A year ago, when Netflix announced it would adapt the novel The Witcher by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, many were skeptical about Henry Cavill being cast as the lead role of Geralt. Some thought he was too young to play a mutant who is nearly 100 years old; others were not pleased with his look, which was too different from the game (even though the series is based on the book version); and some even disliked him for being too… muscular.
However, after The Witcher premiered on December 20, 2019, all doubts quickly vanished. Henry shone brightly in a role he was extremely passionate about, portraying a perfect Geralt in terms of appearance, voice, and even his sword-fighting skills. The script and story direction may still be debated, but no one can deny Henry’s outstanding performance, even the most critical viewers.
To achieve this success, Henry dedicated a lot of time to studying the Witcher universe, truly living in the character, sometimes sacrificing his own interests and time, rather than simply relying on his professional acting skills. The British actor himself is a huge fan of this franchise, so he wanted Geralt to be perfect on screen, with no room for even the slightest mistake.
Henry Cavill Learned About the Netflix Project After “Grinding Through” The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
With a handsome face and a muscular body that many admire, not many would think Henry Cavill is a true gamer, willing to stay home gaming all day instead of going out to have fun. This was also the chance that led him to the Netflix project The Witcher.
Specifically, Henry is a hardcore fan of the game series of the same name produced by CD Projekt RED, especially the third installment, The Witcher: Wild Hunt. He shared that he completed this game twice and was playing it for the third time when he learned that Netflix was considering bringing the witcher to the small screen. So he proactively reached out to them to get involved in the project.
After completing the game for the first time, Henry tried the highest difficulty (Death March) and immediately got “noob’d”. He said: “Playing games is for entertainment, but the more I played, the more I realized I wanted more than that. Geralt (in the game) always dies unexpectedly, absurdly just because I like wandering around. I shouldn’t have left the paths; I don’t understand why I would venture into other areas when I was on the path. Each time like that, 6 or 7 hours would pass, and I couldn’t finish any quests properly“.
Spoiler alert: Henry chose to pair Geralt with Yennefer instead of Triss in the game. He believes that this is true love, the result of fate – one of the overarching themes in the The Witcher universe.
2. Henry Cavill “Thick-Skinnedly” Contacted Netflix Daily to Audition for Geralt
As mentioned above, after hearing the news that Netflix would produce The Witcher, Henry proactively contacted them to audition for this project. The issue was that at that time, Netflix did not even have an official script, nor did they plan to start casting actors (this process only began about 4 months later).
And so Henry “thick-skinnedly” called them every day to inquire about the script’s status. Writer Lauren S. Hissrich stated that the actor was so eager that he constantly feared the role of Geralt would fall into someone else’s hands, so he contacted them daily to avoid missing the Netflix audition (reportedly, there were 207 people who auditioned for Geralt).
Lauren also shared that the reason she chose Henry was because of his voice: “There was a day I was working when suddenly Henry’s deep voice popped into my head, haunting me all day. So I scheduled a meeting with him in New York to audition. After that afternoon, we both agreed that we had found Geralt of Rivia, it was Henry, no doubt about it“.
3. While Waiting for Netflix to Call for Audition, Henry Read the Entire Witcher Novel Series to Prepare for the Role
Like most viewers, Henry learned about The Witcher through the game series rather than the books. However, after contacting Netflix and learning that the series would be adapted from Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, he immediately dove into reading every page to understand Geralt and the other characters better.
4. Henry Cavill Performed His Own Sword-Fighting Scenes, Not Using Stunt Doubles During the Production of The Witcher.
One of Geralt of Rivia’s most distinctive traits is his professional sword-fighting ability, regardless of whether the opponent is human or monster. To fully immerse himself in the character, Henry decided to perform all the action scenes himself, without using any stunt doubles.
He stated that the filming sequence does not actually resemble what we see on screen. He has to constantly switch from normal dialogue scenes to unexpected fight scenes, not in chronological order. Each time such a transition occurs, it is genuinely troublesome and disrupts the character’s psychological flow. Therefore, Henry wanted to do everything himself to keep this psychological flow as smooth as possible.
5. Henry Cavill Takes Geralt’s Outfit Home to Wear It Because It’s So Cool
While it is known that Henry loves the witcher and the role of Geralt, it’s unimaginable that he would take the monster hunter’s outfit and props home after filming.
The actor shared: “I take everything home, leaving nothing behind. Each time we film, we spend about 2 hours on makeup, hairstyling, and putting on the costume. If I take it off right after filming, it would be a waste, so I just wear it home to look cool and change later“.
6. Henry Cavill Personally Cast the Role of His Horse Roach
It can be said that in the first two episodes, Roach is Geralt’s only close companion, often listening to him confide, even though it cannot respond. This motivated Henry to personally audition actors for this horse so that the two characters could have the most authentic and close connection.
In a recent interview, when a fan joked that Roach’s acting was too poor, “Ciri” Freya Allan humorously replied: “Ask Henry, he cast Roach, not me“.
7. Henry Cavill Endured Thirst to Have the Best Body for the “No Clothes” Scenes
It may sound unreasonable, but this is 100% true. Henry shared that to prepare for the famous bathtub scene (in both the movie and the game), he endured thirst for 3 consecutive days. Of course, it wasn’t so harsh that he didn’t drink a single drop: On the first day, he only drank about 1.5 liters of water, on the second day it was reduced to 0.5 liters, and by the third day, he didn’t drink a drop at all to be ready for filming the next day.
And the result is the image we see here!