Shattering all doubts from fans, Henry Cavill brilliantly portrayed the monster hunter Geralt in The Witcher, which premiered on Netflix on December 20, 2019. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this series achieved its tremendous success largely thanks to the British actor’s perfect embodiment of the character.
Henry loves The Witcher so much that he didn’t use any stunt doubles, taking on all the risky action scenes himself. From intense sword fights at high speeds to rolling around with monsters, Henry handled everything with ease.
However, it was precisely because of his enthusiasm and dedication to this role that Henry’s health faced numerous issues. Exhausted from excessive physical activity, the actor also had to confront the risk of damaging his eyes due to wearing contact lenses for too long.
In an interview with Metro.co.uk, Henry explained that Geralt’s yellow eyes (which turn black when he uses enhancement potions) are due to his use of contact lenses, not through any special effects. These lenses are fine for short-term wear. However, perhaps due to his overconfidence, Henry wore them almost continuously throughout the long filming process, only taking them off when he got home.
The actor stated: “I should have only worn contact lenses for about 3 hours, then I needed to take them off to let my eyes rest for a bit before using them again. I wasn’t worried about dry eyes, but the problem is that the eyes are the only part of the human body that receives oxygen directly from the air, rather than from the blood. So, if you cover them (with contact lenses), it means they cannot breathe. If this situation continues for a long time, it will cause certain damage to your eyes.”
“My eye specialist always complains, saying, ‘I don’t care what your character is like, or how your scenes turn out. But you must take those contact lenses out immediately if you don’t want to go blind permanently.’ At first, I thought she was overreacting, so I refused and believed that I could shoot for a few more hours without any problems. However, she insisted that I had to take them out.”
Besides the contact lenses, Henry’s eyes also suffered from the negative effects of the filming environment, especially on the Canary Islands in Spain. He stated: “On this island, there is volcanic rock, which causes a lot of dust in the air, especially on windy days. This dust is both fine and light, so it easily gets inside the contact lenses and gets stuck there, scratching my eyes without me even realizing it.“
“After returning to Budapest (Hungary), I found myself unable to open my eyes, and tears kept flowing. Immediately, I had to use clean water to wash out all the dirt, and it was incredibly painful, like someone was poking a needle in my eye. However, I stubbornly thought that it was just my body being tired after many consecutive days of filming, so it wasn’t a big deal.”
“However, things got so bad that I had to keep my eyes tightly closed because opening them made me feel dazzled by the surrounding environment. I told my eye specialist that I was fine and just needed help soothing my eyes before the next shoot. But she insisted that I take the contact lenses out immediately, as my condition would become extremely serious and could lead to permanent blindness if it continued.”
Fortunately, Henry finally listened to his doctor’s advice and let his eyes rest a bit before continuing to shoot. He humorously added: “On screen, Geralt looks cool, but in reality, it’s all thanks to wearing contact lenses. And it’s not comfortable at all.“
According to Comicbook