in squashing me—when I finished a play, they’d say, ‘Wow, you’re really good.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, this is where I draw my strength from.’”
And that strength, well, it's lasted. Cavill these days is in peak physical shape, a shape that he prides himself to keep from movie to movie, from project to project. After all, the characters he's playing? They mean something. Superman was first published in print 81 years ago. The Witcher is based on a series of books and video games that have brought tens of millions of people joy through the years—he knows these things are important to people, and he's willing to do go to his own limits to make sure they're as pristine as can be.
"I'm representing important characters here," he says. "I don't want to be a dumpy Geralt or a fat Superman."
While his Superman days may or not be continuing in the future, he did have the experience of training with a now former Batman: Ben Affleck. Affleck, who played Bruce Wayne in both Batman v Superman and Justice League. Cavill was so otherworldly in his training that Affleck couldn't help but joke.
“I wouldn’t say we ‘worked out’ so much as I acted as Henry’s trainer,” Affleck said. “I really had to help him increase muscle mass—before my coaching, he looked like Gumby ... In all honesty, we did work out together. And I hated it.”
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