Stephen Surjik says the Witcher star has a real way with people on the set.
We here at PC Gamer are quite fond of Henry Cavill. We don't actually know him, which is unfortunate, but he seems very genuinely likeable: He paints Warhammer miniatures, builds his own gaming PCs, and wishes people would leave him alone so he could play Total War, among other things.
According to Stephen Surjik, who directed the first two episodes of The Witcher season 2, he's also a pleasure to work with. In an interview with Brigade-Radio-One, Surjik said that when Cavill arrives on set, "he shows up on time, he shows up in character, with his costume, on his mark, and he knows all his lines."
"He knows the background to what he's doing, he knows what came before and what came after it, he knows basically the props he's going to need," Surjik said. "And he also knows, like, all the questions that he wants to ask to help stimulate and get us talking about stuff that'll make us more fascinated by the process."
Surjik described Cavill as a "very private person," who "does not screw around with duplicity" when it comes to questions or conflicts on the set. "He tries to go straight to the point, and he tries to go straight to the issue," he said. "If it's an argument, or an acting motive, or an opportunity for the scene to become something, he's always extremely clear in how to get there."
And despite his private nature, Cavill makes a point of being as welcoming as possible to other members of the cast and crew, particularly newcomers, Surjik said. "He looks at everyone, he knows everyone's name. He knows how they're doing, what they do. If there's someone new there, he'll spot them and say, 'Who's that?' He'll go right up to them and introduce himself, and say, 'Hey, my name is Henry, whatcha doing?' And find out what they're doing. He's amazing. He's pretty good. He could be a politician."
He's apparently an enthusiastic hand-shaker, too.
"He shakes everyone's hand. He goes around the entire room—and this is not a small operation we're doing. This is not a homemade movie. This is a movie where 800 people go through the lunch line. This is a big-ass production," Surjik said. "So when he shakes everyone's hand, I basically sit down, because I'm going to be there for a little while."
The Witcher season 2 is expected to debut on Netflix later this year. A specific date hasn't been announced yet, but we may be very close to getting one: WitcherCon, a Netflix-CD Projekt team-up that will feature the show and the games, kicks off on July 9.
Thanks, GameInformer.
